UNITED STATES

WASHINGTON, D.C. - MANA is proud to announce that Cynthia Swann, Director of Minority Community Outreach for the National Education Association (NEA) will be presented the 2010 MANA HerMANA® Award at the Las Primeras® Awards Gala on Tuesday, October 5, 2010. Each year, MANA proudly recognizes Latinas who have achieved "firsts" in their respective fields and made significant contributions at the national level as well as community partners who contribute to the advancement of Latinas. 

URL: Dr. Alfredo Quinones from migrant farm worker to neurosurgeon. 
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/health/2010/10/05/
dnt.gupta.dr.q.human.factor.cnn?hpt=Sbin 

Population Nears 37 Million 
More Than One in Five People in the U.S. are First or Second Generation.  US Census Bureau (Oct 19, 2010)

Upcoming taxes on January 2011

As part of the new healthcare bill If you have an employer provided health insurance plan, your employers contributions will now be considered income for you.

Starting in 2011, your W-2 tax form sent by your employer will be increased to show the value of whatever health insurance you are given by the company. It does not matter if that's a private concern or governmental body of some sort.   If you're retired?  Your gross will go up by the amount of insurance you get.

On page 25 of 29: TITLE IX REVENUE PROVISIONS- SUBTITLE A: REVENUE OFFSET PROVISIONS-(sec. 9001, as modified by sec. 10901) Sec.9002  "requires employers to include in the W-2 form of each employee the aggregate cost of applicable employer sponsored group health coverage that is excludable from the employees gross income."

Source: Joan Pryde is the senior tax editor for the Kiplingers letters.   Go to Kiplingers and read about 13 tax changes that could affect you.  
Sent by alfonso2r@yahoo.com

Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor, and Whereas both Houses of Congress have by their Joint Committee requested me "to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness."

Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th. day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be. That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks, for his kind care and protection of the People of this country previous to their becoming a Nation, for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his providence, which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war, for the greatest degree of tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed, for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted, for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us.

And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions, to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually, to render our national government a blessing to all the People, by constantly being a government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed, to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shown kindness unto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord. To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and Us, and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.

This is reprinted from George Washington: A Collection edited by W.B. Allen and published in 1988 by LibertyClassics. Reprint from the Ashbrook Center for Public Affairs at Ashland University website.
Sent by Janete Vargas  magnaguagno@gmail.com

... that the first Bible printed in English in America was printed by the US Congress "for the use of our schools" and was recommended for the inhabitance of the United States?

... that the four paintings lining the walls of the dome of the U.S. Capitol were commissioned by Congress in 1830 to recapture what the official record said was "the Christian history of the United States" ?

... that in 1800, members of Congress decided that the U.S. Capitol Building would be turned into a church on Sundays, that for almost a century, five different churches met weekly within the halls of the US Capitol Building, that two thousand people a week attended church in the hall of the House of Representatives, and that the U.S. Capitol Building wasn't seen as a secular building until the last 50 years?

... that 29 of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence had Seminary Degrees?

... that, along with being a Major General during the Civil War, Speaker of the House, the founder of Howard University, and the 20th President of the United States, James. A. Garfield was a minister? 

Most people in American believe that this nation is primarily a non-religious country. That the separation of church and state was instituted by our Founding Fathers to keep religion out of our schools, our courtrooms and out of all government lead organizations. 

This is simply not true. The Founding Fathers intended for this nation to be built on a religious foundation. They instituted the separation of church and state, not for the purpose of stamping out religion, like modern anti-religionist want us to believe- but to prevent the government from deciding for its people which religion they should belong to. Freedom OF Religion, not Freedom FROM Religion.

Religion has been silenced in our nation. In the following video, David Barton, Founder of Wallbuilders, enlightens us with the truth.

Susannah Taylor susannah.taylor@gmail.com 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlfEdJNn15E 
http://www.aoc.gov/cc/art/rotunda/declaration_independence.cfm

Sent by Karren Pederson, who writes: "This was sent to me by our friend in Central America."

Editor: Maybe if the government had not waited two months before allowing any action to be taken on the oil pipe leak in the                    , we could have seen American ingenuity in action there too, and not be dealing with the subsequent horrific pollution, because of the two month delay.  

- 48.4 million: the estimated Hispanic population of the U.S. as of July 2009, making Spanish-speakers the nation’s largest minority.

- More than one in every two people added to the U.S. population between July 2008 and July 2009 was Hispanic; 1.4 million Hispanics were added to the population in that time.

- 132.8 million: the projected Hispanic population of the U.S. in July, 2050, meaning Spanish-speakers will constitute 30 percent of the total population

- 22.4 million: the nation’s Hispanic population in 1990

- 2^nd: ranking of the size of the U.S. Hispanic population worldwide; only Mexico (111 million) has a larger Hispanic population than the U.S.

- 66: percentage of Spanish-speakers in the U.S. from Mexico in 2008

- 26: percentage of children younger than 5 who were Hispanic in 2009

- 27.4 years: median age of the Hispanic population in 2009

- 47: the percentage of Hispanics living in California or Texas in 2009

- 50: number of the nation’s 3,143 counties that were majority Hispanic

- 2.3 million: number of Hispanic-owned businesses in 2007, up 55 percent from 2002

- 30: percentage of Hispanic-owned businesses in the construction and other services sectors

- 10.5 million: number of Hispanic family households in the U.S. in 2009; of these, 61 percent included children younger than 18

- 66: percentage of Hispanic family households consisting of a married couple

- 35 million: number of U.S. residents 5 and older who spoke Spanish at home in 2008

- 17 million: number of U.S. residents 5 and older who spoke Spanish at home in 1990

- $37,913: median income of Hispanic households in 2008, down 5.6 percent from the year before

- 23.2 percent: the poverty rate among Hispanics in 2008, up from 21.5 percent in 2007

- 9.7 million: the number of Hispanics who reported voting in the 2008 presidential election

- 1.1 million: the number of Hispanics or Latinos who are veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces

- 62: percentage of Hispanics 25 and older with at least a high school diploma in 2009

- 13: percentage of the Hispanic population 25 or older with a bachelor’s degree or higher in 2009

http://www2.starexponent.com/news/2010/sep/15/hispanic-heritage-month-starts-today-ar-506083/

Sent by John Inclan  fromgalveston@yahoo.com

Nina Perales

A Wise Latina

Nominated by Roberto Calderon, Ph.D.

Written by Mercy Bautista-Olvera

Nina Perales is the Southwest Regional Counsel for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) in San Antonio, Texas . She directs the litigation, advocacy and public education in Texas,  New Mexico, Colorado, and six additional southern and western states.  

Founded in 1968, (MALDEF) is a national non-profit, civil rights organization which protects and promotes the civil rights of Latinos through advocacy, community education and outreach, leadership development, higher education scholarships, and when necessary, through the legal system. 

Nina Perales was born in New York ; she is the daughter of Cesar A. Perales, of New York, (a Civil Rights Attorney, and co-founder of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund. Her father is of Puerto Rican and Dominican ancestry), and Patricia E. Welsh of Sheffield, Massachusetts. Nina Perales is married to Javier Maldonado, and the couple have three children.

In 1987, Perales received a Bachelor's degree from Brown University and earned her Juris Degree from Columbia University School of Law in 1990.  

After graduating from Columbia Law School , she served for the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund in New York City, where Perales litigated federal cases in the area of government benefits and served as the Coordinator of MALDEF's Latina Rights Initiative. Perales served for five years as an Associate Counsel of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund in New York City, and she then relocated to Laredo, and then to San Antonio, Texas.  

Currently, and for the last fourteen years, Perales has served as National Senior Counsel for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF).  

Perales specializes in voting rights litigation, including redistricting and vote dilution challenges. In 2001, Perales served as lead counsel for Latino plaintiffs, in the redistricting cases in Texas, and secured a Texas House of Representatives redistricting plan containing an increase of four Latino-majority districts.  

In 2003, in Arizona , Perales was lead counsel for Latino interveners and successfully defended the Latino-majority Congressional District 4 against an attempt to dismantle it.    

On March 1, 2006, Perales successfully argued before the U.S. Supreme Court, a portion of a complex case consolidated as League of United Latin American citizens, et al. v. Rick Perry, Governor of Texas. In the Latino vote-dilution challenge to the 2003, Texas congressional redistricting plan was controversial due that Texas had never undertaken a mid-decade redistricting that was not ordered by a court. In June 2006, the Court struck down the redistricting plan as a violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. “It was very overwhelming to be gripping the same podium that Thurgood Marshall gripped when he argued Brown v. Board of Education; it marked the first time in 12 years the court had agreed to hear a case involving the dilution of minority voting rights,” stated Perales.  

In 2007, Perales spearheaded Dominguez v. Texas , a successful challenge to the Texas Attorney General's 2005 reinterpretation of an act granting free tuition to Texas veterans returning from war. The new interpretation required them to have been citizens at the time of their enlistment. She also argued on Vasquez v. City of Farmers Branch, winning a permanent injunction to prohibit enforcement of an ordinance that would have fined property owners for renting to illegal immigrants. “The ruling sends a message to other municipalities considering similar actions that such an action is wrong, it’s bad public policy, it's bad for public safety, and it's unconstitutional,” Perales stated.  

On November 10, 2009, Nina Perales was invited as a guest speaker at the University Of Texas School Of Law ’s William Wayne Justice Center for Public Interest Law and Career Services Office. The presentation was part of the occasional “Lives in the Law” speaker series focusing on the work and lives of lawyers who strive to improve the lives of others through litigation, advocacy, and public service. The meeting was co-sponsored by the Chicano/Hispanic Law Students Association, and the Public Interest Law Association.  

In the same year, 2009, Perales was the recipient of the “Soaring Eagles Award” from the American Association for Justice.  The American Association for Justice Minority Caucus presents this award annually to an attorney who, despite the challenges of his or her own journey, pursues excellence and has made outstanding efforts and contributions to the legal profession in paving the way for others.  

She is also a Regional Counsel who supervises staff attorneys who conduct impact litigation and advocacy throughout the Southwest on behalf of Latinos in the areas of education, immigrant rights, employment discrimination, and political access.  

HISPANICS BREAKING BARRIERS

Part XXII

By

Mercy Bautista-Olvera   

The 22^nd article in the series “Hispanics Breaking Barriers” focuses on contributions of Hispanic leadership in United States government. Their contributions have improved not only the local community but the country as well. Their struggles, stories, and accomplishments will by example; illustrate to our youth and to future generations that everything and anything is possible.

