December 2013
Table of Contents

December 2013

 Letter to Jesus, Oil on canvas by Leroy Martinez
On display at the Pentagon, Veteran Art Program.  Click for more information

United States
Obituary of Leaders
Issues
Action Item

Culture
Education
Books/Print Media

Latino Patriots
Early  Patriots
Surnames
DNA
Family History

Orange Co., CA
Los Angeles, 
California
Northwest US
Southwest US
Middle America
Texas

Mexico
Indigenous
Sephardic
African-American

East Coast
Caribbean/Cuba
Central/ South Am

Archaeology
Philippines
Spain
International

Editor:  Mimi Lozano 
Somos Primos ©2000-2013
P.O. Box 415
Midway City, CA  92683

"When the government fear the people there is liberty; 
when the people fear the government there is tyranny." 
~Thomas Jefferson

"Patriotism means to stand by your country. 
It does not mean to stand by the president."
President Theodore Roosevelt 

LOS PASTORES

(THE SHEPHERD’S NATIVITY PLAY)

By Frederick P. Aguirre
Superior Court Judge
Orange County, California
November 18, 2013  

My father, Alfred Aguirre, recalled that Jesus Ortega, a fellow from Corona, California had memorized the entire “cuaderno” (script of the play). He would sit in the barbershop with one leg crossed over, slightly bent over with one hand on his forehead, smoking a cigarette and patiently reciting the lines whenever an actor forgot his cue or his lines.  

The play opens with a chorus in the background singing the opening hymn:  

Suddenly Lucifer appears resplendent in a flowing gown with a grotesque, brightly painted wooden mask.  He curses his fall from grace, asserts his control over man then hides when he sees seven shepherds approaching. They are plainly dressed but carry elaborately decorated 7 foot crooks and beaded satchels.  

Tebano, one of the shepherds, proclaims that an Angel appeared to him and said:

“Pastores, no tengan miedo
Que en el portal de Belen
Veremos en breve tiempo
Y si no lo quieren creer
Miralo, aqui esta muy bello
Que parese un sol divino
De los cielos un lucero!”

“Shepherds, be not afraid
For in a manger in Bethlehem
You soon shall see
You doubt me? Look at this sight
It appears a divine sun
From dark heavens so bright!”

“Veneno he de respirar
Volcanes he de ensender
Y al hombre que ha de nacer
Mil injurias preparar.
Desesperado de andar
Al hombre me he de opener

Y si no lo puedo hacer
Sere su enemigo eterno
Que yo todo compondre
Con marcharme a los infiernos!”

Eight-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of New York's Sun, and the quick response was printed as an unsigned editorial Sept. 21, 1897. The work of veteran newsman Francis Pharcellus Church has since become history's most reprinted newspaper editorial, appearing in part or whole in dozens of languages in books, movies, and other editorials, and on posters and stamps.


"DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old.
"Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
"Papa says, 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so.'
"Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?

"VIRGINIA O'HANLON.
"115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET."

(Virginia O'Hanlon, circa 1895)

 I would like to greet everybody:
FELIZ NAVIDAD Y UN PROSPERO AñO NUEVO;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMtuVP8Mj4o
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_b6NTU8j3tM     

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=On5s3tWdlHo 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQhslZxHvcs

MALIGAYANG PASKO AT MANIGUNG BAGUNG TAON
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZKlW8zskGE 

HISPANICS BREAKING BARRIERS

Third  Volume 

 ^4th Issue

By

Mercy Bautista-Olvera

Roberto R. Herencia:  Board of Directors of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation Member  

Sylvia I. Garcia:  Texas State Senate, District 6   

Ernest J. Moniz:  Secretary of Energy, Massachusetts  

Alan Etevez:  Principal Deputy under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, 
                      Department of Defense

Judge Veronica Galvan

Veronica Galvan was born in Bremerton, Washington she grew up in the Yakima Valley where her father picked fruit for a living. She became the first member of her family to attend a university. 

Judge Veronica Galvan is married to Alex Alicea, an Army veteran and junior varsity baseball coach for Chief Sealth International High School in Seattle, Washington. They have a daughter, Simone, a sophomore at Northwestern University in Chicago, and a son, Zane, a freshman at Chief Sealth International High School.

Judge Galvan earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology with a Criminology concentration at Western Washington University.  In 1994, she earned a Jurist Degree from the   University of Washington School of Law.

She served as an Assistant City Attorney in Seattle. In this capacity, she served as a member of a unit specializing in the prosecution of domestic violence, as well as elder and child abuse cases. She then served as prosecuting attorney for the city of Federal Way.

She was appointed to a full time position in 2001, in 2007, Judge Galvan was appointed to the present position and has served for the past six years.

Judge Galvan took the bench in 2001, and was appointed to a full time judicial position in 2002. In 2007, Judge Galvan was appointed to the Des Moines Municipal Court and has continued to serve the community with distinction for the past six years. Judge Galvan took the bench in 2001, and was appointed to a full time judicial position in 2002. In 2007, Judge Galvan was appointed to the Des Moines Municipal Court and has continued to serve the community with distinction for the past six years.As presiding Judge in Des Moines, Judge Galvan secured grants to benefit the community. This helped to fund public defense services, secure a van for transporting prisoners to and from court, provide for security improvements to the courtroom, and obtain technology upgrades that resulted in efficiency and cost savings to the city.

“Public servants are stewards of the public trust and confidence,” stated Judge Galvan. “I want to ensure that we use the limited resources we have in an efficient manner. As a leader of a court, a judge needs to be innovative in securing resources that will benefit the local community and reduce direct costs for our citizens,” stated Judge Galvan.

“I have been honored to serve the City of Des Moines, over my past six years here; I have built a proven record of experience, dedication, and knowledge. It would be my privilege to continue serving the people of this community,” stated Judge Galvan.

Judge Veronica Galvan has been a Judge for 11 years, for the last six years she has been the Presiding Judge for the City of Des Moines Municipal Court.  Judge Galvan also teaches Spanish to lawyers at Seattle University School of Law.

Roberto R. Herencia, former President and CEO of Midwest Banc Holdings Inc. and Midwest Bank and Trust, is now serving as a member of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation Board of Directors.

Roberto R. Herencia was born in Puerto Rico. He graduated Magna Cum Laude and received his Bachelor’s Degree in Science in Business Administration   in Finance from Georgetown University and his Master’s Degree in Business Administration from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. 

He served for the First National Bank of Chicago (now J.P. Morgan Chase) in a variety of roles, including Deputy Senior Credit Officer and Head of the Emerging Markets Division.

He later served as Executive Vice President and President of Popular Inc. building a distinct $12 billion community bank with 138 branches in five of the largest urban markets located across six states. 

Herencia is a Trustee of the Museum of Science and Industry, DePaul University, and Northwestern Memorial Foundation in Chicago.  He served on the Board of Directors of Junior Achievement of Chicago, the Navy Pier Corporation in Chicago, Operation Hope in Los Angeles, and New America Alliance. He is a former member of the Board of Directors of the ServiceMaster Company, a registered public corporation, where he served as Chairman of its Audit and Finance Committee.

In 2004, he was selected as “Latino Executive of New York” by the Metropolitan New York Better Business Bureau Foundation. Herencia has other numerous awards for his civic contributions including the Distinguished Corporate Citizenship Award from the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs, the Evy Award from A Silver Lining Foundation, “Champion of Charity,” and the prestigious Ellis Island Medal of Honor.

Sylvia R. Garcia was sworn into the Texas State Senate, District 6, on March 11, 2013, the seventh woman and the third Hispanic woman to serve in the upper chambers, after winning a special runoff election for the seat of the late state Senator Mario Gallegos.

Sylvia R. Garcia was born in Palito Blanco a South Texas a farming community. She is the eighth of ten children.  

She attended Texas Woman’s University on a scholarship, graduated with a degree in Social Work. She went further and earned her Doctor Jurist Degree from Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University.

Sylvia knew it was also her responsibility to give back to her community. As a social worker early in her professional career, Sylvia protected our community’s most vulnerable. Whether it was our children or our elderly, she made sure no one was forgotten.

Shortly afterwards, Sylvia entered her public service career in Houston, Texas. She served as Director and Presiding Judge of the Houston Municipal System for an unprecedented five terms under two mayors. There, she made the city court system effective and efficient for the community.

When Sylvia was elected to City Controller, she earned a reputation as the taxpayers' watchdog that fought to protect the pocketbooks of working families. Recalling the struggles of her own parents, she knew every dollar counts when raising a family. That is why she made sure city government was transparent and accountable.

In 2002, Sylvia was elected to Harris County Commissioner's Court. The first Hispanic and first woman to be elected in her own right to the office, Garcia replaced Commissioner Jim Fonteno who served nearly 30 years on the Court.   

She continued her advocacy for working families and made certain Harris County was taking care of its most vulnerable; all the while making certain Harris County led the way for new jobs and economic development.

Active in the Houston community, Sylvia has served on more than 25 community boards and commissions, including the San Jacinto Girl Scouts, the Houston Hispanic Forum, the American Leadership Forum, the Texas Southern University Foundation, and the Institute of Hispanic Culture.

Sylvia has been named "Humanitarian of the Year" by the National Conference of Communities and Justice and chosen as one of "Houston’s 25 Power People" by “Inside Houston” magazine. The Houston Press also named her "Politician of the Year." She is also a recipient of the Texas Woman’s University Board of Regents Woman of Distinction Award, the Hispanic Scouting Distinguished Citizen Award from the Sam Houston Area Council/Boy Scouts of America, and the Board Award from the San Jacinto Girl Scouts.

“I have been fighting for the families of District 6 and for Texas families since I became a social worker right after college, as city controller, as judge, as county commissioner, it’s always been about fighting for people first,” stated Garcia.  

She also stated that she wants to restore the $5.4 billion cut from public education that occurred during the last legislative session. “It’s about making sure that we fully fund public education,” she said. “Right now, Texas is 48 of 50 states in funding public education and that is just not good enough.”  

Ernest J. Moniz of Massachusetts is a nuclear physicist and the new selected United States Secretary of Energy.  

Moniz was born in Fall River, Massachusetts and the son of Georgina (Pavao) and Ernest Perry Moniz both of Portuguese decent.  

In 1962, Ernest J. Moniz graduated from Durfee High School where he was a member of the National Honor Society and served as President of the school’s math club. In 1966, he received a Bachelor’s of Science in Physics from Boston College, and in 1971, he received his PhD. in Theoretical Physics from Stanford University.  

In 1973, Moniz joined the faculty of Massachusetts Institute of Technology   serving as Head of the Department of Physics from 1991 to 1995 and as Director of the Bates Linear Accelerator Center.  He also co-chairs the MIT research council.  

From 1995 to 1997, he served in the Clinton Administration as Associate Director for Science in the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Executive Office of the President. He also served in the United States department of Energy   serving as Under Secretary of Energy.    

Alan F. Estevez is the Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics in the department of Defense.  

Alan Estevez was born in Arlington, New Jersey. “I bounced around for awhile loading trucks and kind of deciding what I wanted to do," stated Estevez. His father taught Spanish for 25 years after retiring from the Army as an Infantry Lieutenant Colonel. His grandparents are immigrants from Spain.

Estevez earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He also holds a Master’s of Science Degree in National Resource Strategy from the Industrial College of the Armed Forces (now the Eisenhower School) at the National Defense University, Washington, D.C.

As the Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, Estevez develops and implements strategies, and policies.

Prior to his current appointment,   Estevez held several key positions within the Office of the Secretary of Defense.  Estevez served as the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Logistics and Materiel Readiness.  In this position, he was responsible for providing world class military logistics support to the men and women of the United States Armed Forces and managing a budget of over $170 billion in logistics operations.  He was the first career Federal official to hold this position. 

From October 2002 to November 2006, Estevez was the Assistant Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Supply Chain Integration and was responsible for developing global defense supply chain management and distribution policies.  From 1981 to 2002,   Estevez held positions of increasing responsibility within the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Department of the Army, and the Military Traffic Management Command.  

Estevez is a recipient of many awards such as the 2013 Distinguished Public Service Award, the 2011, Distinguished Civilian Service Award, the 2010, Presidential Rank Distinguished Executive Award, the 2006, Presidential Rank Meritorious Executive Award, two Office of the Secretary of Defense Medals for Meritorious Civilian Service, and the 2005, Service to America Medal awarded by the Partnership for Public Service. He was inducted into the Senior Executive Service in October 2002.

