A Portrait of Thomas Alva Edison

by Eddie Martinez  
e.martinez1512@gmail.com

Thomas Alva Edison

(1847-1931)

Henry Ford stated: 
To find a man who has not benefited by Edison and who is not in debt to him, 
it would be necessary to go deep into the jungle.  I hold him to be our greatest American.


1915  
“Is Thomas Alva Edison Mexican?”

I first became interested in Thomas Edison as a youngster after seeing the movie “Young Tom Edison” with Mickey Rooney. As I became more familiar with the life of Edison I became curious about his middle name “Alva” which is a Spanish surname.  

In the book, “The Thomas A. Edison Album: A Pictorial Biography of Thomas Alva Edison” Lawrence A. Frost writes, “It was at the Milan Presbyterian Church the seventh baby was baptized Thomas Alva; Thomas after his father’s brother, and Alva after Captain Alva Bradley, his father’s best friend.”  

Another interesting thing about Edison was that he spoke Spanish. On this Frost writes, “Always industrious in his spare time, Tom had taught himself to read and speak French from a French-English dictionary. Early in 1867 he began to learn Spanish in the same fashion in preparation for going to Brazil.” Frost’s explanation didn’t make any sense to me; if Edison wanted to speak the language of Brazil he would have learned Portuguese and not Spanish.  

My interest in Thomas Edison was further stimulated in 1970 when I was working along side other Disney artists painting U. S. historical events for the Hall of Presidents in Walt Disney World, Florida. One of my paintings was of Thomas Edison patiently watching the filament of his incandescent lamp burn for forty-hours.  

In 1974, I was once again painting Thomas Edison for Disney. This time it was a large Mural for Disneyland in Anaheim, dedicated to the United States Bi-Centennial Celebration in 1975. The painting was a long mural of famous Americans that included Walt Disney. And once again, I had the enjoyable opportunity to study, draw, and paint Thomas Edison’s likeness.  

During those years of going over the photographic portraits of Edison, I have looked closely at his facile bone structure and studied the features of his face. From that, I’ve come to my own satisfaction that ethnically Edison’s a Mestizo, which is a mixture of Indigenous and Spanish blood. After leaving Disney, I became so convinced that Edison was a Mexican that I began drawing Thomas Edison on a canvas. The drawing was a series of montages of his Aztec ancestry, him transforming to present-day Edison along with some of his inventions. My wife was surprised when she saw the drawing. She asked me if Edison was a Mexican and I responded that I really didn’t know for sure. After thinking about our conversation, I became discouraged and put it away.  

During the mid-seventies while I was at the Goez Art Studio in East Los Angeles, I was having an interesting Thomas Edison conversation with artists, Robert Arenivar and Joe Gonzalez. Arenivar said matter-of-factly that Edison was Mexican and that in Mexico the school children are taught that Edison was born in Mexico. During our conversation, a friendly individual walked in to the studio and joined in on our conversation. As we discussed Edison, US patents and Mexican inventions, he produced a list of Mexican born inventors that he’d compiled over the years. The list (as I remember) included inventions of the Cotton Gin, the Electrical Dynamo, the Machine Gun, the Color TV, and so on.  He then handed me a xerox copy of an article on Thomas Alva Edison stating that Edison was born in Mexico. Since then I’ve never learned the individual’s name or ever saw him again. To this day his identity remains a mystery to me. 

Below is a copy of the article I received at Goez Art Studio in East Los Angeles:

 Tomás Alva Edison  
Méxicano?

EDISON WAS BORN IN MEXICO

 By ADOLFO DE LA PEÑA GIL
Published in THE THEOSOPHIST, October 1956, pages 49-54

The key to the fruitful life of Thomas Alva Edison has been admirably put into works by himself. Upon being asked on the occasion of his birth-anniversary in 1924, what his philosophy of life was, he answered:  

          To work, wresting from Nature its secrets in order to use them for the benefit of mankind; bearing always in mind the best side of things.  

          Upon the passing in 1931 of this great multi-inventor, articles as well as letters from Edison’s Republic about his early years, claiming that he was born in the State of Zacatecas, having migrated or been taken to the United States of America, where he adopted a new nationality and married. Questions from private letters with some details concerning his ancestors and school-fellows were also published.

          In the Encyclopedia Britannica (1955) we read that Edison was born at Milan, Ohio, February 11^th, 1847; that he attended a public school during three months; became a railroad newsboy at 12; a telegraph operator at 15. It seems to us that it would be hard for the writer of these notes to produce documental evidence for them.

          In 1878, Edison joined the Theosophical Society and became one of its honorary members. His form of application is in the Recording Secretary’s Office at Adyar, and a letter of his exists in the Adyar records acknowledging his diploma of membership which, he mentions, he has placed in his “honor box” where he keep his really valued diplomas. Referring to him, the Master K. H. wrote to Mr. Sinnett that Edison was “a good deal protected by M.” (the Master Morya).(1)

            C. Jinaräjadäsa, late President of the Theosophical Society, knew Edison was not born in the United States. Now, as a result of a footnote to my article in THE THEOSOPHIST of April 1953, mentioning Edison’s real birthplace, two friends wrote to the writer asking whether he could obtain additional evidence on the mater. So, when traveling through the State of Zacatecas (May 1955) I tried to get evidence of the Mexican origin of Thomas Alva Edison.

          Sombrerete, a mining district belonging to Zacatecas, is situated near the Northern Tropic of Cancer, bordering the State of Durango, at an altitude of 2,000 metres. It is famed for its veins of silver, gold, and lead; there are some twenty of them, “Veta Negra” and Pabellén” being the richest. We are told that the former produce, during three different working periods, more than 80 million dollars. Charles B. Dahlgren, Mining Engineer, in his book Historic Mines of Mexico,(2) when describing the two veins writes that twenty-two others in the same district had rendered up to that year 160 million dollars. “Vega Negra” is considered as having been the riches vein in the world. And it is said that all the silver required for the conquest of the Californias was obtained from Sombrerete.

          It was in this region that Don José de la Luz Alva, Edison’s grandfather, lived in the small town of Sombrerete, at the beginning of the last century. The village was founded founded June 6^th, 1555; its population today is 6,680 inhabitants, according to the 1950 census. Situated near Pan American high road, 870 kilometers from the city of Mexico, it is connected by railroad to El Paso, Texas, U.S.A.

          This was Edison’s birthplace. All data gathered from local traditions, letters from his contemporaries, and family friends who knew his relatives, and fellow-students, agree on this point that Sombrerete is the place of his origin of this “Benefactor of Humanity”. When he was at the summit of his fame as a great inventor, denizens of Sombrerete, filled with admiration and civic pride, put a metal plate with bronze letters near the entrance door of Edison’s house, with walls seventy centimeters thick, had four small inner corridors surrounding a square patio, the façade being decorated at its top by a long Doric cornice. The plate reads:  

EN ESTA CASA NACIO

TOMAS ALVA EDISON

EL 18 DE FEBRERO DE 1848

          “In this house Tomás Alva Edison was born, February 18, 1848.”

The house is now inhabited by Mr. Jesús Ramírez Alvarez, and it was by his kindness that we were able to get the following private information:

          From a letter dated 1878:  

          I inform you that Tomás Alva has just invented a talking machine, having done admirable progress in physics. Several are the electrical crafts invented and constructed by him. On my behalf please congratulate Don Luz and German. I am glad to learn of these successes of Tomás who was born in the same home as Chebo.  

          Don José de la Luz Alva was the grandfather of Tomás, as already mentioned. In another private letter in possession of Mr. Ramírez we read:  

          He (Don José) was administrator of the “Diligencia” [State-coach] and, I was told, lived many years in the city. As regards German, I understand that he was a cousin who received and moved at the slowest pace the mules after the arrival of the Diligencia to the city from Gutierrez Depot. This was a public service which ended about 1912 or 1913.  

          The father of the inventor was Mr. Samuel Alva Ixtlixóchitl; this second name is altogether Aztec, the name Alva being abundant in the State of Zacatecas. There were in that time three Alva families: Alva Edison, Alva Arias, Alva Santini.

          El Sol, a Durango newspaper, published an article in its issue dated February 1, 1952, under the title, “More about Tomás Alva Edison’s Origin”:  

          Mr. Guillermo H. Ramirez: With reference to your article in the El Sol I may inform you as follows. During 1899 when I was a student at the High School for teachers, in the city of Zacatecas, one of my most revered masters, Don José Guadalupe Pounce, used to tell us: “In this hall teaching was received by Edison; he was known to us only as Tomás Alva, his father being a mining engineer who came from Pachuca (another mining district) and whose name was not only Alva, but Alva Ixtlixóchitl.” Was he really Tomás Alva Edison or another? There may be no exaggeration at all on the plate you refer to, as it dose not say that the Tomás Alva born in Sombrerete was the inventor of the incandescent lamp, the photograph, etc. The man of the plate may or may not be the inventor, but if it is a fact that he received enough preparation at the School where he studied Don Angel Ruiseco, the constructor of a steam-boiler and steam-motor, as well as another  . . .  who built a belfry-clock  . . .  Yours truly, Francisco Flores

          On the 14^th of February 1952 Mr. Melchor D. Gaballero wrote a letter to Mr. Jesús Ramírez:  

          Dear friend: Herewith enclosed you will find clippings from El Sol, Durango, concerning Tomás Alva Edison’s origin. I was talking with Mr. Flores and he insists that his teacher personally told him that Edison was his school-fellow. So Mr. Flores is quite sure that Edison was Mexican, but being perhaps convenient to his aims, he preferred to be known as a U.S. citizen. Anyhow, the truth as to his origin does not appear in encyclopaedias [encyclopedias], nor books or interviews, as it is only known here . . .  

          Again, another letter from Mr. Gaballero to Mr. Flores shows a clear statement that Alva Edison was not “American”; that it was only to suit his interest that he allowed himself to be know as such; and that he left this country to go to the North when he was about twenty years old.

          In another private letter shown to me by Mr. Ramírez this paragraph occurs:  

          As I explained to you before, there is no birth-record mainly because no civil officers to record births were then in existence, births being registered in the parish or local Church records, which are now lost. There is a doubt as to whether Alva Edison was a Catholic; however . . . he was, having been baptized by Father Bonifacio Balvanera, or Lanfleverde, the act being recorded in the parish book No. 132, page 56, or book No. 56, page 132; he dose not remember exactly which.  

          In a biographical pamphlet entitled Edison by Rosanof, published in 1933 at Santiago (Chile), a footnote states that “Edison pronounced the English language very defectively, so that it is impossible to translate his ‘argot’ [cant or slang]”.

          There is a reader for the primary schools at Zacatecas, printed in 1918, by Federico Gómez de Orozco, entitled: Alma de la Patria (Fatherland’s Soul); on its page 147, with reference to the evolution of public street illumination, there is the following observation:  

          Nowadays almost only this kind of light (electric) is seen all through the main cities; and something most satisfactory to you, perhaps, is that the electric lamp was invented by a man born in this country (Mexico) and afterwards naturalized as a citizen of the United States of America, and whose name is Tomás Alva Edison, inventor of the phonograph and many other useful things.  

          The Mexican Law of Civil Status, as part of the Reform Laws, was signed by President Benito Juárez on the 28^th of July 1859, (eleven years after Edison’s birth). Civil Status Courts were started then in the Republic in order to record and legalize the tree prominent events in human life-birth, marriage and death-so that the natives could exercise their rights at the tribunals. Formerly these records were kept only at the parish church. As a result of this innovation the practice began in several of our States to take from the Church offices all books of birth-records, and file them at the civil municipal courts, thus enabling the legal authorization of deeds from evidence afforded by the parish books which recorded births, ect., before the promulgation of the new law.