Ben Ray Luján:  U.S. Congressional Representative for New Mexico  

Hernán D. Vera:  President and Chief Executive Officer in the Board of Directors of the State Justice Institute  

Steve L. Muro:  Acting Under Secretary for Memorial Affairs  

Richard M. Lobo:  Director of the International Broadcasting Bureau, Broadcasting Board of Governors, and Commerce  

Albert M. Fernandez:  U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Equatorial Guinea

 Ben Ray Luján

Ben Ray Luján is a member of the U. S. House of Representatives from New Mexico ’s 3rd Congressional District, replacing Tom Udall, who was elected to the U.S. Senate. The 3rd Congressional District is based in Santa Fe , the state capital; it includes most of the northern portion of the state.

Ben Ray Luján was born on June 7, 1972, in Santa Fe , New Mexico and raised in Nambe, a small farming community north of Santa Fe bordered by the pueblos of Nambe and Pojoaque. He is the son of Ben Lujan, a Democrat, who is currently the Speaker of the New Mexico House of Representatives, and his mother, Carmelita Luján, is a retired Administrator with the Pojoaque Valley school system. Ben Ray Luján is single.

He graduated from Pojoaque Valley High School . From 1990-1995, he attended the University of New Mexico, before completing a Business Administration Degree in 2007 at New Mexico Highlands University.

Luján has held other public service positions. He was the Deputy State Treasurer and the Director of Administrative Services for the state, and Chief Financial Officer for the New Mexico Cultural Affairs Department prior to his election to the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission.  

In previous years, Lujan was an elected member of the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission. He joined his colleagues, and developed a renewable standard to increase energy production by New Mexico utilities to 20 percent of their total production by 2020. He has joined Commissioners from California , Oregon , and Washington , to sign onto the “Joint Action Framework on Climate Change” to create regional solutions to climate change.  

In the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission, Luján also advocated for first responders. He worked with firefighters, the state legislature, and other officials to overhaul the New Mexico Fire Fund so that all distributions from the fund would go to improving fire services in New Mexico .   

As a Congressman Luján co-sponsored the “Credit Card Holder’s Bill of Rights,”   which increased protection to consumers, and he also co-sponsored the Veterans Health Care Budget Reform and Transparency Act, authorizing Congress to approve advanced investments to the Department of Veterans Affairs. Luján opened his district offices to veterans to sign up for the new GI Bill, which provides opportunities for returning Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans to attend college. 

In May 2010, Luján was also assigned to serve on the Committee on Science and Technology and the Committee on Natural Resources. On these committees, he was able to serve the many needs of the district, which spans from San Juan County in the Northwest to Roosevelt County in the Southeast. “The Committee on Science and Technology oversees energy research and development, and I look forward to using my expertise on renewable energy to be a part of the discussion on effectively developing this important resource. By expanding a clean energy economy in New Mexico , we will create jobs and help get our economy back on track,” stated Lujan.  

Luján also served as the Chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus’ Green Economy and Renewable Energy Task Force where he focused on the role of the Hispanic community in the advancement of clean energy policy.  

Luján’s work in Congress to ensure that the Hispanic community is included in the emerging clean energy economy earned him the recognition of one of Hispanic Business Magazine’s 100 Most Influential Hispanics.

 Hernán D. Vera

The U.S. Judiciary Committee has confirmed Hernán D. Vera as President and Chief Executive Officer on the Board of Directors of the State Justice Institute.    

Vera is the son of Argentine immigrants, and is fluent in Spanish.  

In 1991, Hernán D. Vera received his A.B. with distinction from Stanford University and his Juris Degree from the UCLA School of Law. 

After graduating from the UCLA School of Law, he clerked for the Honorable Consuelo B. Marshall in the United States District Court for the Central District of California.  

Vera worked for O’Melveny & Myers LLP where he specialized in class actions and as an Education Staff Attorney for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund. He makes frequent media appearances on issues relating to access to justice, civil rights, and consumer protection.  

At 37, Vera served as President & Chief Executive Officer of Public Counsel, the nations largest pro bono, public interest law firm. He became the first Latino leader of the 40-year-old civil rights organization, which is based in Los Angeles ,

California . In this role, he has supervised, and managed hundreds of individual clients, and litigation matters involving consumer fraud.    

Vera led a successful lawsuit to landmark legislation the “Wondries Bill” expanding consumer protections for limited-English speaking consumers.  

In 2008, Vera worked with the Los Angeles City Attorney, the American Civil Liberties Union, and other private law firms on the nationally publicized litigation to end the abusive practice known as “hospital dumping.”    

The Board of Directors of Public Counsel voted to approve the appointment of Herman D. Vera to be its new President and Chief Executive Officer. The federal law established the State Justice Institute; the purpose is to award grants to improve the quality of justice in state courts, and foster innovation. It is a non-profit corporation governed by an 11-member Board of Directors appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate.    

 "I am absolutely thrilled to join the Board of SJI and assist in its critical work to increase access to justice," said Vera.  "SJI is on the cutting edge of national efforts to make our state courts more responsive to the needs of the community, and I am honored to be a part of its mission," stated Vera.

 Steve L. Muro  

Steve L. Muro was named Acting Under Secretary for Memorial Affairs.  

He is the son of Soledad Muro (1924-1994).    

Muro served in the U.S. Navy from 1968 to 1972, including two tours of duty in Vietnam : one on board the USS Benjamin Stoddert and one with a mobile construction (Seabee) battalion.  

Muro graduated from Mt. San Antonio Junior College in Walnut, California with an Associate’s Degree. He is a graduate of Leadership Veterans Affairs (1996), and in August 2004, he graduated from the Senior Executive Service Candidate Development Program.    

In 1979, Muro began his career as an Automotive Mechanic at Los Angeles National Cemetery ; soon he was promoted to maintenance Foreman. In 1981, he was selected to attend the Cemetery Director Trainee Program at Riverside National Cemetery . After completing this training, he became the Assistant to the Director of the Los Angeles National Cemetery , Assistant Director and Director of the Long Island National Cemetery, Assistant Director of Riverside National Cemetery, Director of Fort Snelling National Cemetery, and acting Director of the Golden Gate and San Francisco National Cemeteries. 

Muro was assigned to the newly formed Memorial Service Network V, where he served as its Director from 2001 through 2002.  

From February 2003, to October 2008, Muro served as Director of the Office of Field Programs, which provided leadership for the Administration’s field offices and facilities, including 128 national shrine cemeteries. Under his guidance, a new training center was established, and National Cemetery Administration created a nationwide National Cemetery Scheduling Office. 

Muro also served as the Acting Deputy Under Secretary for Memorial Affairs and as such was integral to the organization at several Senate hearings regarding future land acquisitions and fiscal planning.    

Since January 2009, Muro oversees 131 National Cemeteries that provide dignified burial services for military veterans and eligible family members. He maintains the cemeteries as national shrines; for land   design, construction, and other activities relating to the establishment of new national cemeteries. Muro oversees other memorial programs for veterans, including the provision of headstones, markers and Presidential Memorial Certificates to honor the service of deceased veterans; and for administering federal grants to help states, territories, and tribal governments; establish veterans’ cemeteries.  

Steve L. Muro has spent more than 30 years working for the nation’s military cemeteries.

 Richard M. Lobo  

President Obama appointed Richard M. Lobo, as the Director of the International Broadcasting Bureau, Broadcasting Board of Governors, and Commerce.   

Richard M. Lobo was born on October 18, 1936. He is the son of Cuban immigrants; Mario Lobo (1907-1992) and Dolores Lobo (1912-1982). He is married to Caren Lobo; he has three children from a previous marriage and five grandchildren.  

He attended Our Lady of Perpetual Help, and he later attended Jefferson High School , both in Tampa , Florida . In high school, he served on the student council, edited the school newspaper and participated in the junior ROTC.   

He graduated from the University of Miami with a Communication Degree.    

He has interviewed such notables as Fidel Castro, Haitian ruler Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier, Robert Kennedy, Mickey Mantle, Malcolm X, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Barbra Streisand and the Beatles. His contributions along, with those of other correspondents, helped the station win the prestigious Peabody Award in 1960.  

He served as President and Chief Executive Officer of WEDU-TV Tampa/St. Petersburg for seven years.  

He also served as Station Manager at NBC's flagship station, WNBC-TV, in New York City . During the '70s and '80s, he moved to rival WNBC, eventually working as General Manager at stations in Cleveland, Chicago, and Miami .  

Back in Florida ; Lobo served on the Board of the Florida Association of Broadcasters as a member of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences' Suncoast Chapter.  

In 1994, former President Bill Clinton named Lobo as director of the Office of Cuba Broadcasting in the United States Information Agency, where he supervised the Radio Marti program, which broadcast pro-American programs to Cuba out of Miami .  

Lobo is an Emmy Award-winning journalist. He has been honored with the New York Black Citizens for a “Fair Media's Community Service Award,” the “Leadership Award” from the Chicago Latino Committee on the Media. Under his direction as General Manager of WTVJ, the station won the “Peabody Award,” the “DuPont Award,” and the “Edward R. Murrow Award” for its coverage of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Andrew in 1992. He is a recipient of the “Silver Circle Award.”  Recently the American Jewish Committee presented Lobo and his wife Caren with the “Civic Achievement Award,” and on May 2010, Lobo was inducted into the “Tampa Bay Business Hall of Fame.”  

"We are excited to have Dick [Richard] in this important position as the Broadcasting Board of Governors begins a comprehensive review of its strategy and operations around the world. He brings outstanding qualifications to the job, as a veteran journalist and broadcast executive," stated Broadcast Board of Governors Chairman, Walter Isaacson.  

"I am proud to serve my country in this role and through this Administration…   .  IBB (International Broadcasting Bureau) plays a critical role supporting our broadcast services and I am delighted to be a part of it," stated Lobo.

Alberto M. Fernandez  

The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee has approved Alberto M. Fernandez to serve as US Ambassador to the Republic of Equatorial Guinea .    

In 1959, Fernandez came to the United States with his family when he was a year old as a refugee from Cuba .  He is married, and has two sons.  

In 1981, Alberto M. Fernandez graduated from the University of Arizona with a Bachelor of Arts in Middle East Studies. In 1983, he received a Master’s Degree on the same subject. He is also a graduate of the U.S. Army Intelligence School at Ft. Huachuca . He studied Arabic at the Defense Language Institute-Foreign Language Center .   

He served in the US Army from 1976 to 1979. In 1983, Fernandez joined the US Information Agency. He has been a career member of the Senior Foreign Service with the rank of Minister-Counselor. From 1986 to 1988, he served as Press Attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Managua , Nicaragua .  

In 1988, he transferred to the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait to serve as Public Affairs Officer. On August 1, 1990, he left Kuwait , on the eve of the Iraqi Invasion. He was then assigned to Washington , D.C. , where he served as Country Affairs Officer for Egypt , Yemen and Sudan in the USIA/NEA Area Office. After Advanced Arabic Training, he served as Public Affairs Officer in Damascus , Syria (1993-1996), Guatemala City , Guatemala (1996-1999), Amman , Jordan (1999-2002), and Kabul , Afghanistan (2002-2003) where he was the first permanent Public Affairs Officer since the fall of the Taliban.  