Estevez will share responsibility for a broad array of functions, including  developmental testing; contract administration; logistics and materiel readiness; installations and environment; operational energy; the acquisition workforce; the defense industrial base; and efforts to increase the Department’s buying power and improve the performance of the defense acquisition enterprise.  

I had just turned five a few weeks before, but I sensed that the news broadcast was not an invasion by the Germans or their allies, the Japanese, it was something different and much worse.  It frightened both of them.  Mom kept saying,  "Quiero ir con Mama y Papa, quiero ir con ellos. I want to go to my Mom and Dad's house," she kept repeating. "Llevame, llevame, te ruego,  llevame con ellos."  Please, I am begging you to take me to their house."   

We used to watch  Let's pretend,  The Lone Ranger,  The Shadow Knows, the Invisible Man, and the Green Hornet.   None of those programs ever put Mom in the state she was in. 

Dad suggested we stay in the house. Being out in the street would not be safe, instead we needed to secure the house as best we could, board up the windows with furniture and turn off the lights.  I knew then, that this was serious, and we were in some kind of danger.  Whatever a Martian was, it was not good.

Just as Dad started implementing the plan of securing the house for a possible invasion, the 60 minute radio show which aired over CBS suddenly ended, with a message hoping that all had enjoyed the night's Halloween treat.  

The Martian landing was identified as a special Halloween episode.  The whole newscast was fiction.  Mom and Dad looked stunned.  Mom cried in relief and Dad just shook his head, and smiled slightly, maybe amused for having been taken in.

The first two thirds of the 60-minute broadcast were presented as a series of simulated news bulletins, which suggested to many listeners that an actual alien invasion by Martians was currently in progress.  The script was based on a book by science fiction writer H.G. Wells, War of the Worlds. Orson Welles directed and starred in the dramatization.    

In the days following the adaptation, there was widespread outrage and panic by certain listeners, who had believed the events described in the program were real.[1] The program's news-bulletin format was described as cruelly deceptive by some newspapers and public figures, leading to an outcry against the perpetrators of the broadcast. Despite these complaints—or perhaps in part because of them—the episode secured Welles' fame as a dramatist.

I certainly never forgot the incident, and I am sure that there are others of you who also remember..  
                                                                                                                                                                             Orson Welles

However, over a seven-day period, from December 18 to 24, 1941, nine Japanese military submarines positioned at strategic points along the U.S. west coast attacked eight American merchant ships, of which two were sunk and two damaged. Six seamen were killed. It was the first and only time during the three years and eight months of war to come that more than one Japanese submarine appeared at the same time off the American coast. 

http://www.historynet.com/japanese-submarines-prowl-the-us-pacific-coastline-in-1941.htm

Fearing a mass panic that the Japanese had gotten so close to shore, the government confiscated newspaper reports about the sinking at the time and did not publicly disclose the event even into the Cold War, Eggers said.  In fact, Japanese submarines operated along the U.S. West Coast, although they did not sink the numbers of ships that German U-boats claimed along the East Coast and Gulf of Mexico.  In addition to the Montebello, two other tankers were sunk on the coast off Oregon and Crescent City, California.

The captain surfaced his submarine near an oil field pier just north of the Santa Barbara suburb of Goleta. The submarine shelled the pier, damaging it. He also ordered shelling of the area around, but no damage was done, since it was primarily farmland there.

Since there has be little or no mention of this bombing in history books, it can be assumed that the news was suppressed. It certainly was a significant event, even if the damage was slight. My husband who was brought up in Brooklyn, knew nothing about the Japanese bombing of Santa Barbara. Thank goodness for google that made it easy to make find and prove the validity of my memory.  

San Francisco was wary of an attack by the Japanese. In fact, they were in process of building gun emplacements on the hills by Fort Baker, just on the other side of the Golden Gate bridge, near Sausalito.

I asked my 92 year old Tia, Alicia Reynoso de Chapa if she remembers anything about the Japanese attack on Santa Barbara.  She said she remembered the attack on Santa Barbara clearly, and also that some Japanese soldiers had been captured, smuggled into California by submarines.  

Although, I was only 8 years old, I remember very well the night of February 23, 1942.  We had just recently moved to East L.A.  Our house, though in need of repair, was ours.  It was built on one of the small hills in the area. It seems impossible that we could view from Los Angeles something happening in Santa Barbara, but we did. I remember standing next to my Dad, on the grass in the front of the house, looking towards Santa Barbara.  You could hear the explosions, slightly, and the lights from the exploding shells were visible from our home. I asked my Dad what it was we were looking at.  He answered slowly and matter-of-factly, "the Japanese are attacking Santa Barbara."  Even though we had only recently moved into our house, very soon after the Santa Barbara shelling, we moved again. It was a big change in many ways, but only lasted for the rest of the school year.  Dad closed his dry cleaning/tailoring shop and got a job within the government war effort.  Dad  moved us inland to Ontario, far from the coast, to a rented house, and left our house standing empty.  

Interestingly, the reaction to this attack on Santa Barbara was minimized in the news.  Many reporters on the East Coast thought this was another Hollywood set-up, like the War of the World radio scare..  My husband, who was brought up in Brooklyn, and a couple of years older, did not believe my account of the Santa Barbara attack.  "Never happened," he said, "Why didn't we know about it?"  Via the internet resources I was able to find and present the facts to him. Thank goodness for the internet and google.  
The facts can set the records straight.  

Judge Raquel Marquez-Britsch          

 A Wise Latina

 By
Mercy Bautista-Olvera

Judge Raquel Marquez-Britsch

On January 27, 2011, Judge Raquel Marquez-Britsch became Riverside County Superior Court's first Latina judge in the combined Riverside-San Bernardino counties. Her first judicial assignment was at the Southwest Justice Center in French Valley. 

Raquel Marquez was born in California, her parents, Guadalupe and Jesus came to the Coachella Valley as migrant farm workers from Zacatecas, Mexico. In 1960 Jesus Marquez worked in cotton fields as a bracero. The bracero program was begun to bring workers from Mexico during World War II, when a shortage of American men threatened the nation's harvests. But even after the soldiers came home, the program continued because cheap labor had become a staple of agriculture. Eventually her parents own restaurant, called Lupita's.

Marquez-Britsch and her siblings all graduated from college -- UCLA, Stanford, Santa Clara, and Harvard. In May in 2012, her brother Miguel was appointed as the first Latino judge in the 6th District Court of Appeal, and her sister, Leticia Marquez-Magana, is a biology professor at California State San Francisco.

Judge Marquez- Britsch is married to Hans Thomas Britsch of Swiss and Austrian ancestry. He operates a farm growing cactus and succulents. His parents, Hans and Gretel Britsch (their actual names) immigrated from Brig, Switzerland, to America. Hans Thomas’ father was born in Switzerland, and his mother Gretel, fled Austria to Brig, where they met.  His father worked days as a landscape architect, and his mother

worked nights as a registered nurse. Eventually they opened Western Cactus, a nursery in Vista in California.

Spanish was Marquez-Britsch first language; she learned English in a Head Start program.  She received her undergraduate degree from Santa Clara University and her Jurist Degree from the University of California Los Angeles School of Law.

Since 1991, Marquez-Britsch served in the District Attorney’s office where she served as a Senior Deputy District Attorney in Riverside County, On December 2011, California Governor Jerry Brown appointed her to the bench.  

In Perris (a Riverside County city) Raquel learned to prosecute cases and made some of her most valued memories working alongside many esteemed colleagues that now serve on the bench, or have since retired. For her misdemeanor jury trial work, Raquel was awarded “Misdemeanor Deputy of the Year.” She later became a trial-team leader and handled serious felony trials in juvenile court.

Raquel consistently worked to attain the stiffest punishment for the most violent criminals. Many of her cases were highlighted in the “Daily Journal” - a California legal newspaper. Raquel also drafted legislation that amended Penal Code sections 1050 and 1050.5 and she litigated People v. Henderson (2004) 115 Cal.App.4th 922, a case that stopped an emerging trend in California that threatened the dismissal of cases due to court congestion. In addition, as a senior attorney, Raquel provided in-house training for prosecutors in Riverside, Indio, and the Southwest area of Riverside County, on numerous procedural and substantive issues

She worked   with the Southwest Corridor Narcotics Task Force to assist with the review of search warrants, to assist with the investigation, and ultimately to prosecute individuals engaged in methamphetamine production. Thereafter, she was assigned to the Complaints Unit at the Southwest Court.

Raquel also works closely with the Sheriff's Department, Probation, DPSS, Mental Health, the Riverside County Office of Education's Safe Schools Unit, and school districts throughout Riverside County to develop strategies to better address juvenile delinquency and to promote safe schools and safe neighborhoods.   

She worked with the Superior Court to develop collaborative early intervention truancy and delinquency courts throughout the County and so far, four are up and running in Blythe, Hemet, San Jacinto, and Temecula. She has also worked to update municipal codes to better address juvenile delinquency. Additionally, Raquel has worked to develop a multi-agency comprehensive law enforcement curriculum that will educate all middle-school students in Riverside County about our criminal laws and our system of justice

Raquel was honored by the Riverside County Board of Supervisors and by the Riverside County Commission for Women as the Third District "Woman of the Year." She was also honored by the Riverside and San Bernardino Catholic Charities Organization as their “Person of the Year.”

She was sworn in by Judge Helios J. Hernandez in the downtown Riverside Hall of Justice were several judges and appellate justices attended, along with state Assemblyman Manuel Perez, Riverside Police Chief Sergio Diaz, Riverside City Councilman Andy Melendez, and Marquez’s two previous supervisors, District Attorney Paul Zellerbach and former District Attorney Grover Trask.

Their three sons, two want to go into law, but the youngest wants to raise livestock in Vista on his grandparents' land. ‘I love picturing him there, in the valleys where the hills are golden at the ends of summer, herding cows, maybe with the cowbell his Swiss-born grandfather brought when he came here, maybe holding a lunch packed for him by his Mexican-born grandparents, who made thousands of meals in their lives, so that their daughter could make history. After she finished washing the dishes, doing her homework, and dreaming of her future -- as do we all here,” stated Judge Marquez-Britsch.

She's made history and been a role model for countless women in California -- especially Latinas, but also an inspiration for all women who are mothers, children of immigrants, and even women who want to work in jurisprudence and law.

The couple three sons -- Mexican-Swiss-Austrian American,   have big plans. Two want to go into law, but the youngest wants to raise cows in Vista on his grandparents' land. “I love picturing him there, in the valleys where the hills are golden at the ends of summer, herding cows, maybe with the cowbell his Swiss-born grandfather brought when he came here, maybe holding a lunch packed for him by his Mexican-born grandparents, who made thousands of meals in their lives, so that their daughter could make history,” stated Judge

She has also written some novels: Her new novel "Between Heaven and Here"   McSweeney's Books. Her novel "Highwire Moon" is about a California-born daughter searching for her Mexican-born mother. Doug McCulloh's photographs have been exhibited across the U.S. and in Mexico, Europe, and China. His fourth book "Dream Street" chronicles the builders, workers, and homebuyers of a subdivision in Southern California.  

For the past 19-years, Senior Deputy District Attorney Marquez has dedicated her legal career to serving the People of Riverside County as a prosecutor in the District Attorney's Office. During the early part of her career, Raquel was assigned to do trial

work. In this capacity, Raquel prosecuted thousands of felony and misdemeanor cases involving domestic violence, robbery, drugs and other serious and violent crimes.  

Marquez-Britsch, is the first Latina judge in the combined Riverside-San Bernardino counties, where nearly half the population, is about 2 million people, are Latinos. "I'm a bracero's daughter, to be a judge here, in the Inland Empire, means everything."

She's made history and been a role model for countless women in California -- especially Latinas, but also an inspiration for all women who are mothers, children of immigrants, and even women who want to work in jurisprudence and law.

For the past 19-years, Senior Deputy District Attorney Raquel Marquez has dedicated her legal career to serving the People of Riverside County as a prosecutor in the District Attorney's Office. 

CUENTO

My father, my Hero

"Great memories make life a little easier."  

By
Mercy Bautista-Olvera

Writing about Judge Raquel Marquez-Britsch (above) brought back bittersweet childhood memories and was special to me; her story was different than mine, but similar in a way that her father worked as a Bracero just like my dad.  he sad and happy memories about my father Marcelino R. Bautista, who eventually joined and worked as a Bracero, leaving his family back in Mexico. I’m a ‘Bracero’s’ daughter too! 

 Marcelino R. Bautista

National Park Service Submits Recommendation to Congress

to Establish New National Historical Park

to Honor César Chávez and the Farm Labor Movement

Under Special Resource Study’s preferred alternative, newly-established César E. Chávez National Monument would act as cornerstone for national historical park.