          In such a manner the birth records were taken from the parish at Sombrerete, carried to the civil court, and there burnt fifty years afterwards, at the beginning of the last revolution in Mexico which overthrew Porfirio Diaz and his regime. It was on the 10^th of May 1910 that the insurgents, upon taking possession of Sombrerete, set on fire the whole of the archives of the Presidencia Municipal.  

          Finally, Mr. Ramírez showed me another private letter which read:  

          I have learnt, without confirmation, that some time between 1926 and 1927, notices were published in newspapers in this region regarding Edison’s wish to communicate with his remote relatives living in Mexico. I was told that he received so many letters as to make him desist in his purpose. . . .  

          Thus, the popular tradition supported by people who knew Edison’s relatives and school-fellows; many private reports and letters; the unanimous civic impulse at Sombrerete to place a commemorative plate as his birth home; the defective lead us to accept Edison’s Mexican origin notwithstanding the fact that documental evidence, based on legal or parish papers of the time, cannot be obtained because the Church records were destroyed.

                                                                         ADOLFO DE LA PEÑA GIL

_____________________________________________________________

            1 The Mahatma Letters, page 169. See also the last chapter of Old Diary Leaves, by H. S. Olcott, First Series; The Golden Book of the Theosophical Society, edited by C. Jinaräjadäsa, pages 25, 28, 29; and The Early Teachings of the Masters, edited by C. Jinaräjadäsa, page 167.

            2 Published in New York, 1883, and translated into Spanish by Sociedad Mexicana de Minería, (printed 1884).

UNITED STATES

HISPANIC MEDAL OF HONOR SOCIETY to exhibit at the National Council of La Raza Annual Conference, 
single panel below. Washington, D.C., July 23–26, at the Washington Marriott Wardman Park Hotel.
http://www.nclr.org/  For speaker information, click.

Lt.Col. Alonzo A. VomBaur III  
United States Marine Corps and his Sons
join Somos Primos in wishing everyone a

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY 

Photo taken May 13, 2011
Quantico, VA National Marine Museum
During Lt.Col. VomBaur  
Military Retirement Ceremony 
having served June 1976-June 2011,  
 33 years. and 7 tours to Kuwait, 
Iraq (2 times), 
Afghanistan, Bahrain, Korea, and Africa.

Maternal line is VELA,  traced to Francisco Vela (circa) 1625, Hogar de Dallas archives.

Lt.Col. Lon VomBaur was born on 8 December 1957 in Salt Lake City, Utah.  A few years later his family moved to Colorado.  After graduating high school in the small mountain town of Bailey, he went to Marine Corps boot camp at MRCD San Diego in June 1976.  He was an infantryman in the reserves while attending college at the University of Utah and attained the rank of Corporal before entering the Platoon Leaders Class (PLC) Program.  He attended OCS in 1979 and 1980 and graduated from the University of Utah in December of 1981 with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and Sociology.  In April of 1981 he accepted his commission to become an officer and attended The Basic School in Quantico, Virginia.

Upon completion of the Basic School and the Ground Supply Officer Course in January 1983, he was assigned to 1^st FSSG, Camp Pendleton, CA.  A few months later he was reassigned to Weapons Training Battalion where he served as the Supply Officer, Range Officer and football coach until 1986.  After receiving orders to 2^nd Bn, 12^th Marines, 3^rd MarDiv, he served a one-year tour as the Supply Officer in Okinawa, Japan.   

In 1987, he was assigned to Marine Air Control Squadron One (MACS-1) at Camp Pendleton.  During the next three years he served as the Supply Officer, S-4 Officer and held billets as the Detachment Officer in Charge (OIC) and Camp Commandant during squadron exercises.  In 1990, he received orders to Marine Corps Systems Command in Quantico, Virginia where he served as the Command Supply Officer and Small Purchase, Contracting Officer.   

In 1992 he was transferred to the Marine Corps Combat Development and Education Command (MCCDEC).  There he developed Mission Need Statements (MNS) and Operational Requirements Documents (ORDs) that precede the acquisition process.  He departed active duty service in October 1993 and returned to the Select Marine Corps Reserves (USMCR).  

After moving back to California, he joined the 4^th Light Anti-Aircraft Missile Battalion (LAAM Bn) in Fresno, California.  He attended the Air Defense School at Fort Bliss, Texas for five months and then received assignments with 4^th LAAM Bn as a Maintenance Officer, Battery Executive Officer and Battery Commander.   

In 1997, he transferred to Vancouver, Washington where he joined the Liaison Group (North West Detachment) of 1st Marine Augmentation Command Element (I MACE), 1^st Marine Expeditionary Force (I MEF).  In October of 2000, he transferred to Santa Clarita, California where he continued as a Liaison Officer with I MACE at Camp Pendleton.  While with I MACE he traveled to Korea to participate in several Ulchi Focus Lens (UFL) exercises.   

In November 2001, he received Involuntary Orders in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.  He was assigned as a Liaison Officer for the Combined/Joint Task Force, Consequence Management (C/JTF-CM) and deployed to Camp Doha, Kuwait.   

After rotating back to Camp Pendleton in February 2002, he was assigned as a Senior Watch Officer for the Crisis Response Center in I MEF, G-3, Current Operations until 30 June 2002.  After being released from active duty, he returned to the MACE in support of I MEF.   

In January 2003, he received Mobilization orders to active duty and was assigned to I MEF, G-4 as the Strategic Mobility Officer.  While in this billet he was responsible for the deployment efforts that saw 6 ships and 270 air missions depart for Kuwait in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.   

In March 2003, he was temporarily assigned to First Service Support Group to participate in theater as the Command Element Operations Officer (main) during Operation Iraqi Freedom.  In July 2003, as the Marines were beginning to redeploy from theater he was reassigned as the MEF Services Officer in Kuwait where he was responsible for Postal, PX and MWR services.   

After returning to Camp Pendleton in Oct 2004, he was then assigned as the I MEF, G-4, Supply Officer.  Responsibilities for this billet included the fielding of new individual combat items and sourcing Principle End Items to support OIF II.  

In September of 2004 Lt. Col. VomBaur rotated forward to continue as the I MEF G-4 Supply Officer from Camp Fallujah, Iraq where he provided support for OIF operations to include the Battle of Al Fajr.   

In April 2005, he returned from Iraq and served as the I MEF, G-4 Assist Operations Officer and then as the Ulchi Focus Lens (UFL-05), Combined Landing Force, AC/S G4.  

From September 2005 through October 2007, LtCol VomBaur served with Marine Central Command as a Logistics Planner and Materiel readiness Officer.  During this time he attended the Advance Logistics Officer Course in Quantico and was also deployed to Afghanistan where he wrote the SOP for Logistics Support for the Embedded Training Teams (ETTs) in support of the Afghan National Army (ANA).  This SOP was adopted by both the Army and Marine Corps ETTs in support of OEF.  

From July 2009 through May 2010, LtCol VomBaur was assigned as the Deputy Chief of Operations, Plans Officer to the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL).  His responsibilities included drawing down the force from 10,000 to 8,000 while continuing to maintain full operational support for UN mandates.  He accomplished this by realigning the remaining forces and by adapting the scheme of maneuver which increased the range of ground patrols and the number of air patrols.  Another key responsibility was coordinating the employment of UNMIL resources in cooperation with the US State Department in a joint effort toward capacity building of the Armed Forces of Liberia.  

From June 2010 through May 2011, LtCol VomBaur was assigned to the Escalation of Force Branch, Fires & Maneuver Integration Division, Marine Corps Combat Development Command in Quantico VA as the Capabilities Integration Officer.  During this time he was the advocate for coordinating non-lethal urgent requirements in support of operations in theater.  He was also the lead in developing air, land, and sea, multi-service doctrine for the tactical employment of non-lethal weapons and non-lethal capabilities.   

Left to Right Bryce 14, Sierra 28, Gabriel 10, LtCol A.A. Vom Baur III, 
Cameron 16 and Brennen 23 (returned missionary).  His grandmother Elida Vela VomBaur too, she writes: 

The Longoria Affair 
revisited

Dr. Mario E. Ramirez Timeline  

April 3, 1926: Mario E. Ramirez is born in Roma, Texas

1942: High school & Undergraduate, Received high school diploma in Rio Grande City, Enrolled at University of Texas at Austin 

1944: Medical School, Offered early enrollment to The University of Tennessee College of Medicine 

1948: Medical Degree and Internship , Received Doctor of Medicine degree, Begins his internship at Shreveport Charity Hospital

1949: Marriage, Married Sarah Aycock, a student nurse at Shreveport Children's Hospital

1950: Early Professional Life, Completed internship and residency at Shreveport Charity Hospital. Opened his office in Roma, TX           for the practice of family medicine (Note: Dr. Ramirez would  practice in Roma until 1975; half of those years he was the
          community's only physician.)  

1955-1957: Military Career , Served in the U.S. Air Force, and was on assignment in Tokyo, Japan 

1958:  Medical Expansion, opened the Ramirez Hospital in Roma Texas, the first hospital in Starr County

1964:  Hospital Expansion, Ramirez Hospital expanded from 15 to 21 beds, including a surgical wing; remained open until 1975

1967: Special Recognition, Received a special citation from U.S. Surgeon General for work done during
            Hurricane Beulah; Dr. Ramirez and another physician cared for refugees for two days before
            outside help arrived

1975  : Moving , Moved his practice from Roma to Rio Grande City, Texas , Opened the Starr County Memorial Hospital

1976:  Accolades, Received Benjamin Rush Bicentennial Award from the American Medical Association  
            Named Chief of Staff of Starr County Memorial Hospital, and later re-elected for the position

1978:  President Carter and the White House visit, Honored by President Carter at the White House upon selection as the Family
           Doctor of the Year by the American Academy of Family Practice and Good House Keeping magazine

1979-1985  : Texas Higher Education, Served on Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board; appointed by Gov. Clements  

1989-1995: Med-Ed Creation, Established and led the Med-Ed Program at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San
           Antonio; this program has encouraged more than 2,200 students to consider health and science careers

2007: Retirement and Dedications

• An elementary school in Rio Grande City, Texas is named Dr. Mario E. Ramirez Elementary School
• The library at The University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio Regional Academic Health Center in Harlingen is named the Mario E. Ramirez, M.D. Medical Library 

CREDITS: Used with permission from University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio Libraries  
    Submitted by:  Luis Fernando Ramirez  
    Primo to Dr. Mario E. Ramirez (Somos Primos)  
    San Antonio, Texas

Dr. Deborah Paredez

Deborah Paredez   

A Wise Latina

Nominated

By

 Mimi Lozano-Holtzman

Written By

Mercy Bautista-Olvera

  Dr. Deborah Paredez is the Interim Director of the Center for Mexican American Studies. She was appointed by Randy L. Diehl, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Texas at Austin . She is a theatre scholar and performer, as well as a poet.    

Sent by Dr. Henry Casso who wrote:  

Frank . . . Once again I am especially pleased for your notice of the advance in law of The Honorable Jimmie Reyna. I am one of only two non-layers who were founding board members.  My interest was to increase the numbers of Mexican American judges.  You will recall that our community was getting the "hell out of them, especially in Texas.  Given the opportunity I made the motion that 2 1/2% if three millions dollars be set aside for MALDEF's law student initiative which led to the Fellowship effort.
 
As I approached my waning years, I like Simon of the Old Testament waiting for the Messiah, I hoped to be able to see an Hispanic Cardinal and upreme Court Justice.  The appointment of Archbishop Gomez to Los A
angeles, positions him for elevation to Cardinal.  He was Archbishop in San Antonio, down the road from you.  This followed Obama's appointment of Justice Sotomayaror to the Supreme Court.
 
I find it most intriguing that the announcement of the Honorable Jimmy Reyna is made by you, a non Hispanic Legal entity.  You can now appreciate the valuable service you provide and why I make the time to share the significance of what you do.
 
I do believe we should share this information for, as you and I know, this is a very historic development in the growth of our community.
 