Fernandez also served as U.S. Charge d’Affaires to the Republic of Sudan from June 2007, to May 2009.    

Some of Fernandez recognitions and awards include:  A recipient of the “Superior Honor Award” in 2002, 2003, for his service in Afghanistan, and a  “Senior Foreign Service” performance recognition in 2005, 2006. In 2007, he received the “Edward R. Murrow Award” for Excellence in Public Diplomacy, in the same year he was a recipient of the “Presidential Meritorious Service Award.”

*Updates from Previous Articles*  

Michael Camuñez:  Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Market Access and Compliance (Confirmed September 16, 2010)  (See March 2009 issue of “Somos Primos” for complete biography)    

Raul H. Yzaguirre:   U. S. Ambassador to the Dominican Republic  (Confirmed September 16, 2010)
(See January 2010 issue of “Somos Primos” for complete biography)   

Dr. Eloy Rodriguez knows a thing or two about making one’s way in the world. As a guest lecturer at NIH’s observance of Hispanic Heritage Month, he told how his love of science and tremendous family support took him from an impoverished upbringing to the groundbreaking science he is conducting today.

Rodriguez grew up in a large family that included some 67 first cousins, a family tree so large “we had enough for two football teams with cheerleaders and people in the stands throwing beer cans at us,” he told the Lister Hill Auditorium audience.

Born and reared in one of the poorest regions of south Texas, in an area he calls “Chicano land,” Rodriguez grew up not bilingual, as one might suspect, but instead what he calls trilingual—knowing English, Spanish and the blend known as Spanglish. His family can trace its American roots back to the 1600s, another fact many people might not think upon meeting him, he says.


Rodriguez is professor of ethno botanical medicine (the study of how people interact with plants) and pharmacognosy (the study of medicines derived from natural sources) at Cornell University. He speaks with a booming voice and is fueled by a passion for the medicine that can be found in the Earth’s most powerful and beneficial flowers, herbs and food. He told the audience, which included dozens of students visiting from Wheaton High School, that he is inspired by the knowledge that some cultures, both current and long gone, have been working with these same plants for hundreds, perhaps thousands of years.

                                            

“In Mexico, over 500 plants are used for the treatment of diabetes,” he said. “And they’re still using the same plants that were used from the time of the Aztecs and before.” Modern medicine has found it mattered little that these earlier societies didn’t have the benefit of microscopes and sterile working environments. Cited in books and passed down for centuries, these same plant compounds have been found to indeed be potent treatments against cancer, diabetes and malaria and many have been found to be effective insect repellents.

The vast majority of these treatments have been part of the care giving portfolio of women since their discovery, as women are often the driving force behind many cultures’ healing histories, he said. For him, finding cures in nature is a matter of chemistry.

“Did you know the Chinese were using penicillin 5,000 years ago?” he said. “Alexander Fleming isolated the compound, but it had been used for thousands of years. The beauty of penicillin is that it’s a fungus that kills other bacteria. So, if you want to kill bacteria, go get it from a fungus.”

Rodriguez emphasized that even when cultures met or clashed through invasion, slavery or war, what emerged was a blend of old and new practices to push forward the understanding of plant-based medicine. Examples can be seen in the nutritious bitter yams and okra brought by Africans in the slave trade to the Caribbean and America, as well as the natural resistance to smallpox developed by the indigenous people after the Europeans’ arrival with the virus wiped out entire villages.

For Rodriguez, this blending of cultures in America is still ongoing. He showed a photo of a class of his graduate students, their faces indicating a broad spectrum of origins and cultural backgrounds; many of them he identified as children of multi-ethnic parents.
“It is this diversity, this beautiful diversity,” he said as he urged the visiting students to study the photo and see themselves in the faces of the budding scientists. “This is the coming of America and this is why it is so important that you are represented in federal agencies and everywhere.”

This same sentiment was raised at the start of the lecture by NIH director Dr. Francis Collins, who said he is eager to have more Hispanic scientists at NIH.
“The future of biomedical research depends on the best and the brightest coming forward and deciding to work in this exciting area at this exciting time,” Collins said, adding that these new bright minds “come from all sorts of different backgrounds and we want to create a highway for those individuals to find their path forward and to become our next generation of innovators.”

To this end, Rodriguez has become something of an activist to get more Latino students engaged in science. He mentors as many students as he can handle from all backgrounds, but still sees the number of minority students lagging behind their majority counterparts.

“I talk to a lot of Chicano students, Latino students, and they say ‘We have no history in science, I’d rather go into business or something,’” he said. “I always tell them that the history of science goes way, way back even before the coming of the Europeans. We were already doing science here and everywhere else.”
He added, “By 2050, Latinos will be 30 percent of the population. There are major health disparities in the Latino population in the areas of prenatal care, cervical cancer, diabetic amputations and heart attacks. We cannot allow these types of health disparities to exist. We need trained scientists.” [NIHRecord Icon]

Sent by Walter Herbeck wlherbeck@gmail.com
and Juan Marinez

From another email

"Coming here has really made me see the difference between lifestyles and how truly blessed we are to live in the United States.  We took a bus to get somewhere today and we passed over a bridge and we saw the people living below on the banks of the river.  Most of the people live in little wooden shacks with tin roofs.  They have electricity that goes out for half the day and honestly live the most humble lives I have ever seen.  Sometimes, we have to teach these people in their little houses.  A lot of the time they dont have things to even sit on.  If they do, most of the time it is just an overturned bucket.  I always talk with my companion about how it is still like a dream for us.  We have to live kind of like them for 2 years, but then we get to go back to our pampered States lives.  I just hope that I always stay grateful for what I have.  We can get caught up in the States living and not even notice how superior it is to other people.  We really need to evaluate our lives and actually give thanks."

Elder Skousen
September 20, 2010

ON THE SUBJECT OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

Women's Right to Vote 

Lucy Burns 

Dora Lewis 

They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her head against an iron bed and knocked her out cold. Her cellmate, Alice Cosu, thought Lewis was dead and suffered a heart attack. Additional affidavits describe the guards grabbing, dragging, beating, choking, slamming, pinching, twisting and kicking the women.

Thus unfolded the 'Night of Terror' on Nov. 15, 1917, when the warden at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia ordered his guards to teach a lesson to the suffragists imprisoned there because they dared to picket Woodrow Wilson's White House for the right to vote. For weeks, the women's only water came from an open pail. Their food--all of it colorless slop--was infested with worms.

Alice Paul

Mrs. Pauline Adams in the prison garb she wore 
while serving a sixty-day sentence.

Berthe Arnold, CSU graduate

Sent by:

Don Milligan

donmilligan@comcast.net 

California's Bilingual 
1849 Constitution 

CALIFORNIA'S REAL BIRTHDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1849
By Galal Kernahan

Try this on for relevance, Forty-eight men meeting in a just completed Monterey schoohouse in 1849 wrote a California’s Birth Certificate Constitution that guaranteed property rights for women –INCLUDING MARRIED WOMEN. (Susan B. Anthony, eat your heart out! She almost did before any of the advances in women’s rights she sought were won at her end of the Continent.)

 In the midst of America’s fracturing over slavery. . .a split that in little more than a decade bathed Back-East North and South in blood–our founders stamped newborn California a Free State. And they managed it all in TWO LANGUAGES. Both Spanish and English were official at the Convention and in the Constitution it produced.  Neither was a translation of the other. The work was debated in both languages, recorded in both languages and ratified in a bilingual election!

Is this not worth researching and remembering in today’s multicultural California. . .where more than two  of every five public school children are Hispanic? And many other folks have parents who are or were English learners? We figured out how to get along together a long time ago. Or did we? The Original California Constitution was replaced with another in 1879. We are still propositioning, enlarging and altering this matastisizing replacement election after election. It may be the most interminable constitution ever!

Poisonous seeds were scattered across the first “take” of the document which replaced California’s Original bilingual Birth Certificate.. At this Second Constitution’s 1879  birth, it was  splattered with the most racist restrictions ever to besmirch California law. Not only were persons of Chinese descent declared ineligible for any rights. They were forbidden entry into all incorporated California municipalities! Men, women and children were forcibly purged  from Northern California communities. Such constitutional atrocities appeared, disappeared and went through propositional shape-changing for decades.. A formal State Apology was legislated. . .in 2009!  

Thank God we are past all that! Imagine banning Spanish in Santa Barbara. No one would be able to find their way around where natives eat everything from pad thai to chimichangas!

 Galal Kernahan, 619-C Avenida Sevilla, Laguna Woods, CA 92637  galal@comline.com
 
               

Descendants of signers of California’s Original 1849 State Constitution 
(even some of the prodigous De La Guerra progeny!) 
will be celebrating at the Heritage Museum of Orange County, 11 acre site.


Sunday, November 14, 2010, 10 am to 4 pm.  
The reenactment will take place at 2 pm. 
ALL are welcomed.  No cost.  
For more information, go to www.heritagemuseumoc.com  
or call Co-chair Mimi 714-894-8161

      

THE PERSONS WHO ACTUALLY TOOK PART IN THE CONVENTION
WERE THE FOLLOWING, THE DELEGATES: 
Source: Constitutional History of California 

If you are a descendant of any signers of the constitution we would like to recognize you.
Please let us know.

Promote our heritage, 
Heritage Museum of Orange County by James P. Gray

WITNESS TO HERITAGE

The Longoria Affair Documentary 
by Daisy Wanda Garcia 
wanda.garcia@sbcglobal.net

Sara Posas, Wanda Garcia Santiago Hernandez, John Valadez and Dr. Marianne Bueno

The Longoria Affair Newsletter

October 4, 2010

You are receiving this newsletter because you have expressed interest in the film.  If you wish to stop receiving these emails, please hit reply and send.

facebook http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/The-Longoria-Affair/149607901744035?ref=ts 

Estamos en Sonico  http://www.sonico.com/publico/TheLongoriaAffairElCasoLongoria 

y en twitter   http://twitter.com/LongoriaAffair

The Longoria Affair trailer and clips now on Youtube.

Be the first to view and post the trailer, clips and video extras of The Longoria Affair:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62XKjOFG3W0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zd82WwC3s4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2lter5Vvi0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qO_HJAE6QI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJafDu8KIGM

or more information, log on to:  http://www.thelongoriaaffair.com and http://www.itvs.org/films/longoria-affair

http://www.itvs.org/television?film=longoria-affair&page=2

HONORING HISPANIC LEADERSHIP

Center figure, to the left of Cesar Chavez.

LUIS VALDEZ WRITES . . .  TRIBUTE TO GEORGE BALLIS 

It is with sadness that on Friday, September 24, 2010, we learned of the death of George “Elfie” Ballis, one of the oldest and most esteemed friends of El Teatro Campesino.   We met George at the very beginning, indeed at our very inception, on the picket lines of Great Delano Grape Strike in 1965.    He was a great labor photographer, one of the best,  and that was how we first saw him, camera in hand, eagle eye on the action,  fearlessly on the side of the workers.   Turning his lens on our fledging rag tag  farm workers theater, his images of our huelguista actors captured not only our birth as a company, but the truculent spirit of our long earthy struggle. 