Release Date: October 24, 2013
Contacts: Mike Litterst, mike_litterst@nps.gov 202-513-0354

WASHINGTON, DC - In response to a request from Congress to study sites related to the life of César Chávez and the farm labor movement, the National Park Service today transmitted a final resource study recommending the establishment of a new national historical park to interpret the life of the civil rights leader and preserve the places important to the Farm Labor Movement.

“César Chávez was one of the most important labor and civil rights leaders of the 20^th century, and the Farm Movement he led improved the lives of millions of agricultural workers,” said National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis. “Sites associated with his life and the movement he led are an important part of American history and should be included in the National Park System not only to honor his legacy but also to ensure that future generations learn about what the movement accomplished. I am pleased to transmit these recommendations to Congress for their consideration.” 

“César Chávez was at the epicenter of some of the most significant achievements of the Civil Rights and labor movements in our nation’s history and through his leadership, farmworkers achieved unprecedented labor, political and social gains,” Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell said. “Recognizing these sites associated with his leadership of the United Farm Workers as part of a national historical park will ensure that his contributions to the Civil Rights movement will be preserved and shared as an inspiration for future generations.” 

Historians from the National Park Service, and California State University, Fullerton evaluated approximately 100 sites related to Chávez and the farm labor movement in developing the report, entitled the César Chávez Special Resource Study, which was requested by Congress in the Consolidated Natural Resources Act of 2008 (P.L 110-229.)

The report not only considered sites for inclusion in the park system but also for additional designations, such as listing in the National Register of Historic Places or designation as a national historic landmark. It also identifies five management alternatives exploring a range of approaches to manage, protect, or restore significant resources and to provide or enhance public use and enjoyment.

The National Park Service has identified the creation of a national historical park as the preferred alternative, as it would protect the largest number of nationally significant resources related to the farm labor movement, including opportunities for protection of the national historical park sites in perpetuity.

Through the special resource study process and public comment period, the NPS made the following determinations:

• Of the approximately 100 sites evaluated, five have preliminarily been found to be nationally significant: the Forty Acres National Historic Landmark, Delano, Calif.; Filipino Community Hall, Delano, Calif.; César E. Chávez National Monument at Nuestra Señora Reina de la Paz, Keene, Calif.; the Santa Rita Center, Phoenix, Ariz.; and the route of the 1966 Delano to Sacramento March. The 1966 Delano to Sacramento route also meets eligibility criteria for designation as a national historic trail.
  
• A partnership-based national park site or technical assistance program which provides opportunities for collaborative management to protect cultural resources, provide public access, interpretation, and educational opportunities at certain sites associated with the life of César E. Chávez and the farm labor movement is a feasible addition to the U.S. National Park System.
  
• There is a need for National Park Service management to achieve partnership-based protection of significant resources and enhanced visitor appreciation of the important resources and stories associated with the life of César E. Chávez and the farm labor movement.

Under the preferred alternative transmitted to Congress today, the César E. Chávez National Monument in Keene, Calif. would serve as a cornerstone for the new national historical park. The monument was created on October 8, 2012, by President Obama as the 398th unit of the National Park System and includes Chávez’ home and the headquarters of the United Farm Workers of America (UFW) since the early 1970s when Chávez was its president. It is funded in part by the American Latino Heritage Fund of the National Park Foundation, which supports the work of the National Park Service in preserving historic places that tell a more inclusive story of American Latinos' economic, civic and cultural contributions to the American experience.

If approved by Congress, the National Park Service would manage these sites under a partnership arrangement in which current owners would maintain ownership and management functions in most cases, while the Service would coordinate the sites and an additional network of related resources. This approach allows the Park Service to focus on interpretation, education, technical assistance, and cooperative efforts at several historically significant sites, while limiting federal ownership.

Since Congress authorized the study in 2008, the National Park Service has hosted a series of public meetings to present the draft study report, answer questions, and accept comments. The final report, including a recommended course of action from the Secretary of the Interior, is now being transmitted to Congress.

More information and the draft study are available at www.nps.gov/pwro/chavez.

www.nps.gov

About the National Park Service. More than 20,000 National Park Service employees care for America's 401 national parks and work with communities across the nation to help preserve local history and create close-to-home recreational opportunities. Visit us at www.nps.gov, on Facebook www.facebook.com/nationalparkservice, Twitter www.twitter.com/natlparkservice, and YouTube www.youtube.com/nationalparkservice.

Three-Fourths of Hispanics Say

Their Community Needs a Leader

Most Hispanics Cannot Name One

Pew Research Hispanic Trends Project (October 22, 2013)

The report, "Three-Fourths of Hispanics Say Their Community Needs a Leader," authored by Mark Hugo Lopez, director of Hispanic research, is available at http://www.pewresearch.org/hispanic.

Three-quarters of Latinos living in the United States say that their community needs a national leader, but about the same share either cannot name one or don't believe one exists, according to a new national survey of Hispanic adults by the Pew Research Center.

When asked to name the person they consider "the most important Hispanic leader in the country today," 62% say they don't know and an additional 9% say "no one." Yet, three-quarters of Hispanic adults say it is "extremely" (29%) or "very" important (45%) for the U.S. Hispanic community to have a national leader advancing its concerns. This sentiment is higher among foreign-born and Spanish-dominant Hispanics.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) were each cited by 5% of survey respondents as the most important Hispanic leader in the country today. Former Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (3%) and U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (2%) were the only others mentioned by more than 2% of respondents.

The survey was conducted at a time when Latino political leaders and civic organizations have been pressing hard for legislation in Congress to create a pathway to citizenship for the estimated 11.7 million immigrants, the vast majority of them Latino, who are living in this country illegally.

Even though most Latinos say their community needs a national leader to advance its concerns, the survey finds that not all Latinos agree that their community has shared values. Four-in-ten (39%) Latinos say that U.S. Latinos of different origins share "a lot" of values, while another 39% say U.S. Latinos share "some" values. An additional 19% say that they share few or no values. Immigrant Latinos are more likely than native-born Latinos to say those of their Latino origin group have a lot of values in common with Latinos from different countries living in the U.S. (43% versus 33%).

When asked how many values U.S. Hispanics share with people living in their families' country of origin, 38% say "a lot," 34% say "some," and 25% say "only a little" or "almost nothing." Among Hispanic-origin groups, Salvadorans are most likely to say they share a lot of values with those in their home country. By contrast, Cubans are the most likely to say they share only a little or almost nothing with people in their home country.

Among the report's other findings:

• Just one-in-five (20%) survey respondents say they most often describe themselves by the pan-ethnic labels "Hispanic" or "Latino." About half say they usually use their family's Hispanic-origin term (such as Mexican, Cuban, Salvadoran) to identify themselves, followed by 23% who use "American" most often.

• When asked which pan-ethnic term they prefer, "Hispanic" or "Latino," half (50%) say they have no preference. When a preference is expressed, Hispanic (33%) is preferred over Latino (15%) by a margin of 2-1.

• Half (49%) of all Latinos say they consider themselves a typical American, while 44% say they feel different from the typical American----a share that rises to 67% among immigrants who came to the U.S. in the past five years.

• Some 57% of Puerto Ricans, 55% of Cubans and 53% of Dominicans say they think of themselves as a typical American. Among all Latinos, 49% say the same.

The survey was conducted from May 24 to July 28, 2013 by landline and cellular telephone, in English and Spanish, among a nationally representative sample of 5,103 Hispanic adults. The margin of error for the survey was plus or minus 2.1 percentage points.

Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan source of data and analysis. It does not take advocacy positions. Its Hispanic Trends Project, founded in 2001, seeks to improve understanding of the U.S. Hispanic population and to chronicle Latinos' growing impact on the nation. 

Sent by  Juan Ramos  jramos.swkr@verizon.net  MIMI CHECK IS IT JUAN OR JOE

HIGHLIGHTING HISPANIC CONTRIBUTIONS TO AMERICA  

Lino Garcia,Jr., Ph.D (Tulane)

On October 12, 1492, Cristóbal Colón and his Spanish crew aboard three ships “La Pinta, La Niña”, and “La Santa María”, sailed from the mother country of Spain and landed on what later became known as America. Thus began the colonization of the New World,  later on known  as “La Nueva España”. These efforts by the Spanish authorities were so huge, so impressive in their methods, so widespread, and marvelously designed that no other nation since has, indeed, emerged to equal the splendor of this adventure into newfound lands.

Cristóbal Colón’s “Diario de Abordo”, a narrative that detailed his encounters in America, its people, its wonders to behold, and sent to King Fernando, alerted the Spanish Crown of the huge possibilities for new treasures, as well for an opportunity to spread “La Santa Fe” into new areas. New expeditions, almost all of them self-financed, soon made their way to “La Nueva España”, thus in essence giving start to the first phase of this huge enterprise.

•      THE SPANISH EXPLORATION AND CONQUEST OF THE AMERICAS

The first phase entailed the bringing of the Hispanic people to these lands. Thus, any individual in the Americas presently enjoying a Spanish surname, or partaking of the Hispanic culture can proudly identify with this glorious adventure ,with its undertakings, and with its huge contributions throughout the centuries.

Captain Hernán Cortés and his crew of Spanish soldiers landed in present day Veracruz, México in 1519, and having made friends with the Tlaxcaltecan Indians, and hearing of the vast richness of the Aztec Empire, ventured through and made their way to its capital: Tenochtitlan. After having met Muctezuma, the Emperor of the Aztecs, Hernán Cortés had a few elements on his side that gave him the advantage over such a huge empire. One was his mistress and  Indian interpreter Doña Malinche, the other was the belief among Aztec that a Fair God would one day come from afar to conquer them, and the third element was the Aztecs, so isolated within themselves for centuries, that they were petrified to see men on horseback and carrying rifles. They were simply overwhelmed by the new intruders into their land. Hernán Cortes took advantage of all of these elements that destiny has bestowed on so few men in history to conquer a nation. He later wrote his “Cartas de Relación”, a series of five letter to King Carlos I in which he detailed his encounter with Muctezuma, describing the new land, and its people, and when the conquest was finally accomplished in 1521, the second phase of this huge enterprise began.

•      THE SPANISH COLONIZATION OF THE AMERICAS

Efforts were started immediately by the Spanish Crown to send huge expeditions into “La Nueva España”, to explore and colonize in the name of the King of Spain all lands encountered by its Spanish soldiers. A “Casa de Contratación” was initiated in Sevilla, Spain to handle all activities dealing with this new phase of Spanish expansion, so huge an undertaking never seen before in the annals of history. A new social, cultural order soon replaced the Indian empire, and representatives of the King of Spain, known as Viceroys, were sent over to look over and administered so huge an empire. An “Encomienda System” was established to oversee the work done by Indians, and headed by an “adelantado” or “mayordomo”, who took charge of working the many mines of silver and gold. Following each ship load of Spanish individuals heading to “hacer las Américas” came young clergymen fresh from the best universities in Europe to dedicate their entire lives to the Christianization of the Indian population now subjects of the King of Spain, and as decreed by the Spanish Crown. This vast colonization during which time the Spanish Culture, with all of its wonders, that included religion, the Spanish language, the Hispanic traditions, and the genetic makeup of the Spanish people that included different ethnic groups that made the Spain of that time: Celtic, Visigoths, Romans, Greek, Iberian, Jewish, Basque and Arab genetic melting pot all made their  way to the Americas and that is what the present day Hispanic carry proudly in their veins, their looks, culture, and traditions, along with the later on acquired Indian heritage. The colonization effort lasted until 1821, when Mexico and the lands comprising almost two thirds of present day USA, to include Texas, New Mexico, California, Nevada, Colorado, Arizona, and certain areas north, obtained their Independence from Spain. Before that date, the present state of Texas had been mapped by Captain Alonso de Pineda in 1519 who traveled along the coast of Texas, but never landed. The distinction of being the first Hispanics to land on Texas soil belongs to Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, who along with Spanish soldiers were the first to land on Texas soil on November 6, 1528; thus starting the systematic colonization of Texas by Hispanics. Beginning in the early 18^th century, civilized life, with all of its amenities, cattle drives, farming, hospitals, schools, ranching, banking, and all other activities were part of Texas Hispanic life, now known as Tejanos. One important issue to note is the effective Hispanic participation in the American Revolution of 1776, given that many Hispanics served, helped out with finances, and Tejano cattle barons such as the Seguín, the Flores, and other prominent Tejano ranchers herded their cattle to the shores to help feed the hungry soldiers fighting the British Army, and in essence distinguishing themselves as true patriots in the fight against England. General Bernardo de Gálvez made his famous “Marcha de Gálvez” in the south that helped defeat the British,  and assuring the victory of Americans against a common enemy. Since the start of the Republic, whenever there has been a struggle involving the USA, one can be sure, the Hispanic individual has been there or will be there defending this country.