I am sending a copy of this to Mimi Lozano of SOMOS PRIMOS and  Angelo Falcon of the National Hispanic Policy in N.Y. to get the word around, especially that it may inspiire and motivate our youth..
 
Many thanks.  
Saludos
Dr. Henry J. Casso
Project Uplift

HISPANICS BREAKING BARRIERS

Part XXX

 By

Mercy Bautista-Olvera

The 30^th article in the series “Hispanics Breaking Barriers” focuses on contributions of Hispanic leadership in the 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. 

Tom A. Saenz:  General Counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF)

Dr. Alicia Abella:  Presidential Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanics  

Hector Balderas:  State Auditor, New Mexico

Mario Cordero:  Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioner, Federal Maritime Commission

Jerry Gonzalez:  First Executive Director of the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials (GALEO)

Tom A. Saenz

Dr. Alicia Abella

Dr. Alicia Abella has been appointed to the Presidential Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanics. She served as a Research Scientist and Executive Director of Technical Research at AT&T. 

Alicia Abella was born and raised in Queens, New York . She is the daughter of Cuban immigrants Orlando Abella (1928-1998) and Blanca.   

The Commission, appointed by U.S. President Barack Obama, will support the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics and its director, Juan Sepulveda, and provide advice on matters pertaining to the educational attainment of the Hispanic community. Members represent a broad range of sectors including science, business, academia, and the arts.  

She earned a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree from New York University , both in Computer Science. In Addition, Dr. Abella earned a Master Degree in Philosophy and a PhD. from Columbia University .  

She served as Chair at the AT&T Labs fellowship programs, she helped to encourage, advice, and evaluate candidates for graduate scholarship from AT&T targeted at women and minorities. Dr. Alicia Abella has encouraged minorities and women to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and math, commonly known as STEM fields. She served as Executive Vice President for the Young Science Achievers program.  

After her nomination Dr. Abella stated, "I am honored to serve on this important commission whose mission is aligned with my long-standing effort to help minority and female students achieve their educational objectives. I owe my professional success to my education, and have made it my personal objective to help our youth reach adulthood with the educational background they will need to achieve their own version of the American dream."   

White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics Director, Juan Sepulveda, stated, “Dr. Abella will help the Commission discover new ways to increase Latino educational attainment, which is important in the global contest for the jobs and industries of the future.”  

In 2010, Hispanic Business Magazine has recognized Dr. Abella as one of the “Top Five Women of the Year.” The Latinos in Information Sciences and Technology Association awarded Dr. Abella with the “Leadership of the Year” award. She also received the “Pioneer Award” (Women of Color STEM Conference) for contributions to helping solve the educational challenges facing the Hispanic Community. She received recognition from Great Minds in STEM (TM) for contributing to America 's Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. The Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute recognized Dr. Abella for her role in advancing green technology by developing long-distance collaboration tools.

Hector Balderas

Hector Balderas, the first District Attorney from Wagon Mound, New Mexico who later became New Mexico ’s Auditor is running for a New Mexico Senate seat.     

He is the son of a Mexican immigrant father, and Helena Quiroga. Balderas was raised by a single mother in the same town, where he learned at an early age the values of accountability, respect for others, and creating opportunities for everyone. He is married to Denise Baca- Balderas. The couple have three children: Hector Reyes Jr., Mariola, and Arianna.                        

Mario Cordero

Mario Cordero, a Long Beach , California attorney was confirmed by the Senate to serve as a member of the Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners, on the Federal Maritime Commission.  

Mario Cordero was born in Los Angeles , California , and raised in Gardena . He is married to Gloria Duron-Cordero, she is a principal partner with the ABC Advocacy Group, (a Long Beach Public relations firm), and was a member of Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster's staff. The couple have two grown children, a daughter, Celine; she is a lawyer and Associate Director of Homeland Security and Public Safety for Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and a son, Mario, a teacher at St. John Bosco High School in Bellflower and is the varsity baseball team head coach.  

Mario Cordero is a graduate of California State University , Long Beach and Santa Clara University School of Law. Cordero joined the State Bar in 1980.  

Cordero served as a Defense Attorney for a workers’ compensation for the law offices of Wayne Singer; he also served in Long Beach and San Francisco .  Prior   to his current appointment, he served a second six-year term on the Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners, where he has spearheaded the Port of Long Beach ’s Green Port Policy.  

The Federal Maritime Commission is an independent regulatory agency responsible for the regulation of ocean-borne transportation in the foreign commerce of the U.S.  

The policy outlines guidelines for port operations, mandating that trade growth run parallel with environmental stewardship. It has led to environmental initiatives such as the Port’s Clean Trucks Program, its Vessel Low-Sulfur Fuel Program and its Technology Advancement Program. During his first term on the board, Cordero served as its vice-president and president.  

Cordero served as a part-time professor of Political Science at Long Beach City College . He previously sat on the Long Beach Community Development Commission, and served as vice-chair of the Long Beach Ethics Review Task Force.  

In 2007, the Mexican-American Bar Association named Mario Cordero “Attorney of the Year”, and he received an “Environmental Award” the same year from the League of California Cities.

Jerry Gonzalez

Jerry Gonzalez is the first Executive Director of the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials (GALEO).  

Jerry Gonzalez was born in Laredo, Texas. In 1996, he moved to Atlanta , Georgia and worked as a Field Support Engineer for Rockwell Automation of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.    

For Mexican Americans, A Rooting Interest

New book looks at the role of baseball in L.A. Latino history and consciousness.
by Ron Gonzales
Register Writer, Orange County, CA
May 15, 2011

The father of Garden Grove resident Bea Armenta Dever is a subject of a new book, 
"Mexican American Baseball in Los Angeles."
  It covers the year 1907-1960, when many employers fielded teams.

”HISTORIC ERA: Santillan, a professor emeritus of ethnic and women’s studies at Cal Poly Pomona, says the research will cover the period 1900 to 1960. 

Francisco E. Balderrama, 
left, and Richard A. Santillan.

Baseball in that era played an important role in promoting civil rights for Mexican Americans, said Santillan.
“Because of the degree of segregation,” he said, “it played an important role in the development of a sense of civil rights and political rights, but it also created a sense of community solidarity.”Teams often took Spanish names, like “Piratas,” or pirates, or names recalling Mexico, like “Aztecas.”“It was a way to preserve and affirm their Mexican culture and language, and also to preserve a sense of family unity,” Santillan said. “They played in fields they created because they were not allowed to play in public parks.”After 1960, baseball didn’t play as central a role in Mexican American community life, Santillan said.Public parks and schools were desegregated, and professional and minor league teams opened up to Mexican Americans. Latino athletes found other sports.
“So baseball today, when played by Mexican Americans at the community level,” Santillan said, “is more for recreation rather than the historical role it played in reaffirming culture and establishing political rights. So that is why we chose the period we did.”Cannon calls “Mexican American Baseball in Los Angeles” “kind of a calling card” for the effort to preserve a slice of Mexican American history. Cannon said that the most exciting part of the baseball project has been watching the players and their families gather.

“Prior to the project, a lot of these guys never put much stock into what they had done, and had never talked with their families about it,” he said. “The project has reconnected and connected a lot of people.”

How to get involved Contribute to the book: Richard Santillan is documenting the history of Mexican American baseball, from 1900 to 1960. He is seeking photos depicting players and teams, including males and females. The subjects in the photos can be neighborhood, youth, high school, college, military, semi-professional, church, minor and major league teams and athletes.
The researcher and his colleagues will arrange for interviews, as well as times when photos can be scanned or photographs. Contributors sign releases allowing the photos to be published and exhibited. Contributors keep the photos in their possession..Information: rsantillan@earthlink.net . Donate memorabilia: Contributors can donate old baseball memorabilia and photos to the Latino Baseball History Project at California State University, San Bernardino.

Visit the site of the John M. Pfau Library at lib.csusb.edu. Click on “Latino Baseball History Project.”Information: Jill Vassilakos-Long, 909-537-7541.“Like” OC Latino Link on Facebook to see more news, information and conversation.Posted in: Central Orange County • Education • History • North Orange County • Santa Ana • South Orange County • Sports • baseball • books • Carmelita • East L.A. • Francisco E. Balderrama • Los Angeles • Mexican Americans • Orange County • Richard A. Santillan

Visit the site of the John M. Pfau Library at lib.csusb.edu. Click on “Latino Baseball History Project.”
Information: Jill Vassilakos-Long, 909-537-7541. 
“Like” OC Latino Link on Facebook to see more news, information and conversation.

Ray Armenta, left, at age 19 in L.A. around 1930, with his brother Jesus. Ray Armenta, who later moved to Cypress, is featured in "Mexican American Baseball in Los Angeles."

Photos below by Ricardo Valverde, born, raised and a participant in the history of Westminster. 
west13rifa@aol.com

Professor's crew scanned pics as Julia Martinez looks at photos

Robert Vega and Frank Mendoza shared memories of playing ball at Sigler Park in Westminster.

Julia Martinez knew some of the players in the pics

Many shared their momentos for the upcoming book on Orange County baseball

Proffessor Balderrama signed books as the supply sold out

The Third Annual Latino Baseball History Project Reunion will be held on Wednesday, July 6, 2011 in the Obershaw Dining Room on the campus of California State University, San Bernardino. The event, which will run from 2:00 to 7:00 pm, will include a panel discussion with former Mexican American ballplayers from throughout Southern California, a book signing for "Mexican American Baseball in Los Angeles" (authored by Francisco Balderrama and Richard Santillan), and a reception. The Keynote Speaker will be Alex Montoya, Manager of Latino Affairs for the San Diego Padres. A flier is attached. In three short years, the reunion has become the signature event for the Latino Baseball History Project, which is a partnership between the Baseball Reliquary and the John M. Pfau Library at California State University, San Bernardino. If you have not been to one of the past reunions, you have really missed something extraordinary. The reminiscences and stories shared by the veteran players offer an intimate look at a bygone baseball culture which was a tradition and community affair in the Mexican American barrios of post-World War II Southern California. For further details on the reunion, parking information, and so forth, contact Iwona Contreras at (909) 537-5102 or icontrer@csusb.edu.

We are pleased to attach the low-res version of the flier for the Baseball Reliquary's next exhibition, "Patriotic Pitch: The Empire of Baseball," from July 5-July 30, 2011 at the Pasadena Central Library. The flier was designed by Gabriel Leonoudakis, whose graphic design work was featured in the publicity materials for the recent Angels exhibition in Pomona and the "Baseball for the Fun of It!" exhibition in March-April at the West Covina Public Library. We will be providing more information in the near future on "Patriotic Pitch: The Empire of Baseball," which will utilize photographs, artworks, artifacts, and documents to provide an eye-opening historical look at the relationship between the national pastime and American foreign policy, militarism, and globalization. The displays will make extensive use of research and analysis presented by longtime Reliquary member Robert Elias in his groundbreaking book, "The Empire Strikes Out: How Baseball Sold U.S. Foreign Policy and Promoted the American Way Abroad." We will be glad to e-mail the high-res version of the exhibition flier to anyone who requests it.

Those who attend this summer's Shrine of the Eternals Induction Day will be able to view the exhibition, "Patriotic Pitch: The Empire of Baseball." As usual, the Induction Day festivities will be on the third Sunday in July. This year's ceremony will be on July 17, 2011, beginning at 2:00 pm in the Pasadena Central Library's Donald R. Wright Auditorium. We are pleased to announce that 2011 electees Maury Wills and Ted Giannoulas (The San Diego Chicken) will be in attendance to personally accept their inductions. Wills will be introduced by Fred Claire, who was a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers' front office from 1969 through 1998 and served the team as its general manager from 1987 until 1998. Giannoulas will be introduced by Andy Strasberg, who was employed by the San Diego Padres from 1975 to 1996 in a variety of management, marketing, and public relations capacities. Pete Gray's induction will be accepted by Nelson Gary of Atlanta, Georgia, who met his hero at the age of three when Gray was playing for the Memphis Chicks of the Southern Association, and thus began a lifelong friendship. Gary, who lost his right arm at the age of two, went on to play baseball at Van Nuys High School and Occidental College, and the origins of his friendship with Pete Gray are documented in the inspirational 1986 film, "A Winner Never Quits." 