Later when he purchased a 16mm Bolex camera, as a photographer turned cinematographer, he offered to film our stage slide show of Corky Gonzales epic poem “I Am Joaquin.”  Hocking personal items to come up with the $5000 budget, George turned a small kitchen in Fresno into our first sound stage, and shot our  first film over a weekend.  As a nascent film director, it too became my first movie short.  But our “film poem” galvanized an entire generation of young activists, and became one of the classic sparks of the Chicano movement.  

Over the years, it was always evident that George was a champion of the working class, immersed in a life long struggle to improve the planet for all, without losing any of his creativity, humor and humanity in the process.   He would not tolerate fools for very long, but his patience with honest working folk was extraordinary.

Our heartfelt abrazos go to Maia, his wife and compañera of so many decades,  whom we also met and embraced in those halcyon days in the valley.   We cannot help but feel that George is now with the Mayan corn god, awaiting rebirth on Sun Mt. from the fertile earth he loved so well.  ¡Descansa en paz, hermano fino, y que dios te bendiga!

Luis Valdez for El Teatro Campesino

Subject: [FarmworkerDocumentation] 
UNITED FARM WORKERS STATEMENT REGARDING THE DEATH OF GEORGE ELFIE BALLIS

Famed photographer George Ballis, who chronicled the UFW

It is with sadness that we learned George "Elfie" Ballis, whose photographic skill and insight chronicled the drama and joy of Cesar Chavez's farm worker movement over five decades, passed away quietly Thursday morning [23 September 2010] at his home near Fresno, according to reports from his wife and partner, Maia.

George began covering the farm workers during the mid-1960s as editor in Fresno of the Central Valley's AFL-CIO publication. He recorded some of the most memorial milestones of the Delano Grape Strike, including Cesar Chavez's 1968 fast for nonviolence. In recent years, George has been a fixture at United Farm Workers constitutional conventions, mingling with the hundreds of delegates and documenting their proceedings and guest speakers.

One of his most renowned images is Cesar Chavez leading a jubilant march of farm workers on the first day of the UFW’s historic Delano-to-Sacramento pilgrimage in March 1966. It has been featured in books and magazines.

"No one has consistently demonstrated George's love and commitment to La Causa over so many decades," declares UFW President Arturo Rodriguez and Paul Chavez, president of the Cesar Chavez Foundation. 

George Ballis’ memorial service consisted of his “Endgame Party” attended by hundreds of friends and well-wishers in November 2009, at his beloved SunMt. Center where he and his wife, Maia lived east of Fresno. Representing the farm worker movement and the Chavez family at that event were Marc Grossman, Cesar’s longtime spokesman and personal aide, and Anthony Chavez, one of Cesar’s grandsons. They delivered a personal letter to George and Maia from Helen Chavez, Cesar’s widow:

Dear George: 

All of us in the farm worker movement have been thinking and praying for you since we learned about your illness.

Cesar believed everyone in the movement had a contribution to make, and he made everyone feel their contribution was important. It didn't matter whether you were an attorney representing the union in court or a cook preparing food in the strike kitchen or a photographer documenting the courage of the grape strikers in Delano and the injustices they were made to suffer. You helped Cesar and the farm workers bring their struggle to millions of decent people who were inspired by the pictures you took to support the cause. 

But we also saw through your work the love and commitment to social justice that brought meaning to your life, and to our lives too. The light that shined through your photos has touched so many hearts over the decades.

As the years pass, we often don't get to tell people until it is too late how much they have meant to us, and to thank them for everything they have done. Saying thank you doesn't seem enough, but it is what we can do.

May God bless and keep you and your family.

Con el mejor de mi carino.
Viva la Causa!
Helen F. Chavez

During the Vet Nam War, Art was a proud member of the United States Air Force stationed in Tripoli, North Africa.  

While serving as an attendants in a friend's wedding in Concord Hills, North Africa, Art and Mary Glosemeyer met, and after a three year courtship they married on June 6, 1970.  Arturo and Mary were living in the Chicago area, when their two sons, Dennis and Gary were born in 1973 and 1974.

In 1986, Art earned his degree in Information Technology from the University of Texas at Dallas and was employed by Xerox for 25 years before transitioning to Electronic Data System from 1994 until his retirement in 2002.  

Sent by Lorri Frain lorrilocks@sbcglobal.net 

Don Garrate was responsible for putting this amazing website together: http://www.nps.gov/applications/tuma/search.cfm

Tumacacori National Historical Park, MISSION 2000
Spanish Mission Records can be searched by surname, title, and event.
 

NATIONAL ISSUES

SafeLink Wireless
Editor:  I remember when the concept came up that the many times unemployed job seekers do not have a permanent resident and thus have difficulty in being contacted by employers.  

SafeLink Wireless is a government supported program that provides a free cell phone and airtime each month for income-eligible customers.
https://www.safelinkwireless.com/Enrollment
Public/Home.aspx 

I also remember when street corner telephone booths were removed from Santa City streets because drug dealers were using the public telephones for making drug sales. Is the distribution of free cell phones by the government helping or harming society?   

The Immigration Policy Center has prepared a summary of The Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2010 which can be accessed at:

http://www.immigrationpolicy.org/just-facts/comprehensive-
immigration-reform-act-2010-summary

Brutally beaten to death, most of the youths involved in the murder of Luis Ramirez were released after six months.  However, on October 14, 2010, an all-white jury convicted two of the Pennsylvania young men of a federal hate crime, based on their findings that Ramirez was attacked primarily out of a hatred for Hispanics. Derrick Donchak, 20, and Brandon Piekarsky, 18, were convicted of violating the civil rights of 25 year Luis Ramirez and two other counts related to a plot to cover up the vicious beating which resulted in Luis Ramirez death. The two could be sentenced to life in prison.  

Sent by Juan Marinez  marinezj@anr.msu.edu

Treason is an act of disloyalty or betrayal of trust to your own government.  The Constitution defines treason as specific acts, namely "levying War against [the United States], or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort."  Oran's Dictionary of the Law (1983) defines treason  "...[a]...citizen's actions to help a foreign government overthrow, make war against, or seriously injure the [parent nation]." In many nations, it is also often considered treason to attempt or conspire to overthrow the government, even if no foreign country is aided or involved by such an endeavor.

Examples of treason include assassination of a state figure, fighting against your own nation in a war, assisting enemy combatants, or passing vital government information to the enemy. Historically, treason has been severely punished, because an act of treason can destroy a nation. In the modern day, a conviction of treason is accompanied at a minimum by a long jail sentence and a heavy fine, and may merit the death penalty under certain circumstances. http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-the-penalties-for-treason.htm

Traditionally, the families of traitors were punished along with the traitors themselves, to act as a deterrent to committing treason or participating in treasonous acts with family members. In addition to being sentenced to death, all of the traitor's property would be confiscated, and his or her family members might be forced to forfeit property as well in punishment. Traitors could not will property to other family members, and individuals related to someone who had committed treason faced serious social stigma. Many family members fled to other countries with what wealth they could salvage. 

Two suggestions: 
(1) Implement psychological strategies for evaluating potential citizens, prior to naturalization.  
(2) The United States government has the right to confiscate all the property of the person who commits treason against the United States.  Using the wealth confiscated from drug lords and cartels has been a big source of revenue in fighting the drug war.  Let me suggest that the United States consider confiscating the property of terrorist traitors, and use those funds to fight terrorism within our borders.  
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_Three_of_the_United_States_Constitution

ACTION ITEM

My name is Chelsea McPeek and I am a Research Assistant for Dr. Eun-Ok Im at the University of Texas at Austin School of Nursing. We are conducting a research study on ethnic midlife women's attitudes toward physical activity. It is our goal to improve communication between health care providers and minority midlife women in the United States. 

We are currently recruiting Hispanic women aged 40-60 years old to fill out a short online survey answering questions about their participation in physical activity. Participants will receive a $10.00 Target gift certificate for completing the survey. More information and a link to begin the survey can be found on our project website: http://mapa.nur.utexas.edu/MAPA/.

We are inviting you to help us announce our study to your readers and community. Would you be able to make an announcement on your website, include our study information in a newsletter, or forward it to your readers.  Thank you.

Sincerely, Chelsea McPeek, Research Assistant

School of Nursing, The University of Texas at Austin

1700 Red River St., Austin, TX 78701

Email: cgmcpeek@mail.utexas.edu 

EDUCATION

Latina Women Of NASA of The Month – 
Rosa Obregon is an aerospace technologist at NASA's Stennis Space Center (SSC). NASA SSC is located in South Mississippi (~45 miles east of New Orleans) and is responsible for NASA's rocket propulsion testing and for partnering with industry to develop and implement remote sensing technology. Ms. Obregon helps test engines to power rockets. 

To read more about Rosa Obregon, visit http://oeop.larc.nasa.gov/hep/lwon/LWONbios
/ssc-RObregon.html  

Civil Servant Latinas who are interested in participating on the LWON web site should contact Debbie.Martinez@NASA.gov  

Education Trust study shows only 49% of Latinos who start college earn a bachelor degree six years later, compared to 40% of blacks and 60% whites.

http://www.hispaniclink.org/Hispanic_Link/Front_Page.html 
Sept 15, 2010

Jose Limon, retires as Director of the Center for Mexican American Studies, University of Texas at Austin

Sent by Juan Marinez 

Sent by Yvonne Gonzalez Duncan  yvduncan@yahoo.com

BILINGUAL/BICULTURAL EDUCATION

RE: NiLP FYI
Sept. 25, 2010                                                    

How the Teachers view our children of Color--is paramount! All research evidence that teacher's expectations can not only predict, but control students achievement and behavior! One's expectation about a student can eventually lead that student to behave and achieve in ways that conform to those expectations. About 30% of the teachers believe that they can judge a student ahead of time--thus the self-fulfilling prophesy come into play! Some teachers form expectations based on students characteristi cs: such as; body size, race, gender ethnicity and last names! 

It should be mandatory that all teachers hold high expectations of all their students; and receive annually Staff-development training on improving their biases, judgments and students expectations! Plus, Parents must hold high expectations of their children! 

Most teachers should read; Dr. James Coleman 1966 educational research; "Inequality of Education" and Dr. Rosenthal's 1966 study; Pygmalion in the Classroom--a purposeful tool to convey positive expectations, and avoid conveying negative expectations! 

Plus, all school sites SHOULD have a school Parent Advisory Committee, consisting of ten local Mothers and ten Fathers; in a legal Partnership, involved in every operating aspect of that school site! Not just the PTA! And working Parents should be given vulnerary release time from work, on a rotating bases; to be involved in their children daily educational development!!