•       THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE  FROM SPAIN

Indeed, when Padre Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla proclaimed his “ El Grito” for Independence on September 16,1810, this also resonated and liberated Hispanics everywhere in the Southwestern part of present day USA. Two skirmishes in support of Hidalgo’s cry for freedom occurred on Texas soil , led by Hispanics: a) the “de las Casas Rebellion” of 1811; and the “Battle of Medina of 1813”; these two revolts lead in sentiment and framework toward the Battle of the Alamo of 1836 helping to liberate Texans of all persuasions. The Independence Movement also arrived in Texas and other states in 1821 and soon after Northerners were permitted to enter the then Mexican controlled lands. The few years after spelled a decisive and somehow perplexed history for Hispanics, given that the USA/ Mexican War of 1848 proclaimed much of the territory now part of the Union, and Hispanics enjoying a long heritage in the Southwest since the early 1500’s  found that the Rio Grande River, the Río de las Palmas,  or the Río Bravo del Norte merely crossed their lives, as they and their ancestors did not cross this geopolitical boundary;  it was, indeed, this Rio Grande that  crossed them . In many cases, their ancestors received Spanish land grants from the King of Spain in the 1700’s, thus these individuals were coming into these lands that were already part of  “ La Nueva España”  and thus did not meet the standards of a true immigrant, since they were simply coming into another part of the mother country: Spain

•      SOME CONTRIBUTIONS OF HISPANICS

Throughout the next decades, Hispanics have distinguished themselves in all areas of human activities, but no other activity has brought them such distinction as the huge number of Hispanics receiving the Medal of Honor for heroism in the face of the enemy of the United States of America. This group of true Americans have been active in military affairs since the American Revolution of 1776, and during the Civil War (no war is civil) three Hispanics received the  Medal of Honor, becoming the first three of forty-four since then to receive this prestigious award given to individuals who exercised true patriotism in the  face of huge dangers. Hispanics have served in the American Revolution, the Civil War, the Boxer Rebellion, WW I, WW II, Korea, Vietnam, and the latest conflicts. In all wars/conflicts involving the USA,  one can be sure the Hispanic individual has been or will be there defending this country !

•      SOME FIRSTS BROUGHT INTO TEXAS BY HISPANICS

 **First public schools in 1690 at Christians missions, and then in San Antonio in 1746 that were tuition free and compulsory. Hispanics enjoy a long tradition in prompting education for its citizens, as the first university in Mexico was established in 1556  staffed with eminent professors.

**First ranching/ cattle drives in San Antonio (never mind John Wayne and Hollywood)

**First hospital in San Antonio

**First municipality in San Antonio de Béjar- 1718

**First farming

**Fist narrative of Texas “Los Naufragios” by Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca

**First cathedral -  San Fernando Cathedral in San Antonio

**Spanish names of main rivers

**The bringing of cattle and horses to Texas, and the vaquero culture, thus making Texas unique from any other state in the Union

**First Christian missions

**First banking:  Brownsville, Texas had prominent Hispanics as the first bankers in South Texas, such illustrious individuals who established banks in that city were: Don Francisco Yturria, the Celaya family, and Juan N. Fernández.

**First jurisprudence/ land and water laws; and others governing almost everything in Texas.

Thus, almost everything Texas brags about is TEJANO.

Hispanic Heritage Week was first introduced by President Lyndon Johnson in 1968 to cover one week only beginning September 15, the day of the Independence of many Latin-American countries; and was then extended for one month from September 15 to October 15, by President Ronald Reagan in 1988.

One can readily see the huge contributions, and eminent heritage bestowed on all of us by the participation of Hispanics in the American life. This essay, hopefully, will help to erase any doubts about the patriotism, the lack of willingness of Hispanics to contribute and it should also dispel some erroneous beliefs about them, given that during most of the 20^th century emphasis was placed on the undocumented, and mainstream history texts have been negligent in properly depicting the immense role Hispanics have played in the formation of America, about the heavy lifting done by their ancestors, and thus obscuring for many of us the Hispanic Heritage so much now part of the USA.

NO LONGER!

CONGRATULATIONS HISPANICS, YOU HAVE EARNED YOUR PLACE IN AMERICA!

Dr. Lino García, Jr. is an 8^th generation Tejano with ancestral Spanish Land Grants on Texas soil since 1767, nine years before the American Revolution. He holds the chair of Professor Emeritus of Spanish Literature at UTPA, and can be reached at:
Lino Garcia,Jr., Ph.D (Tulane)
Professor Emeritus/UTPA
Edinburg, Texas
http://www.utpa.edu/
LGarcia@UTPA.Edu

The Twenty-Seventh Annual NCLR Capital Awards, March 4, 2014 

http://www.nclr.org/index.php/events/other_events/nclr_capital_awards/ 

Sent by Jessica Mayorga, National Council of La Raza 
events@nclr.org 

http://www.nclr.org/index.php/events/nclr_annual_conference-1/ 
Register early by May 14 and get a discounted price.

HOORAY!! 
SOMOS PRIMOS HAS BEEN INVITED TO EXHIBIT AT THE FAMILY EXPO FOR THE 2014 CONFERENCE.

If you live in Southern California and would like to share your family history in the Somos Primos booth, 
PLEASE let me know. We would love to have you join us.  I can promise you will have a great time.
mimilozano@aol.com 

HONORING HISPANIC LEADERSHIP

Houston Civil Rights Icon, Leonel Castillo, Dies at 74 (1939-2013)  By Jayme Fraser

Leonel Castillo, longtime activist and the first Latino elected to citywide office died Monday, just days before a community center bearing his name was set to open.   When Houston state Senator Sylvia Garcia told longtime friend Castillo of the honor last year, he was surprised and humble, she said.

A zeal for serving

Although he often was at the forefront of calls to action and protests, Castillo also was among the first elected officials to sit at the table where compromises were negotiated and policies were written, Garcia said.

His rise to national office did not spoil his zeal for serving Houston. He continued to accept appointments to several minor posts in city and county offices over the years while also mentoring as a social work instructor at the University of Houston. To close friends and family, he was more than an inspiring story about how the son of a poor, union shipyard worker became a respected politician and activist.

Because a cousin had difficulty pronouncing Leonel, he was nicknamed "Lone" and that's how many knew him. As a boy, he was shy and bookish at his Catholic high school in Galveston.

Politics first interested a teenage Castillo, the youngest of four children, when his father impressed him by driving a statewide loop, sleeping in his car, as he campaigned for maverick Democrat Henry Gonzalez to become governor.

His first hands-on activism was as an increasingly outspoken English major at the Catholic St. Mary's College in San Antonio and continued when he later studied community organizing at the University of Pittsburgh.

His desire to serve the neediest led him to spend four years in the Philippines with the Peace Corps, first as a volunteer, then as a training director.  While there, he fell in love with Evelyn Chapman, the daughter of an American contractor. They were married for more than 50 years.

His sister, Anita Serrano, said her brother's favorite room in any house was the kitchen and his preferred snack was buttered tortillas. His humor energized family dinners and his endless bank of knowledge marveled his grandchildren.  "Uncle Lone's not going to know this," Serrano recalled the children often saying just before putting Castillo to the test. "The kids couldn't put anything past him."

 
Texpatriate

URL: http://texpate.com/2013/11/04/leonel-castillo-1939-2013/ 
Leonel Castillo, 1939-2013
Texpatriate has learned that Leonel Castillo, the larger-than-life political figure in Houston’s Hispanic community, has passed away at the age of 74. Castillo, who served as Houston’s City Controller from 1972 to 1977 and as the Director of the INS under Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1979, died after lingering health problems.

Castillo was a maverick amongst the Mexican-American political community in Houston, and arguably served as a mentor and inspiration for Ben Reyes and other prominent Hispanic politicians. He first entered the political fray a mere four years after moving to Houston, back when the City Charter mandated a five year residency requirement to run for the City Council. Still wanting to throw his hat into the ring, he challenged the City Controller, Roy Oakes, a fourteen-term incumbent.

Oakes, a fiscal conservative and ally of the Republican Mayor (Louie Welch), was defeated by Castillo in 1971 in a landmark victory for Hispanics in Houston. Re-elected twice more, Castillo was rumored as a future Statewide officeholder, so taking a post such as Comptroller or Railroad Commissioner seemed destined in his future. After working hard to deliver the Hispanic vote to Jimmy Carter (the 1976 election was the last time Texas voted Democratic in a presidential year), Castillo was appointed by the President as the Chairman of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS).

Unfortunately, this is where Castillo’s winning streak came to an end. In 1979, he resigned the post to return to Houston and make a run for Mayor against incumbent Republican Jim McConn. In doing so, he split the progressive vote with City Councilmember Louis Macey. McConn was ultimately re-elected and Castillo finished in an embarrassing third place.

In 1981, Castillo attempted to return to his old office by making a fourth run for City Controller. Qualifying for the runoff election in the open field, he was defeated by City Councilmember Lance Lalor.

Eight years later, Castillo made one last one for public office, seeking an At-large seat on the Houston City Council. Despite a strong plurality finish, he was eventually defeated in the runoff by Sheila Jackson Lee, a Municipal Judge who went on to become a Congressperson.

Castillo’s reputation, however, has only increased in recent years as Houstonians have begun to view him as both a trailblazer for minorities and an ardent opponent of the reactionary Welch. A high-profile community center named in Castillo’s honor was recently erected just north of Downtown. Sadly, its grand dedication and opening was scheduled for this Saturday.

As an incessant advocate for his community, Castillo was one of the first to achieve the right to hold office amongst the Mexican-American community in Houston. As Texas Monthly wrote of him many years ago, he was a real-life “Horatio Alger story.”

ABC-13/KTRK-TV Houston, Texas
URL: http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/local&id=9313132 
Houstonians Remembering Civil Rights Icon Leonel Castillo By Adela Uchida
Monday, November 4, 2013

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Houstonian are remembering Leonel J Castillo and his legacy in Houston today. Castillo, 74, passed away Monday morning. 

He was known as a pioneer for civil rights, and Houston's first Hispanic elected official - serving as controller in the early 1970s and later, serving as director of INS appointed by Jimmy Carter. 

Jesús "Tato" Laviera 1951-2013 The Puerto Rican Cultural Center will be hosting a special event on November 20 dedicated to Tato Laviera. The legendary nuyorican poetic giant, Tato Laviera passed away Friday, November 1. Tato, and his infectious charisma and ability transform language in unique ways, will be greatly missed. The youth of Paseo Boricua had the honor to work closely with Tato on several plays documenting the history of Puerto Ricans in Chicago. Tato, you have left us with a body of work for the ages. Rest in Poetry. Above, Tato with Batey Urbano Youth. circa 2005.

URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/06/arts/tato-laviera-nuyorican-poet-dies-at-63.html?_r=0

Tato Laviera, Nuyorican Poet, Dies at 63

Librado Romero/The New York Times

Widely anthologized and with numerous titles that remain in demand among students and fans, Mr. Laviera was one of the best-known representatives of the Nuyorican school of poetry.

By DAVID GONZALEZ

Published: November 5, 2013

Tato Laviera lost his sight, but not his vision. His acclaimed poems and plays captured the rhythms and language of Puerto Rico and the Lower East Side — his twin loves — with equal measures of protest, playfulness and hope.

When health problems briefly left him homeless in 2010, he took part in poetry readings with residents of the shelter where he stayed. “I can create here, and that makes me feel liberated,” he said in an interview at the time. “Being here has given me the spirit of continuity and centrality, and that’s better than a salary.” 

Mr. Laviera, who had been in a coma since late January, died on Friday in Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan. The cause was complications of diabetes, which years earlier had left him legally blind, said his sister, Ruth Sanchez, who survives him along with his daughter, Ruth Ella Laviera. He was 63 and lived in East Harlem, renting an airy apartment that his admirers helped him get when they learned he had no place to hang his ever-present Panama hat. In a career that spanned more than four decades, Mr. Laviera published books, plays and poems and made hundreds of appearances at colleges, workshops and literary events. Widely anthologized and with numerous titles that remain in demand among students and fans, he is one of the best-known representatives of the Nuyorican school of poetry.