The Shrine of the Eternals 2011 Induction Day will also feature the presentations of the Hilda Award to Los Angeles Times columnist Chris Erskine and the Tony Salin Memorial Award to historian and author Paul Dickson. Both Erskine and Dickson will be present. The Keynote Speaker will be Jean Hastings Ardell. Further details will be forthcoming, but mark July 17 on your calendar, as this promises to be a very memorable occasion.

Anyone remember Bobo Brazil, Mr. Moto, John "The Golden Greek" Tolos, and "Classy" Freddie Blassie? No, they weren't the starting infield for the Indianapolis Clowns. They were a few of the pro wrestlers who were frequently seen brawling inside the ring at Los Angeles's Olympic Auditorium in the 1950s and '60s. Yours truly has assembled a small exhibit entitled "No Holds Barred: The Golden Age of Pro Wrestling," currently on view through the end of June at the Pasadena Public Library's La Pintoresca Branch, 1355 N. Raymond Ave., Pasadena, California. Although my allegiance to pro wrestling was short-lived, I was a pretty avid fan of the spectacle (notice I didn't refer to it as a "sport") as a youth, and the display includes vintage photographs, fliers, magazines, and trading cards. Before you think I've completely gone off my rocker, there is a rational justification for going to the La Pintoresca Library to see a pro wrestling exhibit: that is to view Tina Hoggatt's lovely collection of prints and drawings of legendary African American baseball players that adorns the library's walls. Hoggatt's "Eight Ballplayers from the Negro Leagues" utilizes the linocut printmaking technique and foundry type to spotlight the careers of Buck Leonard, Cool Papa Bell, Oscar Charleston, Ray Dandridge, Josh Gibson, Judy Johnson, Satchel Paige, and Willie Wells. So even if you wouldn't go around the block to see Gorgeous George or Dick the Bruiser, Hoggatt's artworks make the trip worthwhile. Library hours are Monday-Thursday, 10 am-7 pm; Friday-Saturday, 10 am-6 pm; closed Sunday. For directions, phone (626) 744-7268 during library hours.

Best wishes,
Terry Cannon
Executive Director
The Baseball Reliquary
www.baseballreliquary.org

e-mail: terymar@earthlink.net
phone: (626) 791-7647 

Hispanics now the majority in 28 major U.S. cities

June 01, 2011 Washington –  Hispanics now make up the majority of the population in 28 U.S. cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants, most of them located in California, Texas, Florida and New Jersey. That was revealed Tuesday by statisticians of the Census Bureau during a telephonic press conference that analyzed the latest demographic data for the Latino population, which in the last decade grew four times more than the country's population as a whole. 

U.S. Hispanic Country-of-Origin Counts for Nation and Top 30 Metropolitan Areas

Salvadorans now fourth largest Latino group in U.S.

By Matt O'Brien Contra Costa Times  5/26/2011

Salvadoran-Americans are now the fourth-largest Latino group in the United States, according to 2010 census figures released Thursday.

Those whose roots extend to El Salvador, one of the smallest and densest countries in the Western Hemisphere, now number more than 1.6 million in the United States, and about 35 percent reside in California. The latest tally means that Salvadoran-Americans have surpassed Dominican-Americans in number and are swiftly gaining on Cuban-Americans.

Those who hope the higher numbers translate into the political and economic influence reached by Mexican-Americans in California and Caribbean Latinos elsewhere say they still have work to do.

"Numbers give you a certain kind of power, but of course, you have to transfer that quantity of numbers into quality," said Ramon Cardona, a Salvadoran immigrant and director of Richmond's Centro Latino Cuzcatlan. "One big advantage that Cubanos have is a lot of them came from the elite powers in Cuba, they knew how to run systems, how to run private enterprise and government institutions. In the case of Salvadorans, that was not the case. We had to forge and educate ourselves here, underground. That takes a couple generations to get the know-how and move into those kind of ranks."

The nation's 31.8 million Mexican-Americans continue to outnumber all other Latino groups, at 63 percent of the total Latino population. Following them are roughly 4.6 million Puerto Ricans, 1.8 million Cubans, 1.6 million Salvadorans, 1.4 million Dominicans and one million Guatemalans.

The fact that the nation's Salvadoran community remains smaller than its Cuban community was a surprise to some demographers tracking various surveys; they expected the Salvadoran population to be higher.

"Estimates going into the census suggested there were more Salvadorans than Cubans," said Mark Hugo Lopez, associate director of the Pew Hispanic Center. "The census shows it's the other way around, but they are very close."

The U.S. Census Bureau has not yet released figures about the Salvadoran population and other Central American groups by cities or counties, but recent surveys show the Bay Area remains one of the nation's Salvadoran hubs.

Sonia Garcia moved to the Bay Area from El Salvador as an 8-year-old in the 1980s, and she was always one of the few Latina girls at her Dublin schools. Today, she said one can find pupusas -- the quintessential Salvadoran dish of stuffed corn tortillas -- at restaurants from Brentwood to Mountain View. Garcia's family opened their own Livermore restaurant, La Pupusa House, a few years ago.

"We're leaders by nature," she said. "We're go-getters. We're businesspeople. We survived a civil war. Coming to America is like a walk in the park."

More than 8 percent of Latinos who live in the Census Bureau's six-county San Francisco-Oakland-Vallejo metropolitan area cite El Salvador as their country of origin, behind only the Washington, D.C., and Boston areas, according to an analysis by the Pew Hispanic Center. Nationally, Salvadorans represent just 3.3 percent of the total Latino population.

One of the biggest waves of Salvadoran immigrants arrived amid the Central American country's civil war that lasted from 1980 to 1992. Unlike Cuban refugees, who were granted routine asylum if they could manage to flee the communist island nation, many Salvadorans were declared economic migrants and turned away. Cities including San Francisco and Oakland declared themselves sanctuaries for undocumented immigrants, especially those fleeing repression and violence in Central America who crossed the border seeking refuge.

The percentage of Salvadorans and other Central Americans who are living in the country illegally remains higher than many other Latino groups, a factor that might make them harder to count, Cardona said.

"Those who are counted do not reflect all of the numbers of Salvadorans here," Cardona said.

About the National Jukebox

The Library of Congress presents the National Jukebox, which makes historical sound recordings available to the public free of charge. The Jukebox includes recordings from the extraordinary collections of the Library of Congress Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation and other contributing libraries and archives.  Have fun, explore our musical history.
http://www.loc.gov/jukebox/

About the National Association of Hispanic Journalists

Founded in 1984, NAHJ's mission is to increase the percentage of Latinos working in our nation's newsrooms and to improve news coverage of the Latino community. NAHJ is the nation's largest professional organization for Latino journalists with more than 2,100 members working in English and Spanish-language print, photo, broadcast and online media. NAHJ is a 501 (c)(3) tax-exempt non-profit organization. For more information, visit www.nahj.org.

Under a NAHJ program, select students will complete the 11-week summer internship at Spanish-language or bilingual (English and Spanish) publications in the following cities: Washington, D.C.; San Juan, Puerto Rico; Miami; San Diego; Atlanta; Chicago and Phoenix. The interns will also participate in a training program at the 29^th Annual NAHJ Multimedia Convention & Career Expo in Orlando, from June 15 through18, 2011, where they will brush up on their online skills on everything from podcasting and live webcasting to blogging and how to stand out as a backpack journalist.

Sent by Mary Anne Gonzales mgomez@nahp.org 

WITNESS TO HERITAGE

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. 
George Santayana,

CIVIL RIGHTS STRUGGLES DURING MY YEARS IN CALIFORNIA

         by Galal Kernahan

Last year, Carson Assemblyman Warren Furitani authored an official apology to Californians of Japanese descent for the long history of injustices they endured, especially their World War II internment in remote “relocation centers.”  

We have come a long way since my Chapman days in the 1940s.  In walking the campus recently, I noticed the tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr.  I remembered my Senior Year spent immersed in continuous Chapman single-subject instruction in philosophy by Bert Williams. . .before I went on to Boston University for graduate studies.  

I so aced some of my coursework there one professor asked where I had spent my undergraduate years. He laughed when I said, “Chapman.”  He explained that meant “Bert Williams” to him and that Bert had earned his advanced degree at B.U.  “He taught you from his pre-Doc exams.”  

At universities, it is not just  professors you learn from.  In one of my classes in Boston, there was a student named Martin Luther King, Jr. I should have paid more attention to him.  I remembered that eight or ten years later when writing a weekly “Religion and the World” column for three Southern California newspapers.  It provided context religions might provide newsworthy events.  

Since I had exchanged correspondence with another fellow Boston graduate student, Greek Othrodox Archbishop Makarios, about his political crisis on Cypress, I thought I’d chance a letter to Rev. King about the Montgomery Bus Boycott.  He graciously explained what was happening.  Our correspondence is archived at Stanford.  

When I see the Chapman reminder of him, it triggers  memories of how the Civil Rights Movement played out. . .and how much better America is for it.  

USS Arizona Memorial 
in Hawaii

ERASING HISTORIC REALITY
PERSISTENCE OF THE BLACK LEGEND

WHY CHICANO STUDIES?

From Hispanic Outlook Magazine, October  6, 2008. Presented at the Annual NACCS Conference of the National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies, Austin, Texas, March 21, 2008. Posted on Immigration, Education, and Globalization: U.S.—Mexico site, Saturday, March 29, 2008  

By Felipe de Ortego y Gasca

Scholar in Residence, Western New Mexico University (an Hispanic Serving Institution); Professor Emeritus of English, Texas State University System–Sul Ross; Founding Director of the Chicano Studies Program, University of Texas at El Paso, 1970; Faculty Member, Mexican American Graduate Studies Program, San Jose State University, 1974-75; Founding Member, Mexican American Studies Program, Texas State University System—Sul Ross, 1996; Founding Member and Chair, Chicana/Chicano and Hemispheric Studies Department, Western New Mexico University, 2007-2011.

USMC, Sgt, 1943-1946; USAF, Major (Active Duty Reserve), 1952-1962

HONORING HISPANIC LEADERSHIP

On May 19, 2011 Professor Guillermo Rojas passed away as a result of a recent illness. His family indicated that his passing was "peaceful and honorable." 

Professor Rojas served the Department of Chicano Studies and the University of Minnesota  in numerous capacities from 1982-2006. During his time as Associate Professor of Chicano Studies, he also served as Program Director of MLK and Department Chair. Upon his retirement in 2006, the department established a scholarship in his name for seniors majoring in Chicano Studies to honor their perseverance and commitment, ideals that he embodied. http://chicano.umn.edu/academics/scholarships.html  

Guillermo was born in Victoria, Texas, a place he identified as being colonized by Martin de Leon. Professor Rojas began his undergraduate education at Del Mar Junior College in Corpus Christi. He subsequently joined the Air Force and trained as a Czech language specialist and spent three years in Germany. He completed his undergraduate work at North Texas State University, in Denton, majoring in Spanish and minoring in French and German. He went on to obtain a Masters degree from the same institution and later moved to Illinois to earn a doctoral degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign focusing on Spanish, Spanish American Literature and Brazilian Literature. Professor Rojas believes that Chicanos are the flowers of our Indian and Spanish ancestors. Guillermo sees that in a toxified and polluted surrounding, Chicano Studies offers a way to air out the environment by offering truths about how Mexicans, Mexicas, Chicanas,and Chicanos became, and have always been, part of the American spectrum. 