Willis Papillion , MSW
willis35@embarqmail.com

DIA DE LOS MUERTOS


Artist, Peter Perez

Editor:  I don't know if it is just me, but it seems that observing the Dia de los Muertos is increasing in popularity. Traditionally, family ofrendas were set up on November 1st and 2nd, now displays are being shared as early as October and through most of the month of November.  And, it is being observed in ways, giving emphasis to its foundation intent, honoring loved ones who have passed away.  Many families would include the departed into the family unit by holding picnics on the graves of the departed on November 1st or 2nd.  

The Austin Chapter of the National Hispanic Profession Organization decided to honor their ancestors by cleaning a cemetery, the Maria de la Luz Cemetery.  
The Maria de la Luz Cemetery is a Mexican American cemetery designated as a Texas Historic Cemetery.  (Click to the article below.)

On October 28th, Gregorio Luke, former Director of the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach presented a unique mutimedia and arts experience at the Long Beach Playhouse, tracing the origins of the modern holiday to indigenous observances dating back thousands of years as he explores the history and traditions of Dia de los Muertos. The evening included an exhibition of altars constructed by local artists curated by artist Michael Stearns and juried by Mr. Luke and Mr. Stearns.  Gregorio Luke is an expert on Mexican and Latin American art and culture. Mr. Luke has presented over 1,000 lectures in museums and universities throughout Mexico, Europe and the United States in institutions such as the Library of Congress, The Smithsonian Institution, the San Diego Museum of Art, the Detroit Institute of Art, and Universities such as Harvard, Columbia, UNAM and Georgetown, among others. He is the former Consul of Cultural Affairs of Mexico in Los Angeles and the First Secretary of the Embassy of Mexico in Washington D.C...The busy Mr. Luke, most appropriately, is making a presentation at the
Guerra & Gutierrez Mortuary's  Dia de los Muertos Festival, 6338 Greenleaf Ave, Whittier, California, 90601. on October 30th. 5 to 8 pm. Admission is free. 
      This giant Catrina, designed by Peter, takes a minimum of three to six puppeteers to manipulate.

Anaheim, California is an example of a greatly expanded observation of Dia de los Muertos.  Peter Perez, the artist, who organized the city wide activities  called the Anaheim event, Viva Los Muertos, with the emphasis on the meaning that our loved ones are still alive and not to be forgotten.  

I highly recommend viewing the exhibit. It surely promotes an understanding that Dia de los Muertos is a positive testimony to family ties and family love.  Among the displays is one featuring photos and artifacts focusing on the Mexican Revolution, and a series of stories by Register readers on their family’s 
experiences with the war.  The exhibit continues through Nov. 29.  
Anaheim Downtown Community Center Art gallery,
250 E. Center St. 
Hours generally are 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Sunday. 
Call 714- 765-4500

Opening of the Anaheim, California
     "Viva Los Muertos" Exhibit

Bea and Teresa Armenta Dever stand in front of a portion of a family display.  The standing figure is Bea's grandfather, Pablo Armenta.  Bea's article on the Armenta's migration from Mexico, due to the Mexican Revolution, was the first in the Orange Country Register's series, produced through the effort of Ron Gonzales.

There were about a dozen display cases and painting through out the building.

When:    Saturday, November 6, 2010 1:00 pm - 10:00 pm  

Where:    Downtown Santa Ana

    324 W 4Th Street,   Santa Ana, CA 92701

CULTURE

On a second-story exterior wall of a historic building in Los Angeles on Olvera street. 
A significant artwork from the Mexican muralist movement sat unseen for more than 70 years. 
It was whitewashed soon after it was completed to mask its political content. 
Photo sent by Ricardo Valverde

OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE, MOTHER OF THE AMERICAS
The Virgin of Guadalupe is intertwined with the History of US and Catholics in the Americas. 
http://www.maryourmother.net/Guadalupe.html     

Sent by John Inclan fromgalveston@yahoo.com 

After college, finding an identity all over again

When I came to the United States from Nicaragua 15 years ago, the first thing that caught my eye was the Figueroa at Wilshire Building in downtown Los Angeles. Driving through the 110, the luminous Lego-like tier under fast-moving lights and towering skyscrapers made the night sky look foreign and futuristic.

Ducking through the backseat window to get the full effect of the building, the freeways and moving cars, I couldn’t help but notice, “Oh my God, there’s movement here.”

A decade-and-a-half later, I landed in Washington D.C. and found myself saying the same thing. I couldn’t believe that even within the United States there were cities that moved at an even faster pace. Businessmen, congressional pages, interns and those in power suits just zoomed past me, as if reaching their final destination meant life or death. My first day on the job, coming down the Metro escalator, I could have sworn Arnold was somewhere in the Capitol ordering D.C. residents to “Get to the chopper now!”

Sent by Luis Carlos Lopez
Hispanic Link News Service
(623) 256-7417
lclopez4@gmail.com
http://twitter.com/lclopez4
http://www.usatodayeducate.com/staging/index.php/blog/after-college-finding-an-identity-all-over-again 

Sent by Bobby Gonzalez  BronxTaino@aol.com

LITERATURE

Jose Leon Robles de la Torre: Writer, Journalist, Historian, Poet 
         by Mercy Bautista-Olvera
October-September Update for Somos en escrito  
Mario Vargas Llosa, a Peruvian wins the Nobel Prize in Literature!!!

José León Robles de la Torre

Writer, Journalist, Historian, Poet

By Mercy Bautista-Olvera

José León Robles de la Torre

José León Robles de la Torre was born on April 11, 1925 in Juanchorrey, Zacatecas , Mexico .  He is the son of Francisco Robles Correa (1897-1990) and Francisca de la Torre Sanchez (1900-1932). His three brothers Enrique, José and Teodicio, died in childhood. He has a sister Agustina and a brother Juan. On December 6, 1948, José León married Ana Rodríguez Gámez; they have two sons, José Armando, (1949-1989), and Alejandro, an attorney and one daughter, Ana Laura, an Attorney; he has five grandchildren.     

José León Robles lost his mother when he was seven years old; at an early age, he helped his father plant corn and beans. His father, at the age of 35, remarried and had more children. When José León was 12 years old, he was already plowing fields. In 1939, he purchased his first typing lesson book, which he purchased for eight pesos from his savings. He did not own a typewriter, he wrote his letters on a piece of wood to practice. José León wanted to learn so much more, like history, science, and the arts.

In 1940 with the encouragement of Professor Don Juan Carlos Rodríguez, José León moved to Jerez , Zacatecas, where he studied Latin, Greek, history, music, math, and other subjects.  

After the studies José León went to Totatiche, Jalisco and attended “El Silvestre,” as a Seminary student, in a writing contest he won first place in literature for “Totatiche Ante Maria Y el Huerfano.” Soon after his first article was published in “Lux Magazine,” which the students, including himself co-edited.
 

In June 1944, José León left the Seminar and went back to Juanchorrey where he taught for a few months at La Escuela Particular.  In 1944, his father Francisco planned a business trip to Torreón, Coahuila, while José León was on vacation; he decided to join his father on the trip.  While his father returned to Juanchorrey, José León remained in Torreón. He saw a land of opportunity; he attended Escuela Comercial Hidalgo , taking business classes, and Colegio Elliot, where he studied English. He also studied law and worked as a secretary for “La Seccion de Juicios,” for 25 years.

In 1954, José León started writing articles for “La Opinion de Torreon,” in Coahuila, later he worked for “El Siglo de Torreón,” a newspaper, where he wrote a series of continuing articles; “Marco Cultural,” and later “Personajes en la historia de México,” a series of men and women who had made a difference in their country.

Besides his work he also wrote many books,  such as: “La Cultura de Torreón,” “Monedas Mexicanas,” “Hombres Ilustres de Coahuila,”  “Zacatecas y Sus Hombres,” “Bodas de Oro de Escritor,” “Algunas Rimas,” ”Mis Raíces,” ”Aniversario de Poésias,” and others.  

His book “Torreón en Las Letras Nacionales," received praise from local and national journalists, an award for this book was presented to him by Francisco Fernández Torres, Chief of Arte y Cultura.  

On April 24, 1968, José León received recognition from the American Numismatic Society of New York for his book “Monedas Mexicanas.” During that time, he received many other awards for his writing achievements, including for his work in poetry,  such as “La Poésia y su Estudio,” “Aniversario de Poésias,” “Marco Poético,” “Algo Recogí del Viento,” “Ecos Poéticos Zacatecanos,” and many more.

            José León in his 1^st office

On June 6, 1987, local and state officials presented José León with a bronze statue in his likeness, which is located at La Calzada de los Escritores Laguneros in Alameda Zaragoza in Torreón, Coahuila , Mexico . His father attended, he was so proud of his son, some people said he was in tears.  

Another special award was a plaque honoring him and his literary works. The plaque located at La Plaza Cultural includes his name as well as other men and women who have enriched the state of Torreón and the country. The celebration took place at La Plaza de los Fundadores.  

On June 29, 2001, Dean Javier Yanes Castruita, the Dean of the Universidad Autonoma de La Laguna presented José León with the “Academic Merit award.”

He was also the recipient of the “Ramón López Velarde” medal,” presented to him by Zacatecas’ state of Public Education Secretary, Professor Ana Maldonado. In addition, other awards as “Distinguish Citizen.” “First son of the State.” Streets have also been named in his honor in his hometown of Zacatecas.    

José León surrounded by his many recognitions and awards  

José León has written more than 800 newspaper articles. His latest books include: “Filigranas, Fundaciones y Genealogías, Tepetongo, Zacatecas,” (1999) “Filigranas, ”Fundaciones y Genealogías, Jerez 1531-1992-2006, Susticacan 1562-1981, and Monte Escobedo 1600-1700-1995,” (2006) “Historia de Juanchorrey y Tepetongo, Zacatecas,” (2008) and many more. These books reflect the history of the people of Zacatecas , Mexico ; his hometown. “He continued to write more books such as “La Aduana de Torreón Coahuila”, based on the years 1948-2007, “Filántropos de la Laguna,” and “Mis Recuerdos.”  

Another newspaper series, “La Independencia y los Presidentes de México” featuring the “Remembrance of the Bicentennial of Mexico  1810-2010,” and the “Centennial Mexican Revolution, 1910-2010,” was publish four times a month in “El Siglo de Torreón” newspaper. Since June 2009, “Somos Primos” has reproduced José León’s articles, which are publish in the Mexico ’s section in Spanish.  

For 42 years, José León investigated, searched and collected documents for his project on “La Independencia y los Presidentes de Mexico.” In this series, José León writes the biographies of the Mexican presidents, its two emperors, Agustín Iturbide, who was a Mexican citizen, and Emperor Maximilian from Austria .