His words could dance, shout and laugh — in English, Spanish and Spanglish. In “My Graduation Speech,” he showed a playful touch in writing about his multicultural life, and his hair, in these lines:

i think in spanish
i write in english
i want to go back to puerto rico,
but i wonder if my kink could live
in ponce, maygüez and carolina

“The American thing is to forget who you are and become homogenized,” said Jesus Melendez, known as Papoleto, a friend and fellow poet. “The whole Nuyorican struggle was to maintain your roots because they are the groove that keeps it all together. Tato personified that struggle.” 

He even took the word and turned it inside out in one collection, “AmerRican,” whose very title made clear his people’s place in the world. That book also featured poems that embraced the city’s diversity as well as his own people’s rich racial roots.

“Tato’s voice was not a singular one, but one that gave voice to people and even objects who did not have a voice but should,” said William Luis, a professor at Vanderbilt University and co-editor of an upcoming collection of essays on Mr. Laviera. “He was able to reach across boundaries and reach all those different people.” 

Jesús Abraham Laviera (Tato was a nickname) was born on May 9, 1950, in Santurce, P.R., near San Juan, and moved to the Lower East Side as a child. He graduated from Seward Park High School and attended Brooklyn College and Cornell. But his real education, friends and relatives said, came in the neighborhood, where he showed an early knack for activism and organizing (not to mention music and dance).

Elizabeth Colón, a community advocate who befriended him when they were both teenagers, described Mr. Laviera as a natural leader who inspired others to rally around causes, especially youth and education.

“His poetry and creativity came from that,” she said. “It came from his involvement and his participation in the community’s struggle, growing up on the Lower East Side, seeing the abuses and how others who were in charge had the power to intervene and did not. He deeply understood the need of people to participate in their future.” 

Mr. Laviera left community organizing to become a full-time poet in the 1970s. (He told the website Latino Rebels that he wanted to be a poet once he saw Luis Palés Matos recite in Puerto Rico in the late 1950s.) His first collection, “La Carreta Made a U-Turn,” was published by Arte Publico Press in 1979.

“To him, poetry was the highest calling,” said Nicolás Kanellos, his publisher. “Even though he lived in relative poverty, he was proud of being part of a tradition that went all the way back to the ancient, epic poets.” 

But Mr. Laviera lived — and performed — very much in the moment. In recent years he had been working on a novel about East Harlem, as well as staging his play “The King of Cans” at a theater inside the housing complex where he had been living. He also continued to inspire future poets, sharing encouragement and advice.

Li Yun Alvarado recalled clutching a poem at a workshop Mr. Laviera gave at Yale 14 years ago. She was nervous. He calmed her down, telling her to “embody the work” and feel the words, linger on the beats and perform. It reminded her of how her 93-year-old grandmother could still remember a poem she had learned as a child.

“He took me back to that history of poetry as part of our culture,” said Ms. Alvarado, who is a now doctoral candidate at Fordham University. “He was our troubadour. He told our story.”

Date:   10/30/13

RE:       Jose Montoya’s Sacred Release  

Thank you for your prayers, offerings and words and acts of kindness and sympathy throughout dad’s illness and passing. Please continue to join us in prayer for his soul. On behalf of the family, we are grateful for the respect you have bestowed upon us in our request for privacy during our sorrow and grief in this season of our profound loss.   

Being such a public figure for so many decades it was hard to follow his doctors’ orders to prohibit visitors during these last months but the risk to him was so great, we did what we had to do to protect dad and we thank you for your understanding.  

 With that critical milestone completed, we turn our attention to plans for a commemoration of his life in a public memorial.   We are happy to know that many have already done or will do small local events, requested a moment of silence in his honor, dedicated events to his memory, and even woven his poetry into murals- and that these kinds of actions will continue to blossom throughout.  We would love to hear about these tributes, however small or large, to stay abreast of what people are doing or planning.   As long as there is no commercialization or profiteering, we are pleased to know that respectful homage will be paid to dad.  

The large public event that we are planning in Sacramento will honor the memory of dad and his contributions in the many worlds in which he served.  Details with date and venue will be released when final confirmations are complete and all will be welcome. Again, we are grateful for your patience and that you have given us this time to mourn and knowing that it will never really end, we are working through it but we do look forward to seeing all of you when we gather in his memory. 

NATIONAL ISSUES

"The democracy will cease to exist
 when you take away from those who are willing to work 
and give to those who would not." 
~ Thomas Jefferson

According to an NBC investigative report, anywhere from 50 to 75% of Americans are expected to lose their health insurance
 and many will pay for more expensive plans due to the Affordable Care Act.  O.C. Register, November 8, 2013

Ray Suarez's shocking departure from PBS

I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew by Ben Stein

Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it. 

Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us. Pass it on if you think it has merit. If not, then just discard it. No one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought process, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in. 

My Best Regards, Honestly and Respectfully,  Ben Stein 

Sent by Rick Leal, 
ggr1031@aol.com

By Patrik Jonsson

(TCSM) The right of American students to wear to school patriotic clothing — or just an image of the US flag — is at the core of a volatile constitutional case now in front of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

On May 5, 2010, Live Oak High School officials in Morgan Hill, Calif., told three students to go home after they refused to turn their US flag-themed T-shirts inside out during Cinco de Mayo, the celebration of a Mexican battle victory over France. Administrators cited lingering racial tensions at the school between Hispanics and Anglos dating back to the previous year's Cinco de Mayo celebration.

In their lawsuit, the students — listed as D.M., M.D., and D.G. — contend that there's no evidence that the T-shirts had sparked any disruptions and that "American schools cannot logically ban the American flag for any duration or reason."

Not surprisingly, the decision to send the students home for wearing the national flag generated outrage and wall-to-wall media coverage, touching a raw nerve in a country riven by, among other things, the immigration debate and the rise of the tea party, a patriotic grass-roots movement.

But to constitutional scholars and First Amendment experts, the case presents a broader test of the courts' traditional deference toward schools. It also involves the notion of "the heckler's veto," or the ability of government to suppress rowdy speech that it believes could spark violence or suppress the free speech of others.

Moreover, the case touches on the "viewpoint neutrality" principle — where the state, at least technically, is not allowed to discriminate against particular viewpoints, even ones that some people find offensive or distasteful.

"The real oddity of this is that students wearing the same T-shirt on Memorial Day would be applauded, which makes it pretty tough on administrators to divine whether an American flag T-shirt is subversive or patriotic," says Ken Paulson, former editor in chief of USA Today and now president of the First Amendment Center in Nashville, Tenn.

The students lost the first round, when a US district judge ruled that school officials were within their rights to send the students home. Judge James Ware cited concerns where the flag-wearing Anglo students could be in danger of attack from angry Hispanic students.

"Although no school official can predict with certainty which threats are empty and which will lead to true violence, the Court finds that these school officials were not unreasonable in forecasting that the Plaintiffs' clothing exposed them to significant danger," Judge Ware wrote.

Ware, who is now retired, also noted that "our Constitution grants public school children only limited First Amendment rights when they enter the schoolhouse gates." But he also acknowledged that the Live Oak High School case enters "important legal territory."  

Yet the Ninth Circuit may have a different view, legal scholars say. "It will be interesting to see whether the 9th Circuit panel will view the case as one of appropriate school judgment, and defer to school officials' expertise, or will see it as a classic example of a censorial overreaction," writes David L. Hudson on the First Amendment Center website.

In their lawsuit, the students dismiss the idea that the T-shirts posed the threat of violence or disruption, largely because the students had been in school that day for more than three hours and there had been no reports of problems. They also dismissed attempts to draw parallels to the banning of Confederate flag symbols by some schools, saying the US flag is viewed far differently.

But even if the T-shirts had sparked a reaction, that shouldn't automatically prompt an administration crackdown, other scholars suggest.

"The fact is, in political speech, you get hecklers because political speech riles people up, but that's not the same as violence," says Trevor Burrus, a research fellow at the Cato Institute's Center for Constitutional Studies in Washington. "Schools should allow students to be riled up and have conversations about what's around them. The other concern here is that the modern liberal school system is based more on the 'no one should ever be offended' doctrine rather than the 'robust political speech' doctrine."

The US Supreme Court has ruled that students have a diminished First Amendment right in school, which is one reason that principals, for example, are allowed to edit or even censor school newspapers. At the same time, the Ninth Circuit may well have to take a look at the Supreme Court's Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District ruling from 1969.

In that case, it was a national debate about the Vietnam War that brought on a crackdown by school officials against students wearing black armbands in protest of the war. The court ruled that administrators could not censor student protests because there was no evidence of a major disruption, or even a reasonable forecast of anything happening.

Since then, however, the Supreme Court has shown less interest in narrowing the ability of "good faith" state actors — from principals to prison wardens — to impose order.

"In [the Live Oak High School] case, let's be clear: School officials are just trying to educate students and have as few headaches as possible, which courts view [sympathetically]," says Mr. Paulson of the First Amendment Center. "But imagine instead if a school encouraged everybody to post a political message on their T-shirt. I think they'd be applauded for their innovation and for creating a marketplace of ideas — that it's OK to have ideas and it's OK to have different opinions."

Sent by Odell Harwell 

US Army defines Christian ministry as 'domestic hate group'

UPDATE:  
On Oct 31st, a directive from the Pentagon went out: Due to recurring Equal Opportunity (EO) challenges, the FORSCOM DCG has directed an Equal Opportunity Training Stand-down. All units will immediately suspend all Unit EO training to include the Equal Opportunity Leader's Course (EOLC). 

TASKS TO COMMANDERS: a. Emphasize that neither DoD nor the Army maintain or publish any centralized list of specific organizations considered to be extremist in nature or in opposition to the Army's core values.

Sent by Tim Wildmon, President
American Family Association

ACTION ITEM

Next Steps for the American Latino Museum
Federalist Paper #46, by James Madison: How to Take Action Against Your Government 

Next Steps for the American Latino Museum

By Susana G. Baumann

9 November 2013

The new Executive Director of Friends of the National American Latino Museum is ready to campaign for legislation approval and economic support of this well-deserved recognition of the US Latino community.

A project long due to the Latino community in the United States, the Friends of the National American Latino Museum (FRIENDS) face two major challenges in the near future. On one hand, the approval of legislation that would ensure not only the project’s concretion but also its site at the National Mall, adjacent to other Smithsonian museums. On the other, they need to raise an estimated $650 million to build the museum.

This hefty weight has been placed on Estuardo Rodriguez shoulders as the new Executive Director of the institution. Rodriguez brings a great deal of experience and understanding of the project’s goals as he has been involved in it since FRIENDS’ creation.

“Our schools keep teaching the foundational history of the United States ignoring the important role that Hispanics had in it,” said Rodriguez to VOXXI. “You cannot keep telling the story without mentioning the large territories where Spaniards were settled way before English colonies were established, and the role that generations of Latinos have played in the construction of this nation.”

In fact, historian Juan Gonzalez describes the first Spanish expeditions into North America territory starting in 1513, one hundred years before the Mayflower’s arrival to these shores.

The American Latino Museum: Although a group of recognized Latino leaders started designing the idea in 2005, FRIENDS has been working relentlessly since 2008 in the realization of a museum that would showcase, celebrate and educate the vibrant and diverse history and culture of the American Latino experience while highlighting the contributions made by its leaders, pioneers and communities.

“The American Latino Museum is not only a matter of justice, it is a matter of historical accuracy,” Rodriguez said.

Next steps in the life of the project: In this newly created position, Rodriguez has two primary goals. “We are working at creating a solid base of support for the project. We already have 350K plus people in social media that have expressed their interest and approval. The museum has not been built yet and it has more support than any other museum in the country,” he shared.

The other primary goal is to build a national effort to push forward legislation currently in Congress. The President has already signaled his approval and in Congress, the act has bipartisan support.

US Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Majority Leader Reid (D-NV), US Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), Chairman of the House Democratic Caucus Xavier Becerra (D-CA) and US Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) reintroduced this bipartisan bill in the Senate and House of Representatives back in March of this year.

The bill seeks the location of the Smithsonian American Latino Museum within the Smithsonian’s Arts and Industries building on the National Mall.

This authorization of the museum’s location follows recommendations of the 2011 report by the bipartisan Commission to Study the Potential Creation of the National Museum of American Latino, established by law in 2008.

“Although there is a narrow window of opportunity, we still hope it will be approved before the end of the year,” Rodriguez said.

Funding, an important issue to be considered: The third issue Rodriguez would tackle in his new position is funding for the new project.

The idea of the Commission was to support the project with a mix of community funding and deferred government appropriation. The report states that no “federal appropriation would be necessary for the first six years upon establishment of the museum” based on private donations that would afford the pre-design and pre-construction phases of the project.