In accordance with his final wishes, his family has decided that a memorial service will be held in his honor at a date yet yet to be determined. Later this summer, his family will travel to Texas to scatter his ashes in Victoria, TX on the Guadalupe River and to celebrate  his life.  His family will work with the Department of Chicano Studies to host a memorial for Professor Rojas at the U of M. The department will honor him at during our upcoming 40th Anniversary celebration and include memorialize him as part of our annual día de los muertos altar.  If you would like to send a note to the Rojas family, please send to:
The Rojas Family
711 Skillman Ave. E
Maplewood MN 55117 

Professor Rojas was deeply respected and much loved professor, colleague, friend, and mentor to many. The Department of Chicano Studies has made a blog remembering Professor Rojas.   You may have your tribute to Professor Rojas posted online by sending an e-mail to Rodrigo Sanchez Chavarria at chicstud@umn.edu.  

http://www.hhh.umn.edu/centers/wilkins/guillermo_rojas_paper.html

NATIONAL ISSUES

He says illegal immigrants pay coyotes as much as $3,000 to go by land, $9,000 by sea. Often, they are ripped off or left to die. OC Register, 6/12/11

Less than two weeks later a collection of pits holding a total of 59 bodies were found.  Prior to that 72 migrants were slain in the same spot.  

Authorities speculate the men pulled off the buses fell victim to ever more brutal efforts to replenish the ranks of cartels drained by fights with other gangs and the army crackdown.   
AP Katherine Corcoran, OC Register 4/8/11

`Vet Hunters' to make 1,900-mile bike ride to help find homeless veterans

They call themselves "Vet Hunters", and this summer the group of current and former military members will ride their bicycles 1,900 miles in search of help for homeless veterans.

The ride will start July 27 in El Monte and conclude Aug. 10 in St.Louis, where the organization plans to plead its case to help "hunting veterans" in front of Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki.

From left, Todd Morgan of Los Angeles, Stephanie Navarro of San Dimas, Joe Leal, of Upland, and Jose Ramos of Whittier, arrive at El Monte City Hall after their ride from the Army Reserve Center in El Monte to meet with city council member Juventino Gomez Thursday, May 26, 2011. (SGVN/Staff Photo by Walt Mancini)

Sent by Alfredo Lugo alfredo.lugo@verizon.net 

Two Shenandoah Police Get Light Sentences in Murder Cover-up
By Jim Lamare

Hispanic Link: Your News Source for 27 Years
Vol. 29 No. 10 May 30, 2011, page 3

Two law enforcement officers who worked for the Shenandoah, Pa., police department have been sentenced to federal prison June 1 for their part in the cover-up in the death of 25-year-old Luis Eduardo Ramírez Zavala. A native of Iramuco, Mexico, Ramírez Zavala had resided in the small coal-mining town 105 miles northwest of Philadelphia for five years.

KICKED IN HEAD
He was kicked in the head and beaten to death on July 12, 2008, as he walked home from a festival with his partner, the mother of his two children. The attack followed a profanity-laced racist tirade involving six white high school football players, who had been drinking. Members of the city’s police department from the very beginning were deeply involved in an attempt to falsify the public record about the attack. Senior U.S. District Judge A. Richard Caputo sentenced former Shenandoah police chief Mathew Nestor to 13 months in federal prison, even though his attorneys had moved for a lengthier term and despite the fact that federal sentencing guidelines recommend 57 to 71 months.

Former lieutenant William Moyer was ordered to jail for three months. They report to prison June 29. Until then, they are free. They will be on probation for a year.

WROTE FALSE REPORTS
Nestor, Moyer and officer Jason Hayes were indicted on a variety of charges by a federal grand jury Dec. 10, 2009. The indictment proclaimed they deliberately did not “memorialize or record” statements made by the defendants in the murder case and “wrote false and misleading official reports [that] intentionally omitted information about the true nature of the assault and the investigation.”

Each was looking at a maximum of 25 years in prison. Moyer was also indicted  on evidence and witness tampering and lying to the FBI, which could have tacked five more years onto his sentence. The verdicts were rendered by a jury on Jan. 27, 2011, after a 13-day federal trial in Wilkes-Barre, Pa.

Nestor was convicted of filing a false police report which intentionally omitted the names of several suspects, including the two who were eventually incarcerated, and failed to mention that he had had several phone conversations with one of the defendants’ mothers after the assault. Moyer was found guilty of lying to the FBI. He has appealed his convicted. Nestor is expected to follow suit shortly.

OBSTRUCTED OWN INVESTIGATION
Thomas Pérez, who heads DOJ’s civil rights division, stressed, ”These officers chose to obstruct the very investigation they were charged with conducting.” An all-white jury initially acquitted two of the assailants. They eventually were tried on third degree murder and racial intimidation charges, but found guilty of lesser offenses, including simple assault and supplying alcohol to underage teenagers. Still later, following urging by Hispanic advocacy groups, they were tried and convicted in federal court of obstructing justice and violating Ramírez Zavala’s civil rights. Although facing up to life in prison, each was given a nine-year sentence

Hispanic Link
1420 N St. NW
Washington, DC 20005
(202) 234-0280

 
Erich Schlegel Chronicle  

Putting a face on illegal immigration

Revealing her once-undocumented status, Houston legislator hopes to change perceptions

By SUSAN CARROLL
HOUSTON CHRONICLE , May 30, 2011

Ana Hernandez Luna was brought as a baby to Houston from Mexico. Today, she's a lawyer and House representative. State Rep. Ana Hernandez Luna stood before the House on the afternoon of May 9, hours after lawmakers passed the controversial "sanctuary city" bill, and started reading from a prepared statement, her eyes downcast.

"I know House Bill 12 already passed, and in the long run there is nothing that could have been done about its passage," she said.  But still, she said, she had something to say. And then, in a halting and teary speech, Hernandez Luna, D-Houston, described what life is like as an illegal immigrant.  She knows, she said, because she lived it.  

"Immigration and all that it encompasses is very personal for me because I was an undocumented immigrant," Hernandez Luna said. "You may prefer to use the word illegal alien, but I'm not an alien. I am not a problem that must be handled. I'm a human — a person standing before you now as a representative for the Texas House."

With her roughly five-minute speech, the 32-year-old lawyer and lawmaker did what some would consider crazy in the current political climate. She tried to put a human face - her own face - on the illegal immigration issue.

"I believe they have a perception of what an undocumented immigrant should be, and I don't fit in that," she said in a recent interview. "And that's why I felt it was important to share my story and put a face on the issue, and let people know we're not just talking about criminals here who need to be deported."

Her story of assimilation was called remarkable even by hawkish illegal immigration foes, who have a firm hold on the House and overwhelmingly passed HB-12. The "sanctuary cities" bill, which ultimately failed to make it through the Senate, would have made it illegal to prohibit state and local law enforcement from enforcing federal immigration laws.

Some of her colleagues across the aisle, the targeted audience for her speech, were unmoved - at least from a policy perspective.

"She's a real sweet gal," said State Rep. Debbie Riddle, R-Tomball. "I admire the difficulties that she has overcome, but I still stand strong that we have got to protect our borders. We need to enforce our laws."

"For every good story, there's a bad story," Riddle said. "There are a lot of people who are frustrated with rewarding those who come over here illegally and essentially penalizing those who abide by the laws."

Childhood fear

Hernandez Luna said her parents packed up a single suitcase and brought her to Houston from Reynosa, Mexico, as an infant, along with her 4-year-old sister. They shared a brick duplex on Alamo Street, just outside downtown Houston, with her father's cousin. They overstayed their visitor's visas, and lived undocumented for eight years.

Her parents paid taxes, she said, and bought a house in Houston within about five years. She remembers fearing as a little girl that her mother would be picked up by immigration agents staking out the local Fiesta grocery store, or that her father would not come home after one of his overnight warehouse shifts.

Celia Fleischman, principal at Gardens Elementary School in Pasadena, said she remembered Hernandez Luna struggling with her English, but quickly catching on. Her mother worked in the school cafeteria, and Hernandez Luna would come in early and sleep in the corner, waiting for school to start. She always had her nose in a book, and was ready to speak up for others, Fleischman said.

"She was very smart and opinionated, even as a little girl. I know why now," Fleischman said with a laugh.

But Hernadez Luna was shy when it came to one issue - where her family was from, and her own citizenship.

"I would stay quiet because I knew," Hernadez Luna said.

She remembers her parents' relief when Congress, under President Ronald Reagan, passed the 1986 amnesty, which granted legal status to an estimated 3 million illegal immigrants. As her family sunk deeper roots in the U.S., opening their own restaurant at a flea market, Hernandez Luna decided she wanted to be a lawyer.

Special election

She pushed through high school, graduating early at 16, and went on to the University of Houston. She gained citizenship at 18, and interned at the state Capitol her junior year of college, getting a taste for politics. After graduation from UH, she spent two years working at the Capitol before enrolling in the University of Texas School of Law.

At age 25, she graduated from law school, passed the bar and settled into her first job as a lawyer. Not long after she started, one of the legislators she worked for before law school, State Rep. Joe Moreno, died in a car accident. His staffers and supporters asked her to run in a special election for his seat, she said, and she obliged. She took an eight-month, unpaid leave of absence from her new job to campaign.

She handily beat her opponent, and at age 27, she started representing the people of District 143, a solidly working-class, predominantly Hispanic neighborhood that sprawls alongside the Houston Ship Channel east of downtown.

Her immigration history didn't come up during the 2005 campaign, she said, when she faced off against another young Hispanic candidate with powerful political backers.

"I've never hidden the fact that I was born in Mexico. It's on my bio, 'born in Reynosa,'" she said. "At the time I ran in 2005, we really didn't have that anti-immigrant sentiment."

Sharing her story

Hernandez Luna said she has no aspirations for a higher office than the state House. She is married to an attorney and practices law full time when the Legislature is not in session, and is talking about starting a family.

For now, her attention is largely focused on the key, bread-and-butter issues for her constituents, like the economy and the budget deficit. Immigration enforcement is a federal issue, not one for state legislatures, she said.

Hernandez Luna said she remembers the first time she shared her immigration story with fellow lawmakers. It was a late-night committee meeting in 2007 attended by undocumented students speaking in opposition to a House bill that would deny them in-state tuition.

When she was finished sharing her story, she remembers Riddle, the Republican from Tomball, saying something to the effect of "'You've been given a gift from God.'"

Hernandez Luna bristled. "My response to her was, 'I haven't been given anything. My parents and I have worked very hard for everything I have been able to achieve and accomplish.'"

susan.carroll@chron.com 
Read more: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7586993.html#ixzz1NqgvrgkO

Sent by Gus Chavez guschavez2000@YAHOO.COM 

Record Number of Immigration-Related Bills and Resolutions Introduced in States 
During First Quarter of 2011
A new focus for policymakers has been on health-related bills.

Alabama’s bill goes beyond Arizona’s. It bars illegal immigrants from enrolling in any public college after high school. It obliges public schools to determine the immigration status of all students, requiring parents of foreign-born students to report the immigration status of their children.

The bill requires Alabama’s public schools to publish figures on the number of immigrants — both legal and illegal — who are enrolled and on any costs associated with the education of illegal immigrant children.

The bill, known as H.B. 56, also makes it a crime to knowingly rent housing to an illegal immigrant. It bars businesses from taking tax deductions on wages paid to unauthorized immigrants.

Extract, source: In Alabama, a Harsh Bill for Residents Here Illegally, by Julia Preston, New York Times, June 3, 2011

“Radicalization in the West — The Homegrown Threat.”