Here are some of the l at est submissions to Somos en escrito for October and September 2010 (Click on the link to go to th at item in the magazine:   

Tita sin fin, blues (Poem)  
We’ve known Raúl Caballero as a reporter and essayist for La Estrella Newspaper in Fort Worth , but he’s also an established poet, author of “El Agua Inmóvil,” a book of poetry published by the St at e of Nuevo León publishing house, who has also appeared in various anthologies. He says of poesy, “Language possesses a dual function th at ’s so useful to poets, the meaning of words and their rhythm, a cadence which the poet can achieve as he cre at es and pronounces them with a certain flair. Poetry, then, is a form of expressing, of giving identity to reality.”

Hemos conocido Raúl Caballero como periodista y Director Editorial de La Estrella Digital en Fort Worth, pero también es autor de “El Agua Inmóvil,” libro de poesía publicado por la Editorial del Gobierno del Estado de Nuevo León, México; además sus poemas han aparecido en diversas antologías de poesía en México. De su dedicación a poesía, Raúl dice: “El lenguaje posee esa doble función tan útil a los poetas, la del significado de las palabras y su ritmo, la cadencia que puede alcanzar el poeta al crearlas y pronunciarlas con un cierto estilo. La poesía, pues, es una forma de expresar, de nombrar la realidad.”  

The Multi-Faceted Origins of Tunaluna (Book Review)
This essay is an incisive and illumin at ing review of the 10th book of poetry by Alurista, a renowned raza poet since the beginnings of the Chicano Movement in the mid-1960s. The essay, by the prolific essayist, Arnoldo Carlos Vento, delves into Mayan cosmogony, how Alurista disassembles words and recombines them to form new meanings and new insights, and affords a critical view into the cre at ive genius of a Chicano master poet.  

Four thoughts
Jennie Campbell of southern California , is a hybrid daughter of a Nicaraguan f at her and Mexican mother, who has wanted to be a writer, she says, since before she even knew how to spell her own name; now from a corpor at e desk she wants to “leave a deep imprint on the landscape of American writing from a second gener at ion L at ina perspective.”  

Golden Rushes
A new talented writer, Gonzalo Adolfo, a n at ive of Illinois , has resided in numerous places in the U.S. and abroad, but he has currently settled in Berkeley , California . We publish three excerpts from a novelette, titled Golden Rushes, which he wrote while living in Buenos Aires , Argentina . Another novelette, No Rush for Gold, was completed in Cochabamba , Bolivia , which he hopes soon to be available in Spanish).

El camino hacia noviembre 2010 (Ensayo/essay)  
Raúl Caballero, a writer and reporter, who is also managing editor of  La Estrella Digital en Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas , gives fair warning about the coming consequences of the November 2 elections to L at inos.  

Ricardo Sánchez - Liberationist and Humanist Poet... (Essay/Ensayo)
Published on September 3, 2010, the anniversary of the de at h of Richard Sánchez in 1995, this essay by a lifelong friend of the poet is our way of commemor at ing Sánchez' life and works.  

Introduction to Journey’s through the Pass – Ricardo Sanchez (Book excerpt)
Journey’s through the Pass represents Ricardo Sánchez’s last poetic journey. It completes the circle for the poet who comes home to El Paso shortly before his passing. It is a journey to the place where his roots were planted; it is a reflection of th at past in all of its contradictions, beauty, pain, anger, joy and love. In this last work, one can see glimpses of a reality already planted in previous poetic works. The introduction is by Arnoldo Carlos Vento, Ph.D.

Call for Contributors: Encyclopedia of Latino Issu...  
Felipe de Ortego y Gasca, Ph.D., Scholar in Residence at Western New Mexico University , sends out a call for contributions to the Encyclopedia of L at ino Issues Today of which he is Editor-in-Chief. Somos en escrito provides the full list of topics for scholars, writers, and community activists to choose from and submit their pieces to Felipe.

BOOKS

University of North Carolina Press, 2010
Approx. 352 pp., 6.125 x 9.25, 26 illus., 3 maps, 4 tables, notes, index http://www.uncpress.unc.edu/browse/book_detail?title_id=1798

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

Clotilde P. Garcia 2010 Annual Book Prize

Austin September 28, 2010, The Tejano Genealogy Society of Austin announces the recipient of the annual Clotilde P. Garcia prize awarded each year to the author of the best Tejano History book published in that year. The annual award is $1000.00 and it has become one of the most successful programs of the Tejano Genealogy Society. Under the direction of our book prize committee chairperson, Mary Guerrero the winner of this year’s prize goes to Dr Emilio Zamora, Texas History Professor from the University of Texas for his book “Claiming Rights and Righting Wrongs.” 

Honorable mention goes to Dr Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez and Dr Emilio Zamora for their book “Beyond the Latino WWII Hero,” and also to Dr J. Frank de la Teja for his book “Tejano Leadership in Mexican and Revolutionary Texas.”

Clotilde P. Garcia was a physician, community activist and younger sister of Dr Hector P. Garcia (1917-2003) and was well known for her leading role in promoting Genealogy and Hispanic History.

Sent by Dan Arellano
President Tejano Genealogy Society of Austin
512-826-7569
darellano@austin.rr.com

Saltypie, A Choctaw Journey from Darkness into Light by Tim Tingle

http://www.cincopuntos.com/products_detail.sstg?id=157 
1-933693-67-3  13-digit ISBN 9781933693675 
Format Hardback Language English  Page Count 40  Product Dimensions 8.5" x 11" x .25" 

LATINO PATRIOTS

FREEDOM IS NOT FREE
Sent by Gerald Frost

HR 3219, The Veterans’ Benefits Act of 2010. The new law provides many provisions including enhancing VGLI and SGLI, prohibiting copayments or other fees for catastrophically disabled veterans receiving VA care, providing improvements in mental health services for veterans in rural areas, and authorizing grants for job training, counseling, placement, and childcare services to homeless women veterans and homeless veterans with children.  

Sent by Juan Marinez 
marinezj@anr.msu.edu  

Gerald Frost
Juan Marinez
ConnieCPU@aol.com

Four Hispanic Heroes received the Silver Star
The web site below has the BIOS and photos of each individual.
http://news.soc.mil/releases/News%20Archive/2010/August/100817-04.html    
http://www.army.mil/-news/2010/08/18/43859-7th-special-forces-group-soldiers-
receive-silver-stars-for-battlefield-valor-in-afghanistan/ 
Sent by Rafael Ojeda

CONGRATULATIONS TO JUDGE AGUIRRE 
AND LATINO ADVOCATES FOR EDUCATION!!

Stories of 1200 Latino veterans from World War I to our present wars can be accessed.

Judge Frederick P. Aguirre and his colleagues have generously donated 200 cd's to the teachers of Orange County Department of Education.  Please Contact Kelli Byrne or (714)966-4472 and give her your name, school and district information to have a cd mailed to you. You can also download the files from the CD below.

U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta to receive the Medal of Honor.  A look at the past seven recipients of the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest award for valor, from Iraq and Afghanistan. All of the awards so far have been given posthumously. Giunta survived the combat and will receive the medal himself.

Giunta himself was shot in the chest, though his ballistic vest prevented injury, and another bullet disabled the weapon on his back. Unfortunately, Sgt. John Brennan, the first soldier Giunta saved, did not survive surgery. They were best friends. No date has been set for the award ceremony, but we offer our sincerest thanks for Giunta's service.

Source: THE PACESETTER, Vol. XII   No. 10 October 2010 Issue  www.cfrwcentraldivision.org
Sent by: Nancy J. Ramey

PATRIOTS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

‘There is a tendency to consider the American Revolution as a series of dramatic events taking place in a comparatively small area along the Eastern Seaboard, forgetting the crucial importance that the Mississippi River Valley and the Northeast Coast of the Gulf of Mexico did actually have in the success of the uprising.’

Statement by José Montero de Pedro, Marqués de Casa Mena, Consul General de España  

Long forgotten Revolutionary War heroes, who all gave of their influence, their fortunes, and some even their lives, for American liberty!

Among them, 
…the Spanish, and Hispanic people who at that time occupied the Deep South of the continental United States,… 
…and a great leader, Bernardo de Galvez who fell in love with the New World and its expanding ideas.

This is a story that is timely because of the on going debate over Hispanic immigration and the misconceptions and prejudices too commonly held about the contributions of both Spain and Latin America to the founding of these United States!

Now, through the latest technology of HD visual media, dynamic music, feature film quality, combined with intelligent historical re-creations and creative presentations by leading scholars, this documentary will tell the story of how Spain and Hispanics made the critical difference in the gaining of our independence, and at the same time set the whole Western Hemisphere ablaze with the spirit of liberty!

For too long your contributions have lain under a blanket of ignorance and prejudice, but the time has come to set the record straight, and give you your rightful place in the history of the establishment of these United States. 

Relevancy “….what we have set out to do is to challenge conventional history as it pertains to the role Spain and other Hispanic countries played in the making of the United States. The fact is that the vast majority of historians have simply squeezed out of their accounts most of the great deeds achieved by Spain in North America. Consequently, we, as a nation, know very little about the true historical facts, perhaps as little as two percent of the whole truth. The rest, or the other ninety-eight per cent, has remained entombed until now in the catacombs of history.” Carlos B. Vega, Professor of Spanish, Montclair State University of New Jersey 

As a filmmaker, I think its time for a “resurrection” from the grave of the forgotten history mentioned by Professor Vega above! The timing of this documentary could not be more appropriate, considering the current wave sweeping over the American public of both fear and total misconceptions about our fastest growing immigrant population, Hispanics. 

American’s deep seated prejudice and fear towards both Hispanics and even Spain has been deeply ingrained by an Anglo-centric history and the perpetuation of the “Black Legend”, plus racist ideas from the past, all of these still haunt our sub-conscious minds even in this more enlightened age. This film will dispel these myths, looking back into the beginnings of our Republic, and showing how both Spaniards and the Hispanic people of the new world shared our ideals, loved our cause, and sacrificed to help midwife the birth of the United States! 

The same ideals of personal liberty were shared values, with Spain and Hispanics going ahead of Anglo-Americans on some of the issues of social justice and equality. But this is more then just another film, it is also an on-going educational program that will help to bring both citizens of Hispanic origins, and new immigrants from the countries of Latin America to “connect” with the birth of our nation, a nation founded upon the universal principles of individual liberty and equality, principles that already were taking root in the hearts and minds of our neighbors to the South at the time of the American Revolution! 

This film will be...IS, a revelation of historical facts as never seen before. NO one has yet attempted to bring the story of Spain and Hispanic’s major involvement in the American Revolution to the powerful medium of motion picture, a history side-lined or buried under prejudice for too long… until now! 

Project Overview 

GALVEZ is a long over-due film that combines the finest elements of both educational, and feature film, using the story of Bernardo de Galvez, America’s forgotten Revolutionary War hero, to enlighten both the American, and international community about the essential contributions of Spain, and Hispanics, to the birth of these United States! 