“We estimate the cost in $650 million for the total project, so our goal is to raise half in mixed donations from corporate, organizations, supporters and the community itself,” Rodriguez said. “Our goal is to draw those donations to be used in the initial stages of planning starting in 2014 upon approval of the bill.”

Competing projects? In 2011, a similar project was also introduced in Congress calling for a commission to study the proposed creation of the National Museum of the American People. According to its description, it will include “every American ethnic and cultural group coming to this land and nation from every corner of the world, from the first people through today.”

According to Rodriguez, these are two very different projects and they do not compete with each other.

The FRIENDS project has been in the making for over two decades, the Executive Director said. It has been the result of an effort that originated in a Smithsonian Institution task force report in which the institution was accused of “willful neglect” of Hispanic contributions.

“Our conversation in the media about Latinos is limited to immigration and immigration reform, to the idea of what the Latino community is today as if we had not been here before. In truth, we are part of the earlier foundation of this country. We have to direct the conversation to a more inclusive perspective of Latino contributions,” he said.

The initiative needs support to pass in Congress. Although many Republicans in the House have expressed their positive outlook, Rodriguez is asking the general population to contact their Representatives in every state to generate momentum at this very important phase of the project

In Federalist #46, he gave us a four-step plan to successfully resist – in our states – federal actions we consider either unconstitutional, or “unpopular.”

1. Disquietude of the people: Madison expected the people would throw a fit when the feds usurped power – even using the word “repugnance” to describe their displeasure.

2. Refusal to co-operate with the officers of the Union: Noncompliance. The feds rely on cooperation from state and local governments. When enough people refuse to comply, they simply can’t enforce their so-called laws, regulations, or mandates.

3. The frowns of the executive magistracy of the State: Here, Madison envisioned governors formally protesting federal actions. This not only raises public awareness; executive leadership will also move things to the next step.

4. Legislative devices, which would often be added on such occasions: An example of this is the use of state and local legislation – laws and resolutions – either protesting or resisting the federal acts.

IMPACT

This is effective stuff.

James Madison said that if a number of states followed this path it would “present obstructions which the federal government would hardly be willing to encounter.”

Judge Andrew Napolitano agreed recently. He said if an entire state refused to comply with a federal law, this would make it “nearly impossible to enforce.”

EDUCATION

“How the Spanish Deaf Taught Others to Express Themselves” by Mariana Correa

HISPANIC LINK, Nov 4, 2013
vol 31 no 17
Hispanic Link, a news source targeting Latinos for 32 years, has kept up the pace with the latest news and latest technology for delivering the news in a compact, magazine format.   In addition, Hispanic Link  still reaches back into history and finds worthy Hispanic contributions. 

In the November issue Mariana Correa wrote a fascinating article on “How the Spanish Deaf Taught Others to Express Themselves”

In 1620, Juan Pablo Bonet, a Spanish priest in Castille who served the constable of Castille, observed how the constable’s deaf son was taught. With that example, Bonet developed a sign language.  So, the first language to use signing by the deaf was Spanish.  Ms. Correa explains that the same challenges faced by bilingual people adapting to non-native languages, are faced by the deaf, along with other cultural trials.

This is a well researched study, which discusses the difficulties of providing a bilingual/trilingual approach for Latinos facing the challenges of being deaf.  Most classes in the United States use American Sign Language, which is based on English.  Dr. Barbara Gerner de García, department chair of education at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., a leading higher-education institution for the deaf, believes that the resistance to trilingual education comes basically from resistance to the Spanish language itself.

Data reveals that Latinos account for nearly 25% of the national deaf.
You may reach Link reporter, Mariana Correa at mc1368a@student.american.edu  

Programs of the Odyssey Projects

Staff

• Cris Mayo, Odyssey Faculty Coordinator: cmayo@illinois.edu
• Samuel Byndom, Odyssey Project Coordinator: byndom1@illinois.edu

General program inquiries can be directed to: odysseyproject@illinois.edu

The Odyssey Project completed its sixth year in spring 2012. Since fall 2006, the Odyssey Project has offered a free, college-accredited course in the humanities to members of the Champaign-Urbana community who fall at or near the poverty level. The yearlong course offers students intensive study in philosophy, art history, literature, U.S. history, and critical thinking and writing. Classes taught by University of Illinois faculty and graduate students take place every Thursday from September to May in the seminar room at IPRH or at the Douglass Branch Library in Champaign. Tuition is free, as are books, transportation, and childcare.

The Odyssey Project is made possible by the generous financial and institutional support of the Office of the Chancellor, the College of Education, and the Illinois Humanities Council. This year we’ve moved into the College of Education and are creating connections with other community-based educational programs, Education Justice Project (directed by Professor Rebecca Ginsburg) and Saving Our Lives Hear Our Truth (SOLHOT, directed by Professor Ruth Nicole Brown), as well as drawing on the instructional talents of a number of our graduate students there. We continue to be grateful for the support of IPRH, where the Odyssey Project was initiated at Illinois and was incubated for its first five years. The IPRH continues to provide some financial support as well as space for our graduate student coordinator and our weekly classes. Through its programs, Odyssey helps keep alive the public service mission of the Morrill Act that founded the University of Illinois.

We are pleased to announce that nine students graduated this past May.Students who complete the course receive six credits of transferable humanities credit from Bard College and have used that credit to complete degrees already in progress or begin their higher education studies. Several students have continued their education beyond Odyssey at the University of Illinois and Parkland College, as well as the University of Denver, Stanford, and Eastern Illinois University.

Instructors for 2011–12 were Odyssey Faculty Director Cris Mayo (Education Policy, Organization and Leadership/Gender and Women’s Studies), philosophy; Jennifer Burns (Art History), art history; Spencer Schaffner (English/Writing Studies), literature; Kathy Oberdeck (History), U.S. history; and Odyssey Graduate Student Coordinator Michael Burns (English/Writing Studies), critical thinking and writing.

Feria Cardenas/ Feria Educativa  Draws 130,000 in Attendance 

 

Today's' unprecedented event drew in 130,000 Latino families, exceeding our expectations and projections, making it the “most attended Latino educational expo ever”! The theme of "UNA BUENA EDUCACION" permeated the full day of free fun, food and entertainment.

Thank you to the Cardenas family for graciously hosting an educational fair for our So-Cal / Inland communities, and building a better future with a generous donation of $483,000 toward educational scholarships.

With a steering committee composed of a broad array of community stakeholders and organizations, coordinated by LEAD/CSUSB, and jointly planned with the Partners of the IE Regional Collaborative, our Educational Zone involved, engaged, inspired, and informed families along their educational journey.

El Tema – "UNA BUENA EDUCACION" - con los objetivos de:

1) Entusiasmar los jovenes acerca su camino al colegio comunitario o universidad, y/o a una carrera professional.

2) Involucrar a los padres y las familias, y ofrecer oportunidades para entender su papel en el proceso.

3) Exhibir materiales de información pertinente al bienestar de la comunidad.

4) Generar un compromiso colectivo.

* el “Inland region” tenía el aumento más grande de Hispanos entre 2000 y 2010 de cualquier área metropolitana en los Estados Unidos.

Thank you - Gracias, EM

Enrique G. Murillo, Jr., Ph.D., Professor and Executive Director
LEAD Organization
California State University San Bernardino
5500 University Parkway / Room CE-305
San Bernardino, CA 92407
emurillo@csusb.edu
LEAD - Latino Education Projects
Tel: 909-537-5632  Fax: 909-537-7040

How a Radical New Teaching Method Could Unleash

  a Generation of Geniuses By Joshua Davis

http://www.wired.com/business/2013/10/free-thinkers/all/  

These students in Matamoros, Mexico, didn’t have reliable Internet access, steady electricity, or much hope—
until a radical new teaching method unlocked their potential. Peter Yang  

José Urbina López Primary School sits next to a dump just across the US border in Mexico. The school serves residents of Matamoros, a dusty, sunbaked city of 489,000 that is a flash point in the war on drugs. There are regular shoot-outs, and it’s not uncommon for locals to find bodies scattered in the street in the morning. To get to the school, students walk along a white dirt road that parallels a fetid canal. On a recent morning there was a 1940s-era tractor, a decaying boat in a ditch, and a herd of goats nibbling gray strands of grass. A cinder-block barrier separates the school from a wasteland—the far end of which is a mound of trash that grew so big, it was finally closed down. On most days, a rotten smell drifts through the cement-walled classrooms. Some people here call the school un lugar de castigo—“a place of punishment.”

For 12-year-old Paloma Noyola Bueno, it was a bright spot. More than 25 years ago, her family moved to the border from central Mexico in search of a better life. Instead, they got stuck living beside the dump. Her father spent all day scavenging for scrap, digging for pieces of aluminum, glass, and plastic in the muck. Recently, he had developed nosebleeds, but he didn’t want Paloma to worry. She was his little angel—the youngest of eight children.

After school, Paloma would come home and sit with her father in the main room of their cement-and-wood home. Her father was a weather-beaten, gaunt man who always wore a cowboy hat. Paloma would recite the day’s lessons for him in her crisp uniform—gray polo, blue-and-white skirt—and try to cheer him up. She had long black hair, a high forehead, and a thoughtful, measured way of talking. School had never been challenging for her. She sat in rows with the other students while teachers told the kids what they needed to know. It wasn’t hard to repeat it back, and she got good grades without thinking too much. As she headed into fifth grade, she assumed she was in for more of the same—lectures, memorization, and busy work.

Sergio Juárez Correa was used to teaching that kind of class. For five years, he had stood in front of students and worked his way through the government-mandated curriculum. It was mind-numbingly boring for him and the students, and he’d come to the conclusion that it was a waste of time. Test scores were poor, and even the students who did well weren’t truly engaged. Something had to change.

Elementary school teacher Sergio Juárez Correa, 31, upended his teaching methods, revealing extraordinary abilities in his 12-year-old student Paloma Noyola Bueno.  

He too had grown up beside a garbage dump in Matamoros, and he had become a teacher to help kids learn enough to make something more of their lives. So in 2011—when Paloma entered his class—Juárez Correa decided to start experimenting. He began reading books and searching for ideas online. Soon he stumbled on a video describing the work of Sugata Mitra, a professor of educational technology at Newcastle University in the UK. In the late 1990s and throughout the 2000s, Mitra conducted experiments in which he gave children in India access to computers. Without any instruction, they were able to teach themselves a surprising variety of things, from DNA replication to English.  

Juárez Correa didn’t know it yet, but he had happened on an emerging educational philosophy, one that applies the logic of the digital age to the classroom. That logic is inexorable: Access to a world of infinite information has changed how we communicate, process information, and think. Decentralized systems have proven to be more productive and agile than rigid, top-down ones. Innovation, creativity, and independent thinking are increasingly crucial to the global economy.  

And yet the dominant model of public education is still fundamentally rooted in the industrial revolution that spawned it, when workplaces valued punctuality, regularity, attention, and silence above all else. (In 1899, William T. Harris, the US commissioner of education, celebrated the fact that US schools had developed the “appearance of a machine,” one that teaches the student “to behave in an orderly manner, to stay in his own place, and not get in the way of others.”) We don’t openly profess those values nowadays, but our educational system—which routinely tests kids on their ability to recall information and demonstrate mastery of a narrow set of skills—doubles down on the view that students are material to be processed, programmed, and quality-tested. School administrators prepare curriculum standards and “pacing guides” that tell teachers what to teach each day. Legions of managers supervise everything that happens in the classroom; in 2010 only 50 percent of public school staff members in the US were teachers.

The results speak for themselves: Hundreds of thousands of kids drop out of public high school every year. Of those who do graduate from high school, almost a third are “not prepared academically for first-year college courses,” according to a 2013 report from the testing service ACT. The World Economic Forum ranks the US just 49th out of 148 developed and developing nations in quality of math and science instruction. “The fundamental basis of the system is fatally flawed,” says Linda Darling-Hammond, a professor of education at Stanford and founding director of the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future. “In 1970 the top three skills required by the Fortune 500 were the three Rs: reading, writing, and arithmetic. In 1999 the top three skills in demand were teamwork, problem-solving, and interpersonal skills. We need schools that are developing these skills.”

That’s why a new breed of educators, inspired by everything from the Internet to evolutionary psychology, neuroscience, and AI, are inventing radical new ways for children to learn, grow, and thrive. To them, knowledge isn’t a commodity that’s delivered from teacher to student but something that emerges from the students’ own curiosity-fueled exploration. Teachers provide prompts, not answers, and then they step aside so students can teach themselves and one another. They are creating ways for children to discover their passion—and uncovering a generation of geniuses in the process.