The survey found a strong correlation between the presence of severe violence-promoting literature and mosques featuring written, audio, and video materials that actually promoted such acts. By promotion of jihad, the study included literature encouraging worshipers to engage in terrorist activity, to provide financial support to jihadists, and to promote the establishment of a caliphate in the United States. These materials also explicitly praised acts of terror against the West; praised symbols or role models of violent jihad; promoted the use of force, terror, war, and violence to implement the Sharia; emphasized the inferiority of non-Muslim life; promoted hatred and intolerance toward non-Muslims or notional Muslims; and endorsed inflammatory materials with anti-U.S. views… [Of the 51 mosques that contained severe materials, 100 percent were led by imams who recommended that worshipers study texts that promote violence. A disturbing 98 percent of mosques with severe texts included materials promoting financial support of terror. 

http://www.nypdshield.org/public/SiteFiles/documents/NYPD_Report-Radicalization_in_the_West.pdf 

Mosques as Barracks in America, Posted By Andrew Bostom On June 5, 2011 
http://www.andrewbostom.org/blog/2011/06/05/mosques-as-barracks-in-america/

TRUE STORY OF A MEXICAN LION

ACTION ITEM

'Fresh blood' takes over Latino group
By Eric Carpenter, Orange County Register, CA, 2011-05-13 

Editor:  I am including this article because of my respect and 30 plus years of observation of the effectiveness and dedication of Amin David and Los Amigos of Orange County.

This is an example of a group which has existed successfully for decades, without setting up an office, requesting dues and seeking grants.  Their influence was felt by local government, media, and the community.   If you had experienced injustice and wanted redress, you voiced your pain to Los Amigos and received support and direction.  Los Amigos proved you could make a difference without a title and an office. 

If you want to help your community, just DO it. 

David, never afraid of challenging authority, is handing over the reins of the group to 41-year-old Jose Moreno – an Anaheim City School District board member and professor of Chicano and Latino studies at Cal State Long Beach.

The selection of Moreno is a surprise to some because he could be seen as an "insider" leading a group that has led protests against governmental agencies, including city councils and the kind of school district boards on which Moreno sits.

Still, David said Moreno's name kept coming up among Los Amigos regulars, and he believes Moreno will provide strong leadership – and, perhaps, attract "younger blood" to the organization.

"As we looked ahead for Los Amigos, we owed it to this group to think about its future," David said. "I'm proud of what we've been able to accomplish to this point, but we need new blood. And Jose is a natural."

David, who came to the U.S. as a child from Chihuahua, Mexico, formed Los Amigos in the late 1970s after serving on the Anaheim Planning Commission and being challenged by then-Mayor Bill Thom to get more Hispanics involved in the community.

Over the years, the group has taken on issues such as ensuring fair housing for minorities, encouraging better relations between police and Hispanics and pushing for Latino representation in positions of power.

In 2008, the group led a petition drive that resulted in the resignation of Anaheim Union High School District trustee Harald Martin, who had, among other controversial ideas, authored a plan to bill Mexico for the cost of educating illegal immigrants.

David also was one of three Latino activists to sue the city of Anaheim and its then-police chief Roger Baker for keeping an internal background file on David that he said "defamed and discredited" him. David was part of a $50,000 settlement and, later, leader of efforts to establish better relations between police and the Latino community.

Los Amigos isn't an official political-action committee or nonprofit group. It has no bylaws, no budget. The group meets once a week in an Anaheim coffee shop and follows a simple motto: "Nos Gusta Ayudar" (We like to help.)

Moreno, who joined the group at 19 while a UC Irvine sophomore, came to get help with scholarship money. Los Amigos members passed a hat and donated to Moreno back then.

Over the years he's come and gone from the group while pursuing graduate degrees, but always admired its willingness to help those in need.

"They have no special interest other than to do the right thing for the community," said Moreno, who is married and the father of four. "Los Amigos is here so people, all people, have a voice."

Moreno said while Los Amigos is seen by some as being a group that likes to "take on" those in power, he is eager to take on issues by studying them and engaging in dialogue – not to just challenging power "without doing our homework first."

But even as a school trustee, Moreno hasn't shied away from controversial stances. Last fall, he participated in a demonstration in Anaheim to support the "DREAM Act," a Congressional bill that would provide a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants who graduate high school in this country.

Because Los Amigos is so informal, no vote was taken on Moreno becoming the new president. Earlier this week, the 40 people who gathered for the Los Amigos breakfast heard from Moreno. He asked for their permission to lead the group.

And with a show of hands and some applause, he became its new leader.

"I don't feel the pressure of taking over for Amin David because he'll still be around – and he won't make me feel like I've got to live up to him. He's too easy going and supportive," Moreno said. "He's been a model of leadership and a great teacher."

Contact the writer: 714-704-3769 or ecarpenter@ocregister.com

Writing a letter to an elected official 
Exercising our Right to Express our Opinion

June 17, 2011
Office of the Governor
P.O. Box 12428
Austin, Texas 78711-2428

Governor Rick Perry
Early 1700s Spanish Mexican pioneers built the foundation of this great place we call Texas.  It is that groundwork that gives Texas its unique character.  However, beginning in 1836, Spanish-surnamed citizens suffered years of blatant official bigotry.  They looked like the enemy, worshipped as Catholics like the enemy, and spoke Spanish like the enemy.  Thus, they were treated as the enemy.

Laws were then enacted that formally sanctioned discrimination against them.  It was that long-term, state-endorsed injustice that allowed business owners to refuse service to returning WWII Hispanic war veterans and Medal of Honor winners.  Property deeds contained clauses prohibiting selling to Hispanics.  Too, Spanish-surnamed citizens were forbidden well into the 1950s from serving in juries in many Texas counties.  Although the U.S. Constitution was approved in 1787, Hispanics in Texas had to wait until the 1954 "Class Apart" Supreme Court Decision to achieve their equal rights.  Little by little, odious state laws disappeared.

Governor, ominous signs in the form of post-1836 anti-Hispanic legislation are again rearing their ugly head.  Recent bills threaten to once more limit freedom for Texas Hispanics.  For example, the Texas state legislature recently approved the Voter ID bill (the Poll Tax of the 2lst Century) whose only purpose is to scare lower income and elderly Texas voters of Hispanic descent.  Likewise, the new redistricting plan is aimed at neutralizing the Hispanic vote by gerrymandering voting districts.  Last but not least, under the so-called Sanctuary Cities bill, law enforcement officers will be conducting "Papers, please" interrogations,  targeting Spanish Mexican-looking citizens, especially if they are heard speaking Spanish.

Sir, this is just not a Hispanic issue.  Freedom-loving citizens everywhere are wondering why Texas is returning to the shocking state-sanctioned discrimination aimed solely at one group of U.S. citizens.  The zeal displayed by certain legislators and the vocal, organized groups pushing for these callous laws can only be described as a bigoted frame of mind that is bad for Texas, named by the Spanish for the Caddo word meaning friend.

In retrospect, there were certainly plenty of leaders after the Texas Revolution who could have assured dignity and respect for Hispanic Texans at that time.  However, they remained silent.  Their failure to get involved condemned generations of Spanish Mexican citizens to occupy the lowest rungs in the socio-economic, political, and educational ladders.  Sadly, many Spanish-surnamed Texans of today still find themselves entrenched in that vicious cycle of despair.

Finally, Governor, the sudden flurry of discriminatory legislation aimed directly at those who look Hispanic is troublesome.  In the words of philosopher Jorge (George) Santayana, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Very sincerely, I urge you not to make the mistake your predecessors made after 1836.

José Antonio López, 8th Generation Texan; U.S. Military Veteran
cc: Senators Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn

Efforts Continue to Acknowledge the History of the Juana Briones House

BUSINESS

National Hispanic Business Women Association
2011 Women of the Year Honorees
Held May 19th at the Doubletree Hotel, Santa Ana, CA

Small Business Award recipient, Angelica N. Sigala,
 (second from left) receiving award.

Since its inception, the NHBWA has awarded 83 educational scholarships to deserving students. This achievement has been possible thanks to the support of our members, corporate sponsors and donors.

http://nationalhbwa.com/main

No. 1 job destroyer

Regulatory morass is choking economic growth and driving jobs overseas

EDUCATION

 Meet Melissa Arambulo
second from the right

"The best moment was the Rodriguez family - Ruben and Armida, the dad and mom, and Roxana, Yolanda, and Sandra - children and students," said Berhow, OCBC director of workforce development. "Roxana just graduated from CSUF with a degree in Spanish and math and she is the first person in her family to graduate high school, let alone college...Her younger sisters remarked that Roxana's accomplishment and their parents encouragement only inspired them more to succeed in high school and go on to college. It was very emotional and inspiring for me to see this and to have them credit the LEA program and Teri Rocco, who has worked tirelessly to implement the Ten Educational Commandments in all 70 schools."

LEA, launched in 2005, serves communities throughout Orange County, with training taking place in such cities as Fullerton, Anaheim, Santa Ana, Costa Mesa, Huntington Beach, Laguna Beach, San Juan Capistrano, Westminster, and Garden Grove. Materials have been prepared in English, Spanish, Korean and Vietnamese.

The initiative launched in 2005 following publication of a series in the Register about the Latino student achievement gap called "Our Children, Our Future." The Orange County Business Council, the Orange County Department of Education and Orange County United Way were among its earliest backers. The Boeing Company was the presenting sponsor for the event.

To learn more, go to ocbc.org. Latino Educational is under the "Committees" tab. For information, call Berhow at 949-794-7215. 

See more photos of the event at ocregister.com/education.
Contact the writer: 714-796-6999 or rgonzales@ocregister.com

On a drizzly fall morning, Florencia Arriaga hurries through her Santa Ana home making sure she hasn't forgotten anything. She snaps the lids on containers filled with cupcakes and hands one each to her daughter Elizabeth and son Ramon.

One container is headed to a club meeting with Elizabeth, a senior at St. Margaret's Episcopal School. The other – for a friend's birthday – goes with Ramon, a junior at St. Margaret's, an independent college-prep school.

It's shortly after 6 a.m., and the siblings climb into the car to go to the Santa Ana train station. There, among the business commuters is a group of students in school uniforms -- crisp white shirts and navy blazers.

With a firm hug, Florencia sees them off.

As they board the Amtrak train bound for San Juan 

Capistrano, Florencia tracks her children until she sees that they've found a seat. Elizabeth waves, then the doors swish closed and the train pulls out.

It's up to parents to prepare their children, she says.  "We have to plant the seed in them otherwise they will never grow," Florencia tells me in Spanish as she heads home to get her youngest, Isaac, an eighth grader at MacArthur Fundamental Intermediate School in Santa Ana.

It's an uphill battle. Latinos have one of the highest drop-out rates in the nation. Parents, Florencia says, are more likely to encourage their children to work than to finish school.

So five years ago, when Florencia learned of A Better Chance (ABC), a national nonprofit that helps underrepresented students qualify for preparatory high schools, she knew it could offer opportunities that she, a nanny, and her husband, a factory worker, couldn't afford.

The Arriagas discovered the program too late for Elizabeth, then in eighth grade, to apply.

With Ramon, Florencia didn't take any chances. When he was in seventh grade, she began inquiring about the program's requirements and deadlines. The ABC program typically accepts students in the top 10 percent of their class, but also makes exceptions.

"This is a great opportunity...and it's probably going to change the rest of my life," says Ramon, now 16. "I'm not fighting to get into college. It's about where I'm going to get into college."

Last fall, after hosting an ABC meeting for families in her home, Florencia decided to approach MacArthur Fundamental hoping to meet with the parents of younger students. Her goal: To prepare families so that students have the grades and prerequisites to be considered.

She was also concerned because Isaac's counselor had declined to write a letter of recommendation – because he wasn't in the top 10 percent of his class -- for his ABC application. But instead of being welcomed, Florencia says the school principal and counselor were dismissive during a school visit last September.

Undeterred, Florencia met with district officials, and it was only then that her son's counselor offered to write the letter. And the principal invited her to speak to parents next year.

At no time did MacArthur's principal or counselor feel that they were dismissive of Florencia, says Santa Ana Unified School District Public Information Officer Angela Burrell.

"If she felt she was disrespected in any way or not welcomed to the campus, obviously we apologize," says Burrell. "If there is some sort of discrepancy they have to work through those issues."