GALVEZ will be a documentary feature film, produced for distribution on National Public Television, Telemundo, and European Public TV, hosted by a major Spanish or Hispanic celebrity, with the sponsorship and assistance of American, Spanish and Hispanic historical and social organizations, well known celebrities, educational institutions, museums, along with the assistance of the leading scholars on Spanish and Hispanic history today in both Spain and North America! 

Our principle historical characters will be portrayed by both professional actors, and also by actual historical scholars in costume, an innovation that will add a great amount of interest to the usual “talking head” feature of any documentary. Our experts, not portraying historical characters, will be used on camera in other creative ways that will enhance the reception of their expertise by the viewing audience. 

We have put together probably one of the most talented creative teams for this sort of project, people whose main work has been mostly on award winning feature films, and internationally acclaimed documentaries. Using key historical re-creation scenes that will be visual spectacles, shot in feature film style, will reinforce the main points of the film. This will assure that the viewing audience will not soon forget the lessons and be emotionally impressed and entertained at the same time! 

Combine with this the latest in motion picture technology available today, plus technological effects, and you can expect a documentary production that will have all of the best elements of a major theatrical motion picture, and the intelligent presentation so critical to great educational film! The overall look of the film will be the perfect blend of the best in High Definition and the depth of field seen in classic film. 

SURNAMES

TAPIA
FELIPE SANTIAGO TAPIA
Research by R. Lobuglio

CUENTOS

Source: The Texas Observer, September 22, 2010
URL: http://www.texasobserver.org/culture/crossing-the-snake 

Kingsville, Texas: My Hometown, 1943-1961
By Omar Álvarez

A brief editorial note is in order to clarify the material that appears immediately following. The material comprised of two separate posts was originally received and posted to the listserv list TEJANOS 2010, which is owned and administered by Walter Herbeck formerly of Laredo and longtime resident of San Antonio, Texas. Among other things, Walter is a veteran and has been active with the American G.I. Forum. I suspect that most of those persons who post and are active in Walter's listserv list are between their sixties and eighties. They're also active in a wide range of genealogical and historical societies (organizations) involving the Texas Mexican community. Most are already retired formally if not informally.

I bring this exchange forward because it contains two very well written and extensive narratives about growing up "Mexican" in South Texas during the period of the 1930s to the early 1960s that are worth reading and archiving.

The first and central narrative here is that by Omar Álvarez, Kingsville, Texas: My Hometown, 1943-1961. This narrative is followed by response issued by Arturo Jacobs which compares and contrasts his own experience with the earlier one issued by Omar Álvarez. But Jacobs's narrative is mostly about growing up in Laredo, Texas, though it makes reference to other points on the map along the length of the Texas-Mexican border and beyond.

I made brief edits to the texts and added some titles or modified them slightly from the original as received for the purpose of clarity in following the sequence. This makes for better reading and does not change in any way the substance of what was intended by the authors, especially the essay by Álvarez, which in some sense is a long litany of naming people and places pertaining to Kingsville, Texas, the place where he grew up and makes reference to the tripartite segregation that prevailed in that community. 

There were different sets of Jim Crow experiences occurring in South Texas. These affected the Mexicano community of South Texas to a greater or lesser degree depending on where they happened to live and grow up. The larger overall narrative presented makes this fully evident. The various persons who are forwarding the material, Walter Herbeck, Juan Marinez, Ernesto Uribe, and others, also comment albeit briefly and add their remarks to the larger conversation. 

But Arturo Jacobs's essay makes clear that in Laredo, for example, the relatively more extreme cases of prejudice and discrimination were moderated by the large demographic majority comprised by the Mexicano community as a whole. Both writers in remembering their youthful experiences, looking back many years later today as family and community elders, do so with a sense of fondness and appreciation that regardless of what they may have seen and felt is today qualified as a memory much beloved and genuine. It is, they say, what made them who they became. The question of acculturation and the role of knowing and speaking English in softening the impact of discrimination directed at the Mexicano community is also noted.

I have organized the two-part post of the original as received in chronological order. Adelante.

Roberto R. Calderón
Historia Chicana [Historia]



Omar Alvarez is born at 6:00 pm June 10, 1943 at Kleberg County Hospital, according to Court Records.

My first memories of Kingsville are of living in a small house on the corner of Yoakum and Eighth with my older brother Gaston, and my Parents (Marina & G. S.). We were just a normal Family trying to survive in South Texas. My Dad worked for the Railroad, like most of the Men in Kingsville did. He followed his two older Brothers Adan and Sam, he would finally retire 43 years later in Houston, Texas, having being with MoPac all those years, some good and some bad.

By 1949 the Family had grown. I now had two younger sisters Norma Linda and Pearl. So my Dad was forced to add a couple more rooms to the house. I can remember the four of us sleeping in the same room, with Gaston and I sharing the same bed; not sure about the Girls.

As I recall it stayed that way until 1957 when we built the "Big House" as we called it. But I am getting ahead of myself, more on that later.

I don't remember Gaston starting school, but a year later I was to join him at Lamar Elementary

This was very unusual as all the "Mexican Kids" went to Austin Elementary on the other side of town , with the Anglos at Lamar. Somehow my parents knew that we lived within the Lamar district, and were bound and determined to send us to Lamar; they had quite a battle on their hands. Gaston and I were subjected to several tests before being enrolled. We were tested on our English reading and speaking abilities by Mrs. Blackman, the school principal. Luckily My Parents had brought us up speaking English, only to learn Spanish later. Little did my Parents know the burden Gaston and I would carry from then on thru High School.

I can still remember my first day of school sitting somewhere near the back and the students coming in: Carlton, Larry, Tom, Anne, Tommy, Gerald, Mike, Fred, and a few others whose names I can't recall. For most of the next 12 years most of these kids would remain my closest friends. Mrs. Babbs, Miss Lill, Mrs. Halberdier, Mrs. Gwinn, and of course Coach Gillette would be our Teachers and Mentors those crucial young years, and Mrs. Blackman in her own way would help shape us into what we would later become.

In the Third Grade two boys, Manuel and Leo, were now in Lamar, how were we to know we would become lifetime Friends.

Those were good years: The Pledge of Allegiance every morning before class started, Mayday celebrations, dancing around the Maypole, and of course the Christmas pageant. I can see all of us crowded into the hallway and staircase all decorated with Holly and Wreaths and singing Carols. Those were the Days.

By fifth grade we were all starting to shape our lives Manuel and I in the Band, Leo on the basketball court, and Mike, Larry, on the Football field. Anne was, and still is, our Queen.

Anne was elected to Queen of our Mayday Festival

With Mike, Larry, Tom, and myself as members of her Court , I can see all of us in our suits and gowns walking down that red carpet in front of all the parents and guests.

We were all happy go lucky kids with no known prejudices that was soon to change, Jr. High was our next step.

Once again, a new Jr. High had been built and of course most of "The Mexican Kids" were assigned to the new Gillette Jr. High. The Lamar group was to go on to Memorial Jr. High, A tough rivalry instantaneously existed between the two schools.

It would be a new experience for us all.

By this time I began to see that I was caught in the middle, the Mexican Community did not accept me because I spoke English and went to Lamar, then Memorial; on the other side the Anglos seemed to accept me but only to a point. As long as I knew the boundaries, everything would be okay. Don't get too close, or even think about asking an Anglo girl for a date. I would end up missing most of the school sponsored Dances and events because the Mexican girls would not go out with me and the Anglo girls were not allowed to go out with me.

Kingsville was growing the College and Naval Base and the Celanse Plant were bringing in new people to the area. We were now in the mid -fifties, Rock n' Roll, the Cold War, bomb shelters, TV, Dial phones, Radar ovens, Life was good.

Dad was now thinking of building us a new home with 3 bedrooms and two bathrooms and an attached garage, with central air and heat!

Dad ended up building what I remember as the first brick home on our side of town. His older brother and wife now had a prosperous business going "The Little Flower Shop" it would grow to become the largest floral business in town.

Kingsville was divided in thirds: Anglo, Mexican, and Negro. Main Street had J C Penny, Terry -Ferris, El Nuevo Mundo, Anthony's, Fergusson's Jewelry, Harrell's Drugstore, Raglands, Gafford's Grocery, and Flato's Hardware, and of course the Rex, Rialto, and the new Texas theaters.

On Richard Street we had Martinez Grocery, Solis Grocery, a Shoe shop, and several other small businesses serving the Mexican community.

On the Negro side a young entrepreneur was building his empire, Mr. Andrews had a small barbershop, which would grow to 8-10 chairs in the 50's and 60's, a shoeshine stand that you had to make reservations for, and he later added a Dry Cleaning business across the street. Most of the College and Navel base, and eventually the High School, were his clientele.

At that time the Negros were only allowed in the Rialto Theater and were confined to the balcony,  with their own bathrooms upstairs. Anglos and Mexicans could sit downstairs, or in the Rex and Texas wherever they pleased. By this time my Father was working part time for the Rialto and Texas theaters, also giving me odd jobs around the theaters making 15 cents an hour! This also allowed me free entry to all the movies, which I enjoyed for the rest of my time in Kingsville.

Then of course there was The Ranch, it was in its heyday with people from all over the World coming into Kingsville for their Annual Sales. The Rockefellers, Du Ponts, Sheiks from Arabia, and many more Rich and Famous including Hollywood stars Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, etc.

I had gone to school with both Tres and Tio of The Ranch, they were really down to earth kids just like the rest of us. The Brothers Cavazos ( my cousins ) from The Ranch were on their way to fame and fortune, Dick to the Army to retire as a three or four Star General , and Larry to an Educational life that would include President of Texas Tech and finally as Sectary of Education under the Reagan Administration. While Bobby would go on to football and ranching, spending two years with the Chicago Bears.

My Mother would finish her Education at A&I by going to Saturday classes and getting her degree in teaching and getting a job at The Laureles Division of The Ranch. She was teaching 5th grade thru 9th grade in one room, with possibly 10 students in the entire class. Those students that would continue their education would then go to High School in Corpus Christi. The rest, which was also most, would quit and go to work on The Ranch. At that time we had a lot of relatives working for The Ranch, the Silvas, Cavazos, Quintanilla, Trevino, and Alaniz from the Kennedy Ranch in Sarita. Our Families were all related by Marriage or blood.

My Jr. High years would go by quickly, meeting new friends and really getting to know how to play Drums. As my brother was a year ahead of me, I also got to know his friends and teachers. Gaston would go on to be President of his Class throughout JR. and High School. I had to contend with being his "little brother," and being asked all the time why can't you be more like Gaston ? I presume I was rebelling so I never got the accolades he got, but I made my own name and got by. Sandra, Pat, Susan, Shirley, Gloria, Nadia, Danny, Dennis, were all names I will never forget from Jr. High.