At home in Matamoros, Juárez Correa found himself utterly absorbed by these ideas. And the more he learned, the more excited he became. On August 21, 2011—the start of the school year — he walked into his classroom and pulled the battered wooden desks into small groups. When Paloma and the other students filed in, they looked confused. Juárez Correa invited them to take a seat and then sat down with them.

He started by telling them that there were kids in other parts of the world who could memorize pi to hundreds of decimal points. They could write symphonies and build robots and airplanes. Most people wouldn’t think that the students at José Urbina López could do those kinds of things. Kids just across the border in Brownsville, Texas, had laptops, high-speed Internet, and tutoring, while in Matamoros the students had intermittent electricity, few computers, limited Internet, and sometimes not enough to eat.

“But you do have one thing that makes you the equal of any kid in the world,” Juárez Correa said. “Potential.”

He looked around the room. “And from now on,” he told them, “we’re going to use that potential to make you the best students in the world.”

Paloma was silent, waiting to be told what to do. She didn’t realize that over the next nine months, her experience of school would be rewritten, tapping into an array of educational innovations from around the world and vaulting her and some of her classmates to the top of the math and language rankings in Mexico.

“So,” Juárez Correa said, “what do you want to learn?”

In 1999, Sugata Mitra was chief scientist at a company in New Delhi that trains software developers. His office was on the edge of a slum, and on a hunch one day, he decided to put a computer into a nook in a wall separating his building from the slum. He was curious to see what the kids would do, particularly if he said nothing. He simply powered the computer on and watched from a distance. To his surprise, the children quickly figured out how to use the machine.

Over the years, Mitra got more ambitious. For a study published in 2010, he loaded a computer with molecular biology materials and set it up in Kalikuppam, a village in southern India. He selected a small group of 10- to 14-year-olds and told them there was some interesting stuff on the computer, and might they take a look? Then he applied his new pedagogical method: He said no more and left.

Over the next 75 days, the children worked out how to use the computer and began to learn. When Mitra returned, he administered a written test on molecular biology. The kids answered about one in four questions correctly. After another 75 days, with the encouragement of a friendly local, they were getting every other question right. “If you put a computer in front of children and remove all other adult restrictions, they will self-organize around it,” Mitra says, “like bees around a flower.”

A charismatic and convincing proselytizer, Mitra has become a darling in the tech world. In early 2013 he won a $1 million grant from TED, the global ideas conference, to pursue his work. He’s now in the process of establishing seven “schools in the cloud,” five in India and two in the UK. In India, most of his schools are single-room buildings. There will be no teachers, curriculum, or separation into age groups—just six or so computers and a woman to look after the kids’ safety. His defining principle: “The children are completely in charge.”

“The bottom line is, if you’re not the one controlling your learning, you’re not going to learn as well.”

Mitra argues that the information revolution has enabled a style of learning that wasn’t possible before. The exterior of his schools will be mostly glass, so outsiders can peer in. Inside, students will gather in groups around computers and research topics that interest them. He has also recruited a group of retired British teachers who will appear occasionally on large wall screens via Skype, encouraging students to investigate their ideas—a process Mitra believes best fosters learning. He calls them the Granny Cloud. “They’ll be life-size, on two walls” Mitra says. “And the children can always turn them off.”

Mitra’s work has roots in educational practices dating back to Socrates. Theorists from Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi to Jean Piaget and Maria Montessori have argued that students should learn by playing and following their curiosity. Einstein spent a year at a Pestalozzi-inspired school in the mid-1890s, and he later credited it with giving him the freedom to begin his first thought experiments on the theory of relativity. Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin similarly claim that their Montessori schooling imbued them with a spirit of independence and creativity.

In recent years, researchers have begun backing up those theories with evidence. In a 2011 study, scientists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the University of Iowa scanned the brain activity of 16 people sitting in front of a computer screen. The screen was blurred out except for a small, movable square through which subjects could glimpse objects laid out on a grid. Half the time, the subjects controlled the square window, allowing them to determine the pace at which they examined the objects; the rest of the time, they watched a replay of someone else moving the window. The study found that when the subjects controlled their own observations, they exhibited more coordination between the hippocampus and other parts of the brain involved in learning and posted a 23 percent improvement in their ability to remember objects. “The bottom line is, if you’re not the one who’s controlling your learning, you’re not going to learn as well,” says lead researcher Joel Voss, now a neuroscientist at Northwestern University.

In 2009, scientists from the University of Louisville and MIT’s Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences conducted a study of 48 children between the ages of 3 and 6. The kids were presented with a toy that could squeak, play notes, and reflect images, among other things. For one set of children, a researcher demonstrated a single attribute and then let them play with the toy. Another set of students was given no information about the toy. This group played longer and discovered an average of six attributes of the toy; the group that was told what to do discovered only about four. A similar study at UC Berkeley demonstrated that kids given no instruction were much more likely to come up with novel solutions to a problem. “The science is brand-new, but it’s not as if people didn’t have this intuition before,” says coauthor Alison Gopnik, a professor of psychology at UC Berkeley.

Gopnik’s research is informed in part by advances in artificial intelligence. If you program a robot’s every movement, she says, it can’t adapt to anything unexpected. But when scientists build machines that are programmed to try a variety of motions and learn from mistakes, the robots become far more adaptable and skilled. The same principle applies to children, she says.

· A Brief History of Alternative Schools

New research shows what educators have long intuited: Letting kids pursue their own interests sharpens their hunger for knowledge. Here’s a look back at this approach. —Jason Kehe

470 BC
Socrates is born in Athens. He goes on to become a long-haired teacher who famously let students arrive at their own conclusions. His questioning, probing approach—the Socratic method—endures to this day.

1907
Maria Montessori opens her first Children’s House in Rome, where kids are encouraged to play and teach themselves. Americans later visit her schools and see the Montessori method in action. It spreads worldwide.

1919
The first Waldorf school opens in Stuttgart, Germany. Based on the ideas of philosopher Rudolf Steiner, it encourages self-motivated learning. Today, there are more than 1,000 Waldorf schools in 60 countries.

1921
A. S. Neill founds the Summerhill School, where kids have the “freedom to go to lessons or stay away, freedom to play for days … or years if necessary.” Eventually, such democratic schools appear around the world.

1945
Loris Malaguzzi vol­unteers to teach in a school that parents are building in a war-torn Italian village outside Reggio Emilia. The “Reggio Emilia approach”—a community of self-guided learning—is born.

1967
Seymour Papert, a protégé of child psychologist Jean Piaget, helps create the first version of Logo, a programming language kids can use to teach themselves. He becomes a lifelong advocate for tech­nology’s role in learning.

1999
Sugata Mitra conducts his first “hole in the wall” experiment in New Delhi, India. On their own, slum kids teach themselves to use a computer. Mitra dubs his approach minimally invasive education.

2006
Ken Robinson gives what will become the most frequently viewed TED Talk ever: “How Schools Kill Creativity.” Students should be free to make mistakes and pursue their own creative interests, Robinson argues.

2012
The Common Core, a new set of curriculum standards that include student-centered learning, are adopted by 45 US states. Math students, say, should “start by explaining to themselves the meaning of a problem.”

· CREDITS: Waldorf School: courtesy of Waldorf School; Robinson: Robert Leslie; Malaguzzi: courtesy of Reggio Children; remaining: Getty Images  

Sugata Mitra’s research on student-led learning inspired Juárez Correa. Mark Pinder  

Want to help teachers like Sergio Juárez Correa make a difference? Here’s how you can get involved in the student-centered movement.

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

CULTURE

http://latinopia.com/latino-art/latinopia-art-aztlan-art-show/ 

Editor:  Do view the excellent video that you can access from the site, compact, beautifully done.  You can almost feel that you were there.  It will inspire and acquaint you with the faces of leaders whose names you have heard.  

Sent by Don Milligan 
donmilligan@comcast.net 

A Conversation with Juan Sandoval

El Paso Art Collector Exhibits Selected Works at El Paso Museum of Art

By Esmeralda Ojeda
 
http://newspapertree.com/articles/2013/10/09/a-conversation-with-juan-sandoval?print=1
  Interviews, October 9, 2013  

BOOKS and Print Media 

Wobblies in San Pedro by Arthur A. Almeida 
Latino Print Network
Cinco Puntos Press, Celebrating 25 years of great books for Children
Authors on the Airwaves: Victor Villaseñor
Latina Style Magazine, Our Past, Our Present
The Roots of Latino Urban Agency, Edited by Sharon A. Navarro & Rodolfo Rosales 
The Scalpel and the Silver Bear by Dr. Lori Alvord  

Editor Mimi:  Although most of us are now familiar with the plight of the farm workers in unionizing, very few are aware of the history  of unionizing of Industrial Workers of the World. Almeida has meticulously put together the fight, pain, and suffering experienced by many in the forefront of the effort in the 1920s.  Being a IWW member himself, Almeida focus is among the San Pedro waterfronts in Southern California.  

The book is an 8.5 x 11, 244 pages hardback . Basically the book is an interview of two major national figures in the effort to unionize, Paul Ware and Bob Bigelow, enhance by the inclusion of 90 photographs, 35 graphics, illustrations, icons, and posters. The historical data is supported by 12 newspaper articles, and augmented by copy of letters, telegrams essays, ticket stubs, poetry, government documents, and even a cartoon. 

T

The brutality of the police against organizers, included not only the men themselves but women and children. Many died, simply defending their rights of free speech.  

Wesley Everest, IWW organizer was lynched in 1919 after a mob attached the IWW office in Centralia, Washington. 

On May 17, 1923 Sinclair sent a letter to Chief of Police Los Angeles, Louis D. Oaks.  His final paragraph reads: "all I can say sir, is that I intended to what little one man can do to awaken the public conscience, and that meantime I am not frightened by your menaces. I'm not a giant physically; I shrink from pain and fill and vermin and foul air, like any many of refinement; also I freely admit that when I see a line of 100 policemen with drawn revolvers flung across the street to keep anyone from coming into a private property dear my feeble voice, I am somewhat disturbed in my nerves. But I have a conscience and a religious faith, and I know that our liberties were not won without suffering, and may be lost again through our cowardice. I intend to do my duty to my country. I have received a telegram from the American Civil Liberties Union in New York, asking me if I will speak at a mass meeting of protest in Los Angeles and I have answered that I will do so.  That meeting will be called once, and you may come there and hear with the citizens of the community think of your efforts to reduce the legal proceedings of Czarist Russia into our free Republic."  

Editor Mimi:  I had intended to write a series from Almeida's book, but decided that the only way to get the full impact of this historical battle was for readers to read the full text in sequence.  The historic unpublished photos, visual and graphic support documentation, is so powerful, that if a reader is interested in the subject, he should purchase a copy of the book, very reasonably priced at $35. 

http://www.lulu.com/us/en/shop/arthur-a-almeida/wobblies-in-san-pedro/hardcover/product-18956785.html 

• Since 1996, Latino Print Network has provided newspaper representation services exclusively for the Hispanic market.

• Since 1978, LPN’s parent company, Western Publication Research, has carried out media research and publishing about the Hispanic Community.

Cinco Puntos Press, Celebrating 25 years of great books for Children

The Roots of Latino Urban Agency 
Edited by Sharon A. Navarro & Rodolfo Rosales  

The 2010 U.S. Census data showed that over the last decade the Latino population grew from 35.3 million to 50.5 million, accounting for more than half of the nation’s population growth. The editors of The Roots of Latino Urban Agency, Sharon Navarro and Rodolfo Rosales, have collected essays that examine this phenomenal growth. The greatest demographic expansion of communities of Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, and Cuban Americans seeking political inclusion and access has been observed in Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago, and San Antonio.  

Three premises guide this study. The first premise holds that in order to understand the Latino community in all its diversity, the analysis has to begin at the grassroots level. The second premise maintains that the political future of the Latino community in the United States in the twenty-first century will be largely determined by the various roles they have played in the major urban centers across the nation. The third premise argues that across the urban political landscape the Latino community has experienced different political formations, strategies and ultimately political outcomes in their various urban settings.

These essays collectively suggest that political agency can encompass everything from voting, lobbying, networking, grassroots organizing, and mobilization, to dramatic protest. Latinos are in fact gaining access to the same political institutions that worked so hard to marginalize them.

“The Roots of Latino Urban Agency expands our understanding of Latino politics at the grassroots level, across multiple cities and time periods.”—Lisa García Bedolla, author of Fluid Borders and Latino Politics

SHARON A. NAVARRO and RODOLFO ROSALES are associate professors of political science at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Navarro is the author of Latina Legislator, co-author of Politicas, and co-editor of Latino Americans and Political Participation. Rodolfo is the author of the Illusion of Inclusion: The Untold Political Story of San Antonio.  