It's a problem worth tackling.

Out of the district's nearly 11,500 intermediate students, 16 students have been selected as ABC scholars to attend prep schools next fall. That number might rise because students like Isaac Arriaga, who was accepted to ABC and admitted to a prep school in Arizona, is on a financial-aid waiting list.

At MacArthur Fundamental, of nearly 1,300 students, only 14 students applied to the program, and so far, four are headed to prep schools. To Florencia, those numbers represent a lost opportunity.

"If we as a community don't help each other, we won't ever get ahead," she says.

So, just as she's always expected the best from her children, Florencia continues to speak up about the program that will change her family's future.

In August, she'll fly to Agnes Scott College to help Elizabeth settle in. Elizabeth, now 18, is the first in her family to attend college and plans to major in psychology.

At home, as Florencia shows me the college acceptance letters Elizabeth received, her eyes well up.

"I'm so proud," she says. "It validates all your work. When you're involved, it means that your children will have opportunities."

For more information about A Better Chance, contact Christopher S. Dennis at 213-740-3993.

Contact the writer: 714-796-3649 or ycabrera@ocregister.com, or twitter.com/ycabreraocr

ICIRR applauds both parties for supporting education for children of immigrants brought here without legal status by their parents  

CULTURE

Contreras was born in Mexico City. She studied dancing under Nelsy Dambré in Mexico from 1946 to 1954, and visited School of American Ballet in New York from 1956 to 1964, where she was taught by Pierre Vladimirov, Felia Doubrovska, Anatole Oboukhoff, Muriel Stuart and George Balanchine. From 1958 to 1965 she was also taught by Carola Trier.

Currently she teaches choreography at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) and is director of its choreography workshop, which was founded in 1970.^[1] Contreras has been member of the International Dance Council since 2003 and is member of the Academia de Artes.^[2][3] She has received numerous awards.^[4] 
Source: Wikipedia 

The Contreras surname is found among the earliest baptismal records in Mexico.  Requesting Contreras baptismal data for 1550-1580, I had 36 hits, all the early records seemed to be located in Southern Mexico, consistent with the early colonization.  A Juan Contreras  was among the soldiers from Zacatecas and Saltillo that traveled with Luis de Carvajal during the late 1500s.  

A surprising answer to the question, Where do people with the Roeniger surname come from? was found on the website, http://lastnames.myheritage.com/last-name/Roeniger .  MEXICO was the only country identified. However, when I went to  FamilySearch.org, Latter Day Saints (Mormon) records, I found 19,605 records of the surname in the United States?   

Gregorio Luke and his beautiful mother both have fascinating mixed cultural heritage in need of searching out, like all of us, mysteries to be solved.

It’s Mexican Mother’s Day: Let’s make fideo

May 10th, 2011,  
RON GONZALES, 
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
California

Ivan Androić, is the singer and the founder of the mariachi band "Los Caballeros." "The notion of mariachi evokes a visual dimension that is wider than music. This is the image of arena, sand, bulls, people, scents ...".

After having spent a year in the USA, in Kansas, where he met several Mexican musicians, with whom he sometimes performed, Ivan Androić (whose love for South American music had been developing through his contact with some Bolivians in Zagreb, gathered around the group "Ayllu") got the idea of founding a similar band in Croatia, and "Los Caballeros" came into being in November 1997. The original idea was to have Ricardo Luque as a member of the band but due to his at that time already very active part in the performing of a very popular Croatian group "Cubismo" it wasn´t possible. "This is the reason I started to sing," says Ivan Androić, "and I thought I would only play the vihuela in "Los Caballeros"."

Milan Grbić, Luka Magdalenić,
Tomislav Vitković,Petar Haluza, 
Damir Matić

Hear them and be prepared to be surprised:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBPR9jKQMqk&feature=email

Sent by Rick Leal
GGR1031@aol.com

General Bernardo Gutierrez de Lara oleo por Jesus Moron/pintor e historiador.

Visit San Antonio artist, Jesus Moron website
http://www.zhibit.org/jesus_moron/jesus-moron-gallery-studio

NUTRITIONAL VALUES OF SOUTH TEXAS INGREDIENTS EMPHASIZED 

By Richard G. Santos
richardgsantos@yahoo.com  

LITERATURE

   Did you know that there are about 5,000 languages in the world? 

BOOKS

Jesus Salvador Trevino participated in and documented the most important events in the Mexican American civil rights movement of the late 1960's and early 1970's: the farm workers' strikes and boycotts, the Los Angeles school walk-outs, the Chicano Youth Conference in Denver, the New Mexico land grant movement, the Chicano moratorium against the Vietnam War, the founding of La Raza Unida Party, and the first incursion of Latinos into the media. Coming of age during the turmoil of the sixties, Trevino was on the spot to record the struggles, to organize students and workers into the largest social and political movement in the history of Latino communities in the United States.

Editor:  I just finished reading Eyewitness and I felt like I was watching it all happen.  I am grateful for the insight, much more penetrating then the newspaper accounts, or even the more scholarly approaches to each of the incidents described as steps in el movimento of the 1960s-1970s. I I understand better the fractions, the divisions, the diverse perspectives, the motivations and energy that provoked intense responses, and unfortunately in some cases, violence.  Highly recommended.

Below is the Table of Contents of the Chapters:
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgments

"A readable, penetrating history of the Chicano streuggle told in human terms by an individual who truly has been an eyewitness.  An extremely valuable book."  Tom Hayden, activist and former California state senator

La Cocina de Eva, 
Cocina con amor para la familia y los amigos

Eva Longoria welcomes you into her kitchen
Review by Marcela Álvarez, www.tintafresca.us  Libros para Latinos

Eva Longoria is famous for portraying the sultry Gabrielle Solís on ABC's hit television series Desperate Housewives. But when she is away from the red carpet, the Hollywood spotlight and the magazine covers, there are few places she would rather be than in the kitchen. "I try to cook every day", she says. 

This book traces her life story,  taking readers on her culinary journey, from the food she was brought up on in Texas to the recipes inspired by her travels abroad to the dishes she serves during casual nights at home with her girlfriends.  

A Colorful Small Town
‘The Longoria Affair’ 
sparks awareness at UTPA
by Stacy Sanchez
STACYL208@AOL.COM

           With the help of the Office of Student Development (OSD), a department at The University of Texas-Pan American, students were given the opportunity to meet Valadez, an award-winning writer, director and producer, and watch his documentary. They participated in an open discussion at the Student Union Theatre. This series has introduced national and international speakers to the university for seven years, with its purpose to educate, entertain and engage UTPA students and the community of the Rio Grande Valley.

Valadez was introduced to present his film on the story of Mexican American World War II veteran Felix Longoria who was refused a proper burial by funeral home owner Ted Kennedy. According to the documentary, “the whites wouldn’t like it,” Kennedy had said.  A story that took place 60 years ago in Three Rivers, …segregation of the Anglo and Mexican American cultures as a way of life. As the documentary explains, when Longoria’s widow Beatrice was denied her husband’s proper burial, civil rights activist Hector Garcia was notified and he then created The American GI Forum, an organization to focus on Latin rights. The Forum has three codes it stands by: veterans rights, civil rights, and education. Garcia’s fight for the Mexican-American veteran soon led the way to the Civil Rights Movement with Texas Senator Lyndon Baines Johnson on his side.

After a significant incident within the Mexican American culture, the film was followed by a discussion the audience gave the opportunity for questions and comments on the controversial film. With two microphones in the crowd, Edinburg resident Marissa Palacios stood up and questioned what our society would have been like if The Longoria Affair hadn’t happened.  With that same spirit, a student from the University of Texas in Brownsville (UTB) walked up to the microphone asking what he could do, as a member of the community, to help spread awareness and promote equality among all ethnic groups. This member of the community was student Christopher Scott, who had personally been affected by the film.

“I too am a Longoria and I just want to first say thank you for what you are doing with this film, and to the veterans for their service,” Scott said. “My great uncle Raul J. Longoria also fought in World War II as well as my great-grandfather Juan Longoria Jr. who was stationed near Fort Brown from 1916 to 1918.As part of the community, how can we help?” Scott asked.

His question was answered by Sanchez, who expressed the importance of acquiring an education to better oneself as a Mexican-American and as a leader to teach others.

Not completely satisfied with his response, Scott mentioned at the reception that followed, he has already been educating himself, not only as a student at UTB, but through his research on his family history.

“Since I was young, I have been researching my roots to understand my family history, Scott said,  “and just recently I got my DNA tested to find out my ethnicity. My DNA results labeled me as a Native American through a website called Gene Tree.”

Scott says he got his DNA tested with a test kit he purchased online that included a mouthwash sample. After his purchase, he mailed his sample back to Gene Tree and it took him about eight to 12 weeks to get his results back.

Gene Tree provides genealogy assistance with DNA testing, one-on-one private consultations, and both geneticists and genealogists are on staff to discuss results.

With his results, however Scott didn’t stop the journey. After a conversation with his uncle Ovidio Longoria, he was referred to contact Lino Garcia, Jr., UTPA Professor Emeritus of Spanish Literature, who turned out to be his cousin. 

“I met Lino my freshman year at UTPA and our meetings were very progressive,” Scott said. “he basically told me everything he knew about our family history and from there, I couldn’t help but continue to dig deeper for connections and facts of the Longoria family tree.”

After his freshman year, Scott transferred to UTB, which he says was a horrible mistake adding that UTPA was much more involved with students on campus. The showing of ‘The Longoria Affair’ is a good example of such student engagement.

Garcia was grateful for the showing of the film, as it explained a part of history that was hardly known at the time but has made an impact on society in a significant way. 

“I like to think that this Félix Longoria Affair helped shape me and got me started on the journey toward what I do presently,” Garcia said. “I must have been around 11 years old or more when I read about this incident in the " El Heraldo de Brownsville "and at that young age I was shocked to know that incidents such as this would happen in America, considering that during World War II many Brownsville families in the neighborhood lost sons, fathers, uncles, friends fighting for the simple things as being buried in decency.”

Garcia says that with discrimination unfortunately still exist today, he hopes he can live long enough to see a Hispanic Tejano governor of Texas.

“That American citizens have to fight for what is theirs rightfully is completely un-American,” Garcia said.

With strong feelings towards The Longoria Affair, he showed his support by attending the showing of the film and participating at the reception, which was also attended by The GI Forum, OSD, Valadez and the significant individuals present at the film.

“For almost 53 years now, I have stopped in Three Rivers only once, and that was because my car was running out of gasoline,” Garcia said. “I have refused to give that town the dignity of my presence, of my money and my time.”

The reception gave the community a chance to mingle with prominent speakers with platters of fruit, baked goods and fruit punch at no cost. 

In the middle of a conversation with Elsa resident and friend Irma Rodriguez, Commander of the GI Forum, Josemaria Vasquez spoke on the injustice against veterans that continues to affect our nation today.

“Today there are 120,000 veterans in the Valley,” Vasquez said. “Even after the Civil Rights Movement, making a difference within the nation is a work in progress.”

 Vasquez said he is doing his part for change by starting with the veterans within the community. He has been involved with the GI Forum in the Valley for two years now.

With a work in progress, Rodriguez added that through this fight for justice within the Mexican American culture, “We need to know where we come from.

It’s with this same state of mind that Scott continues to research family history. He finds great inspiration from his cousin, who once told him that, “those who know where they are going, know their past and those who don’t know where they are going, they are ignorant of their past.”December will mark Scott’s 13^th year of research.

               “In family research, there is no end and that’s the beauty of it all,” he said.

 According to UTPA Special Collections Librarian George Gause, the amount of time Scott has spent analyzing records found at Specials Collections Department has been well spent because he’s managed to uncover solid information on family history. Gause motivates Scott and anyone else pushing for a goal, with the idea that anything is possible.