Also about that time I met a man who would change my life Jimmy Dodd: Professional photographer. I would become his lackey or gofer for the next six or seven years. Everyone in the State either knew Jimmy or had heard of him. His notoriety came from his photos and, or his size. He was a small man in height but a very Heavy round man, always with his camera in his hand. He took pictures of Governors, Presidents, and Famous people like Will Rogers.

As the local photographer for the Police he was also present at most car accidents and the few homicides in Kleberg County. As one of his gofers I was also present. We got to meet all the "New  Rock n' Roll" stars as he went to most concerts as a news photographer , I had my picture taken with most of them backstage : Chuck Berry, Little Richard, The Coasters, The Platters, Ricky Nelson, Jimmy Clanton, and many, many more. No, never with Elvis.

With my High School years approaching and getting a little older I started seeing Kingsville in a different light. I never had a car of my own but some of my friends did. There were two Drive-in theaters, about four major drive-in restaurants, and several local restaurants: Cheatem's, Mac's Chicken Shack, El Jardín, The Rainbow Café, and downtown Cain's next to the Rialto. Sure I went to all of these, C&M's, Skee's, Helen's, but my favorite and home was Young's Root Beer stand. There were also some clubs I was too young for but somehow or another I managed to get into. The more famous were The Rendezvous, The Javalina and of course the very famous Hilltop. Yes Kingsville did have a life after dark.

By the time I got into High School Integration was a word everyone knew. It was 1959, and Negros were going to be at King Hi, for the better or worse. We never had an incident the whole time I was there that I became aware of, The only impact I remember was in Sports, a young man named James "Preacher" Pilot, was to change Brahma football and King Hi forever. In 1960 we went to the State Championship Football game in northwest Texas, Breckenridge as I recall.  We had rocks thrown at us, were verbally abused , and almost not allowed in the Stadium because we had Negros on our team and in the Band. Unfortunately we lost the game but we came back a Proud Bunch for we had defeated Racism at its best.

I remember one other time we were headed for a football game in Edinburgh I believe, when we stopped for Supper at a restaurant. As we all entered and placed our orders and just having a good time, Mr. Gregg stood up and announced we were all to go back to our buses immediately. He then went from bus to bus to explain and took a vote. It seems our Negro band members were not welcome. They could order take their food back to the bus or into the Kitchen, but were not allowed to sit in the dining room.

Did we want that to happen and go back and get our food or did we want to forfeit supper and leave the restaurant? To a man, we all voted to leave and not pay for the food that had been ordered and was being prepared.  The football stadium sold a lot of hot dogs and hamburgers that night!

We were all pushing the envelope by that time as teenagers will do at times. So I was trying to date an Anglo girl, as a couple of my friends were already doing on the sly. Of course the girl I liked was a very popular majorette whom I had first met in Jr. Hi and we were close friends. This was not to happen. I was approached by 4 or 5 Anglo boys and told to back off or suffer the consequences. I never dated her but we spent a lot of time together on school functions and group outings to Corpus for Buccaneer days, etc. I never got over that girl, we were to meet for a final time 40 years later at our High School reunion and danced and laughed together in front of the same people we couldn't in high school. She died three months later of cancer.

One of my friends would run off to Mexico and marry his Anglo girlfriend and another, being an all State athlete, would date openly an Anglo girl...without any trouble. As for myself I had to date a girl on the sly and could never take her out in public, even her Mother forbid us to see each other.  Susan B. you know who you are.

My hi school years are filled with memories the football games, the Basketball games with my best friend as the "star" player. Skipping class and going to Moore's pool hall in "Colored" Town and of course the Band trips to compete with the best of the best. Also on Saturday nights going into "Colored" Town to buy liquor from the local Bootlegger, he never asked for ID, just give him the ten bucks and he was happy.

I imagine that the best time I ever had was in forming my own rock Band. It did not start out that way, I was asked if I would play drums for a group of guys starting a band. Eventually I became the leader and  "The Shades" were born. We would go on to play for Proms, Military clubs, and events around town. Now I didn't have to sneak in any of the local clubs we were Musicians. My claim to fame was promoting a Conway Tweety concert at Jones Auditorium and having Conway invite us to his home in Arkansas once we graduated. Tommy, Danny Mc, and myself packed up and took up his offer the following summer. Conway remembered us and took us in for a few days and even got us a couple of gigs while we were there.

Shortly thereafter my Father was transferred to Houston, my Mother quit teaching at The Ranch and the whole Family left Kingsville for good.

I will never forget growing up and living in Kingsville the best small town in Texas.

In the era of computers and e-mail, the class of "61" still keeps in touch with each other and reminisce about of our days in Kingsville, even though we may not all remember it as I do.

FAMILY HISTORY

Roots Magic
Free Software, printable blank family tree charts
About San Jacinto Texas Historic District
URL Newspapers Archive
URL Western States Marriages Search Form
URL Universidad del Claustro de Sor Juana 
New Family Search resources

Universidad del Claustro de Sor Juana - Wikipedia, the free 
de Claustro de Sor Juana (University of the Cloister of Sor Juana) is a private university located in the former San Jerónimo Convent in ... in 1585 by Isabel de Barrios ...

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universidad_del_​Claustro_de_Sor_Juana  

ORANGE COUNTY, CA

HONORING THOSE WHO HAVE SERVED

AND THOSE WHO ARE SERVING

A SPECIAL TRIBUTE TO GOLD STAR FAMILIES

OF THE IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN WARS

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Posting of Colors - 10:00 a.m.

Keynote Speaker : Col. John Telles, USMC (Ret.) and

Presidential Marine One Helicopter Pilot

California State University, Fullerton

Titan Student Union

800 N. State College Blvd.

Special screening of  "Longoria Story" Documentary at 12:30 p.m.

Sponsored by Latino Advocates for Education, Inc.

California State University, Fullerton

Orange County Council, Navy League of the United States

Veterans Student Services, CSUF

Student Veterans Association, CSUF

For information call (714) 225-2499

www.latinoadvocates.org 

Mr. Gilliom is very interested in including a Hispanic presence.  Only one video in the entire collection was an interview with a Hispanic lady: Esther Lopez recalls teaching English to Irvine Ranch farm workers and supervisors in the 1970s.

LOS ANGELES, CA

THE MEXICAN REVOLUTION

1910-2010

Thursday, November 4; 7 pm-9:30 pm
The Mexican Revolution, 1910-2010: The Cause, the People, the Legacy

The Museum will host a panel discussion, music, and reflection in observance of the 100th anniversary of the Mexican Revolution. Panelists will explore the issues, people, and impact of the Revolution on Mexican society and the City of Los Angeles. FREE to the public.  Live music by La Pura Pulpa.

Panel:
Dr. Gloria Aronja, University of Southern California
Dr. Devra Weber, University of California, Riverside
Dr. David Hayes-Bautista, University of California, Los Angeles
Dr. William Estrada, Natural History Museum

CALIFORNIA 

Originally, motjers from the Sacramento valley sought t create this memorial in honor and memry of Latino soldiers who died during World War II.  Today the Memorial honors and commemorates the memory of all Latino Veterans who offered their lives to protect the sacred liberties of our country.  

Donations may be sent to:
California Mexican American Veterans Memorial
1227 O Street, Room 330
Sacramento, CA 95814
More information: 2www.mavm.ca.gov

                                                                Text from flyer:

NORTHWESTERN UNITED STATES

Native American Sharpshooters Honored at Andersonville
by Alan Marsh, Cultural Resource Specialist, Andersonville Nat’l Historic Site 

Michael Jondrau and and James Hamlin were recruited as replacements and arrived three weeks later in Virginia.  Jacko Penaiswonquot joined the Union army at 40 years of age and left a wife and eight children behind to go and fight for a country of which he was not allowed to be a citizen.  These men were part of Company K, 1^st Michigan Sharpshooters, composed of Anishinabe (Chippewa) and Ottawa tribal members. 

Company K was involved in several skirmishes in Virginia and participated in action at the Battle of the Wilderness and Spotsylvania Courthouse.  On June 17 they found themselves in possession of captured earthworks at Petersburg.  Confederate forces launched an attack to regain the earthworks and the 1^st Michigan covered the Union retreat.  In the process, over 80 Union soldiers were captured and sent to Andersonville Prison (Camp Sumter) including members of Company K.  The remaining members of Company K continued to participate in the siege of Petersburg and participated weeks later in the Battle of the Crater. 

Seven warriors from Company K, 1^st Michigan Sharpshooters are known to have died at Andersonville.  Today, white marble headstones mark the final resting place of these warriors.  Time has passed but these men and their sacrifice have not been forgotten.  On May 15, 2010 members of the Anishinabe Ogitchedaw Veterans and Warriors Society traveled from Michigan to Andersonville, Georgia to honor their fallen comrades.  They held a private ceremony and offered prayers at the graves of each warrior and invited public attendance at a ceremony later in the day.  The public ceremony included drum, song, and a visit to each grave. 

Honored warriors:

Joseph Gibson – Petoskey, Michigan.  A teacher at the mission school gave him the European name Gibson.  His real name was Na-baw-na-ya-sang.
James Hamlin – St. Ignace, Michigan.  Recruited as a replacement and captured three weeks later.
Adam Sawbecome – Pentwater, Michigan.
William Mixinasaw - Northport, Michigan.  His name is on a monument in downtown Traverse City, Michigan.
Jacko Penaiswonquot – Northport, Michigan.  After his capture, one of his eight children enlisted in Company K to take his place.
Peter South – Petoskey, Michigan.  Real name was Pay-wau-su-quot.  A teacher at the mission school gave him the European name South because his mother was named “Woman from the South.”
Michael Jondrau (Jeandron) – St. Ignace, Michigan.  Enlisted at same time with James Hamlin, three weeks prior to capture.
 
Sent by Rafael Ojeada rsnojeda@aol.com who writes:
I am so proud of my daughters, in being active in their communities. My oldest three daughters' are descendant of the Saginaw-Michigan Chippewa Nation. Kandy is very involved with the Native American Veteran (Warriors) in Mt Pleasant MI. Even my youngest Nathalie stay current and involved on Political issues here in Tacoma with me.

Information forwarded by  Kandace Ojeda kandyojeda@msn.com

SOUTHWESTERN UNITED STATES   

Albuquerque, New Mexico
(505) 246-2261

INDIGENOUS

ARCHAEOLOGY

SEPHARDIC

Conference on Merchants Jews in the New World 1800-1900

Focus on Jewish Contributions to Economic Expansion 
of Retail, Industry and Finance in 19th century America

AFRICAN-AMERICAN

The Buffalo Soldiers National Museum is a member of the Houston Museum District and the only museum dedicated primarily to preserving the legacy and honor of the African American soldier.

The Museum is located at 1834 Southmore Street in Houston and is open Monday thru Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Closed on Sunday.  More information  http://www.buffalosoldiermuseum.com/.

Sent by the Travel Lady, Marilyn Jones

   
EAST COAST