 “If you want something to happen, you work toward making it happen,”Gause said. Valadez has only shown ‘The Longoria Affair’ at STC and UTPA. He says he hopes to spark awareness of the injustice that occurred 60 years ago in Three Rivers as he pushes forward to show the film in more parts of the country. 

On the Net: http://www.utpa.edu/broncnotes

Sent by Lino Garcia, Jr., Ph.D lgarcia@UTPA.EDU 
Edinburg

Remembering Hispanic recipients 
of the Congressional Medal of Honor 

By Dr. Lino García, Jr. 

Military government publications
http://www.archives.gov/publications/ref-info- papers/109/index.pdf  
Sent by Bill Carmena JCarm1724@aol.com
 

EARLY HISTORIC LATINO US PATRIOTS 

The Amazing Sanchez Sisters
by Tony "The Marine" Santiago

The Capture of the "USS Columbine" in the "Battle of Horse Landing"  

The last time I wrote and told you about the "Amazing Fernandez Cavada Brother" who were officers in the Union Army during the American Civil War and who later went on to become commanders in Cuba’s "Ten Years War". My fascination with the American Civil War, where brothers fought against brothers and my amazement with the little told stories of the Hispanic contributions to such conflict does not end and is not limited to those of the male sex. With my research for my "Hispanics in the American Civil War" article I have also uncovered the stories of many brave Hispanic Women whose contributions are rarely told.  

Therefore in this article I am going to introduce you to the complete opposite of the "Amazing Fernandez Cavada Brothers" they are the "Amazing Sánchez Sisters". The only thing that these women have in common with the Fernandez Cavada brothers is that they too were born in Cuba. However, unlike the "brothers", they were raised in the "south" and did not serve the Union forces during the Civil War; instead they became spies for the Confederacy.  

The main focus of this article is one of the sisters, Lola whose bravery resulted in a Confederate victory over the Union in what is known as the "Battle of Horse Landing". Now, one of the things which really called my attention while doing the research is that if you look for information about the “Battle of Horse Landing”, the “USS Columbine” or “Colonel John Jackson Dickison” you will not find any mention of the name Lola Sánchez, which is an injustice which I have attempted to correct by including her name and contributions in various articles in Wikipedia.  


EARLY YEARS                                       

Lola Sánchez (birth name: Deloris Sánchez) was one of five siblings, which included two sisters Panchita, Eugenia and two brothers Emanuel and Henry, born in Cuba. The Sánchez family immigrated to the United States in the latter part of the 1850s and settled on the banks of the St. John's River opposite Palatka, Florida, a town situated about 63 miles due south of Jacksonville.

 AMERICAN CIVIL WAR                            

Between 1840 and 1850, Palatka was a major shipping port for oaks, cedar, cotton, sugar and syrup. Goods were shipped down the Ocklawaha, loaded onto larger steamers in Palatka and plied north on the St. Johns River. In 1855, Col. Hubbard L. Hart started the first line of barge freighters on the Ocklawaha River. Pilatka had become a popular tourist destination, however its popularity as a tourist spot was interrupted by the Civil War, when gunboats cruised the waters and most of the town’s residents had abandoned Pilatka leaving it destitute and largely deserted. Palatka was soon occupied by Confederate troops which included Lola's brother. On October 7, 1862, the USS ''Cimarron'' fired several shells from the St. Johns River over the town after seeing some Confederate cavalry. Mary E. Boyd, wife of Robert T. Boyd, one of the wealthiest men in Palatka, pleaded with Union Commander Maxwell Woodhull to spare Pilatka, assuring him that the horse soldiers were not residents; he complied with her and spared the town. At one time, the town was occupied by 5,000 federal troops.  

During the Union occupation there was a leak of classified information about their plans reaching the Confederate Forces. The Union Army carried out an investigation to this respect and reached the false conclusion that Don Mauricio Sánchez, the family patriarch was a spy. The fact that his son belonged to the Confederate Army may have been the cause of the misunderstanding. The elderly Mr. Sánchez, who was ill, was arrested and imprisoned in Fort San Marco, also known as "Castillo de San Marcos," in St. Augustine. The incident inspired Lola to spy on the Union forces on behalf of the Confederacy. For her mission she required the aid of her sisters.

 
THE "BATTLE OF HORSE LANDING"                               

The Union Army occupied the Sánchez residence and guards were stationed to watch over the house. In the mean time, Lola and her sisters had to take care of their invalid mother and in order to make ends meet, they entertained the Union officers with conversation. The sisters would often prepare supper for the officers and their guests, giving those who dined a false sense of security. On May 21, 1864, three Union officers arrived at the residence with guests and as was the norm, were served supper. During the supper, the officers and their guests felt confident enough to discuss the plans that their unit had for a raid against the Confederate forces which was to take place the next morning. The plan consisted of a surprise attack on the Confederates while they slept with the aim of proceeding to St. Augustine to "liberate" supplies for the Union army.   

Lola overheard the conversation and told her sisters what she heard. She decided that it was of utmost importance to notify Captain John Jackson Dickison, commander of the Confederate force the 2nd Florida Cavalry in Camp Davis, just a mile and a half from her home. Her sisters agreed to help by covering up her absence. Panchita entertained the troops while Eugenia prepared supper with the supposed help of Lola. Lola left her house alone that night and rode on horseback through the thick forest. She came upon a Confederate picket. She told him what she heard, but the picket was unable to leave his post. She then proceeded to the camp where she met with Capt. Dickison. After the meeting she returned home. The whole event took an hour and a half and her absence went unnoticed by the Union soldiers.  

That night Capt. Dickison and his men crossed the St. Johns River and set a trap. They waited for the arrival of the Union transport and gunboat. On May 22, the Union forces plans were foiled when they were ambushed upon their arrival. The Confederate forces had placed artillery guns on the banks of the river and opened fire on the approaching Union gunboats. The skirmish which followed, officially known as the "Battle of Horse Landing", occurred south of St. Augustine. Union Colonel William H. Nobles, commander of the 17th Connecticut Infantry, was wounded in the ambush and taken prisoner. The rest of the Union soldiers were either captured or killed. The "USS Columbine" a side-wheel steamer/gunboat was disabled and set on fire. Of the 148 men aboard the Columbine, only 66 survived and the rest were killed. This was one of the few instances in which a Union warship was captured by land-based Confederate forces during the Civil War and the only known incident in US history where a cavalry unit sank an enemy gunboat. The Confederates also captured a Union pontoon boat and renamed it "The Three Sisters" in honor of the Sanchez sisters.  

Lola's sister Panchita, decided to plead for her fathers release from prison. She obtained a pass to travel St. Augustine where she pleaded for her father's freedom. "Panchita offered to take the place of her father as a prisoner in exchange for his freedom. After listening to her plea, the prison authorities let her father go and they both were allowed to return home. The spy activities of the sisters, which continued during the duration of the war, were never discovered by the Union Army.  

POST-WAR AND LEGACY  

Little is known of what became of Lola and her sister Eugenia. What is known is that the three sisters married former Confederate officers and that Lola's sister Panchita moved to South Carolina with her husband. Panchita had six children and died in 1931.  

In 1909, the State Convention of the United Daughters of the Confederacy was held in St. Augustine and the two daughters of Lola and Panchita were pages, in honor of their mothers' service to the Confederacy. The names of Lola Sanchez and her sisters appear in gold letters on a plaque with the names of 106 Confederate heroines that hangs in the United Daughters of the Confederacy Memorial Building in Richmond, Virginia.

MEXICAN TEXANS 
IN 
THE CIVIL WAR

Spanish SURNAMES

Historia y Genealogia de las Familias Bonilla, Melendez y Galvis 

CUENTOS

TIE THE BAGS  SHUT!  

At the age of ten, I was smaller, scrawnier, and much weaker than my twelve-year-old brother. I thought he expected too much of me. 

There was no sympathy in Louie’s eyes. He was just as miserable as I was. His nose and ears were red, his hands pink from the bone-chilling cold.

 “The sooner we get this done, the sooner we get to go inside where it’s warm.” Our instructions from Dad were to fill twenty gunny sacks with coal from a huge pile in our yard, and have them ready for customers. The coal was not heavy, but the chore was dirty, and the howling wind stung our eyes. 

Mimi, Check this out. I'm just sharing. It is from my first book, and I believe it is a story that also appeared in Somos Primos.
I know it was in Reminisce Holiday Book this last Christmas.

From: "Catherine Sherwood" <Catherine@CatherineSherwood.com>
To: bromero98@comcast.net
Sent: Thursday, June 16, 2011 12:21:40 PM
Subject: RE: Christmas in Nambe

Mr. Ben Romero:

I work for the New Mexico Centennial Foundation, and Dennis Trujillo and Rick Hendricks of the New Mexico Office of the State Historian are on our Board. My job is to provide blogs or short articles for the www.NMCentennial.org website. We are using the content to attract corporate donors who will sponsor these blogs / articles. The State Historian’s Office said that I could use their collection of stories on their digital archives. Some of the content that I want to use is in the public domain, but I was told that I need direct permission from you for your story.

“Christmas in Nambe” would appear in the 47th State Blog section of the website under a Blog “channel” called New Mexico Stories. We would provide attribution to you (let me know the exact wording you want) and it would be published sometime this year. (We haven’t created a schedule yet.)

If you are comfortable in allowing the New Mexico Centennial Foundation to publish this story online please let me know. It is a great story and we would appreciate this contribution from you.

Catherine Sherwood
505.292.4433 office | 505.214.5600 fax | 505.550.6106 cell
Catherine@CatherineSherwood.com | http://CatherineSherwood.com

Rain, rain and more rain

So this week we had a lot of rain. I actually lost my umbrella in the area a week or so ago and I am going home in only a few weeks, so it is pointless to buy a new one. Thus, I got wet. Very, very wet. Today, being P day, we went to the capital to get some stuff done and it started pouring. Pretty much the whole time we were out doing errands, it rained. Right when we got on the bus to go home, it stopped. Talk about bad timing. We had to wade through rivers in even some of the biggest roads in the country. It was all fine, I just wish I could have gone home to a hot shower. oh well.

(His mother, my daughter inserted: Elder Skousen hasn't had a hot shower in almost two years. He currently "showers" with a water bottle or outside with the hose. He said the first thing he wants to do when he returns home is stop at IN N OUT on the way back from the airport and then jump in the jacuzzi!) 

With all the rain, the mosquitoes have multiplied. We have a nice big infestation. :) We were in the Bishop's house last week when the mosquitoes descended. No joke, I killed more than 50 mosquitoes in the 20 minutes we talked with the bishop. The floor was littered with the corpses of the blood suckers I had killed. The bishop called me an artist at killing mosquitoes. When we left, I had to say sorry for getting his floor dirty with all the dead insects. haha.

My thought this week is on being grateful and enjoying the little things. A lot of the time, we take most of the things we have for granted. I know I did before the mission. I never really appreciated everything I had until I saw how people live with nothing (like people with 10 dollars and a tin shack to their name). At one point, I made a gratitude journal in the mission. It helped me see the little things I had when I had to stretch some days. Strength to work, waterproof shoes, stuff like that. When we notice the little things, we enjoy them more. Instead of saying ¨Dang! walking through all this water stinks,¨ we can say ¨Boy am I glad I have some nice shoes without holes in them.¨ Obviously this saying comes from a new missionary because all missionaries get holes in their shoes, but you get the picture. Gratitude is a Christ like attribute that we all should develop. Sometimes we need to search to be grateful for even the smallest things.

That is about it for this week. We have a conference tomorrow which should be fun. Also, we have a baptism planned for next Saturday which I am really excited for. Overall, the area is looking good, if not wet. I hope everyone has a great week! Adios!

Elder Collin Skousen
Countdown: 2 letters left

ON THE SUBJECT OF BLOGS and JOURNALS 

FAMILY HISTORY RESEARCH

Researching Family Ancestry