Denton: University of North Texas Press, October 2013  
http://untpress.unt.edu/catalog/3563  
Hardcover ISBN-13:9781574415308
Physical Description: 6x9. 192 pp. Map. Notes. Biblio. Index.
Publication Date: November 2013
Series: Al Filo: Mexican American Studies Series | Volume: 8

Making it Academically on the Rez

It was not an easy trip for her. She writes,

What saved her was her "strong reading background." She writes, "I read my way through the tiny local library and the vans that came to our community from the Books on Wheels program," encouraged by her parents "to read and dream" (p. 9). She could even get out of chores by reading.

She majored in the social science and graduated from Dartmouth in 1979. Not being able to get a job in Crownpoint, she went to Albuquerque where she was offered two jobs, one as a social worker and another paying much less as a medical research assistant at the University of New Mexico.

She took the lower paying job and became increasingly interested in medicine, taking the math and science classes she had avoided at Dartmouth at the University of New Mexico with the encouragement of her supervisor, which led her to being accepted by the prestigious medical school at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California.

Subject matter preparation was not the only problem she faced in college. "Navajos are taught from the youngest age never to draw attention to ourselves. So Navajo children do not raise their hands in class. At a school like Dartmouth, the lack of participation was seen as a sign not of humility but lack of interest and a disengaged attitude" (p. 30). Later in medical school she was viewed as "remote and disinterested" for similar reasons (p. 46).

One should not underestimate Dr. Alvord's accomplishments. Only 4% of the practicing surgeons in the United States are women, and only a few of those women are American Indians. While she got into medical school partly because of affirmative action, this meant that she was constantly tested. She held herself to a higher standard lest "My being a surgeon would be attributed to quota filling, not the result of hard work and my own merit" (p. 50).

In her hospital residency she credits a Pueblo Indian doctor for his help in teaching her how to be a caring doctor. A large part of The Scalpel and the Silver Bear concerns how Dr. Alvord worked to combine modern medical practice with traditional Navajo healing beliefs of walking in beauty and "living in balance and harmony" (p. 100).

Besides the hard work and success chronicled in Dr. Alvord's autobiography, she also describes the pain brought to her by her dad's descent into alcoholism and final death in an alcohol-related car crash.

She describes the gruesome medical statistics of Navajo and other Indian deaths from automobile accidents, an estimated 60% of which are alcohol related. As a surgeon she met some of these accident victims on the operating table in Gallup.

To a degree she blames schools, as an arm of European-American colonialism, for what happened to her father. She describes how,

Because of these outdated attitudes she was forced to study Navajo language as an adult to better serve her patients at Gallup Indian Medical Center. After a number of years practicing surgery in Gallup, Dr. Alvord returned to Dartmouth to work in its medical school as an associate dean so that other doctors in training could learn about the spiritual as well as the physical side of the healing profession, which she learned from Navajo culture and traditional Navajo healers.

I would highly recommend this book for adults, because it has much to say about educating our children, and to students in middle schools, high schools, and universities because it has much to tell them about persisting with their education and using their culture to help give them the strength to be successful adults.

Sent by Munsup Seoh  munsup.seoh@wright.edu 

Latino soldiers
 Cebu, Phillipines, WW II

USA LATINO PATRIOTS

Dr. Al Mijares, O. C. Superintendent of Schools is being presented with one of four books published by Latino Advocates for Education, Inc. and co-authored by board members Superior Court Judge Frederick P. Aguirre, teacher Linda Martinez Aguirre and engineer Rogelio C. Rodriguez. The four books contain biographical profiles and photographs of over 2,000 local Latino veterans from World War I to the present and research of archival data detailing the military service of Latinos from the Revolutionary War to the present wars. All of the materials have been transferred to the website, American Patriots of Latino Heritage, aplh.webs.com. The public may access the website.

BY RON GONZALES
The Orange County Register,  October 16, 2013

A website focusing on the contributions of Latinos in the U.S. military has been launched.

The site, called American Patriots of Latino Heritage, is the result of an effort by the Orange County Department of Education and Latino Advocates for Education to provide a historical resource for students and teachers.

It contains research and a documentary produced by Latino Advocates for Education, with photographs and profiles of more than 2,000 Latino veterans since World War I, as well as women who contributed to the country’s defense. It also highlights the military contributions of famous Americans of Latino background, including baseball player Ted Williams, entertainer Desi Arnaz and civil rights leader Cesar Chavez.

"Accentuating the contribution that Latino men and women have made to our country in military service is essential,”

said Al Mijares, Orange County superintendent of schools. “This is an important part of American history and provides a foundational element to the education of our students. It is imperative that we not forget and celebrate their sacrifices so that all students and their families can understand and more fully enjoy the freedoms of our democracy."

Frederick Aguirre, an Orange County Superior Court judge and president of Latino Advocates, said that the website grew out of a longtime collaboration with the county schools office. He and Mijares came up with the idea of taking research done by Latino Advocates and building a website through Mijares’s office.

Latino Advocates has for years sponsored a Veterans Day event in Orange County, gathering information about Latino veterans and embarking on its own research.

Aguirre said he hoped the information compiled would be useful to students on school projects, as well as those seeking a different way of looking at U.S. and world history. The website project will replace the Veterans Day event as a way of celebrating the contributions of veterans, he said, adding that he hopes its contents will grow.

“It’s promoting patriotism, it’s promoting and identifying our loyalty to this country, and the sacrifice that Latinos have made since the Revolutionary War to the present day,” Aguirre said.

You can find American Patriots of Latino Heritage at http://aplh.webs.com.
The public may access the website.

Sent by Linda Aguirre  lindaaguirre7351@sbcglobal.net 

Editor:  Please note that in the 2013 issues of September, October, and November, Somos Primos ran a series of article filled with data and information compiled by Rogelio C. Rodriguez.

Wikipedia editor profile: Tony the Marine

Santiago, a Vietnam veteran, father of three, and loving husband of 40 years, said his contributions are a direct product of his background. Born in the South Bronx to Puerto Rican immigrants, he credited his perspective on history to his experience growing up Latino in the United States. In 1969 he was accepted into Columbia University, but chose to join the Marines, where he served until 1975. Though he grew up in New York City, Santiago said his abiding interest is in his parent’s homeland of Puerto Rico. His time in the military made him revaluate the role of Latinos in the United States, which, in turn, led him to view American politics towards Puerto Rico differently.

Santiago’s contributions to Wikipedia center on Puerto Rico’s military forces, something that prior to his involvement he said had very patchy coverage. “I have written over 500 articles on Wikipedia because of the principles that Wikipedia was founded on,” he says. “To be able to share my knowledge with thousands of people for free is beyond my comprehension. Only Wikipedia can make that possible.”

Santiago’s Wikipedia debut was a bit unconventional, considering that he began editing before he had really spent much time reading it. “I didn’t start by using it as a resource. I wanted to fix and add to the articles which my son had written,” he said. “When I saw the possibilities that Wikipedia presented, I started writing more articles.”

“Most people do not know the contribution that Latinos have made. Wikipedia has provided me with the tools to help,” he added.

Santiago’s work has not gone unnoticed. He often catches the eye of Puerto Rican journalists and state officials. “I wrote an article once about Medal of Honor recipients who had died and the families got together because of that,” he said. “It came out in the newspapers. It made the headlines. That makes me proud of my work, and it makes me proud to know it’s making a difference.”

But don’t expect him to want too much credit for the value he’s added to the encyclopedia. “It’s not about me. It’s about Wikipedia and the opportunities it provides and the impact it has allowed me to make on people. I write for the love of it, you know, and for the love of my people. It’s an opportunity to educate people.”

Profile by Joe Sutherland, Wikimedia Foundation Communications volunteer
Interview by Victor Grigas, Wikimedia Foundation Visual Storyteller.

• Copyright notes: "Tony The Marine -9759", "Tony The Marine -9921" by Victorgrigas, under CC-BY-SA 3.0 Unported, from Wikimedia Commons

WW II Hero 
Eugene Arnold Obregon
(November 12, 1930 – September 26, 1950)

Eddie Garcia eddie_u_garcia@yahoo.com 

Eugene A. Obregon Park
Department of Parks and Recreation, County of Los Angeles

4021 E. First Street
Los Angeles, CA 90063
(323) 260-2344

(323) 260-2366

District Office: (323) 260-2360

Eugene A. Obregon Park is located in East Los Angeles and offers a friendly environment for families in the community. Its many grassy areas make it an ideal place for family picnics and birthday parties.

Obregon Park is located  just outside of the main gate of the Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow Yermo Annex, in Barstow, California, is named in honor of Obregon.  

MARINE CORPS LOGISTICS BASE BARSTOW, Calif.(Oct. 9, 2003) -- There is a little known area at the MCLB Barstow Yermo Annex, where all base personnel can congregate and enjoy the high desert atmosphere, seldom discussed.

A park just inside the main gate at Yermo that is dedicated to the memory of a great American hero, Pfc. Eugene A. Obregon, just one of the countless Hispanic Marines who gave his life for his country, and one of 38 Hispanic Medal of Honor recipients.

Obregon, an East Los Angeles native, joined the Marines at the tender age of 17, along with four friends. He was stationed aboard MCLB Barstow from 1948-1950. He was a member of the Base Fire Department.

After the breakout of the Korean War, Obregon received orders to the 1st Provisional Marine Brigade, then being formed at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, for further assignment to Korea.

It was on the streets of Seoul, on a cold September morning, when Obregon committed an uncommon act of bravery that cost him his life and earned him the Medal of Honor. His citation reads in part:

"For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving with Company G, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Division (Reinforced), in action against enemy aggressor forces at Seoul, Korea, on September 26, 1950.

"While serving as an ammunition carrier in a machine gun squad of a Marine rifle company which was temporarily pinned down by hostile fire, Pfc. Obregon observed a fellow Marine fall wounded in the line of fire. Armed only with a pistol, he unhesitatingly dashed from his covered position to the side of the casualty.

"Firing his pistol with one hand, and despite the great peril to himself, dragged the wounded man to the side of the road. Still under enemy fire, he was bandaging the man's wounds when hostile troops of approximately platoon strength began advancing toward his position.

"Quickly seizing the wounded Marine's carbine, he placed his own body as a shield on front of him and lay there, firing accurately and effectively into the hostile group until he himself was fatally wounded by enemy machine gun fire."

Obregon's mother, Henrietta, in later years, told a reporter the man whose life her son had saved confessed that before the incident he was prejudiced against Hispanic Americans.

Obregon Park here was dedicated 15 years after Obregon was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, on Nov. 12, 1965.
http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/image1.nsf/Lookup/2003109163823/$file/obregonlow.jpg 

Private First Class Eugene A. Obregon
Photo by: Marine Corps

http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/mcn2000.nsf/main5/181DD3CECE6F411385256DBA0070EA89?opendocument 

Exile is not a fitting reward for veterans
by Wanda Garcia   
Wanda. garcia @sbcglobal.netv 
Caller-Times, November 1, 2013

CUENTO

CHRISTMAS 1966, Vietnam

by Joe Sanchez 

The first two photos are from when I served with the First Cavalry Division Airmobile 5/7 Battalion 7th Cavalry Regiment A Company back in 1966. I also served with the 2/7 Battalion, where I was wounded, along with three other troopers by an enemy hand grenade, on my 20th birthday.

The first photo, I'm with my friend Leonard Pelullo. I have my left hand on his shoulder. We were in base camp "An Khe" which was in the Central Highlands of Vietnam. Lenny was being treated for trench foot ( jungle rot) on both his feet and lower legs. Christmas was around the corner as one can see by the small decorated Christmas Tree. 

Lenny once told me, "Joe, I'm  going home. I'm not dying here." I said, "I know, Lenny. We are both going to make it home alive." 

Lenny was later killed, along with 3 other troopers on February 13, 1967. It was during a night firefight, when the Viet Cong tried to enter the outer perimeter of a listening post,  protecting the company. Lenny was 22-years old. God bless his soul. His father, Salvatore Pelullo, served in the Navy during World War-2. He passed away some years back. 

The third photo is with me and man's best friend on a spooky looking hill. 
He, too, was also wounded in action.

His mother, Maria Pelullo, lives in Philadelphia. She is a strong woman with a sharp mind.  I was able to visit them both back in 1998. I send Maria a present every Mother's Day in honor of Lenny. 

I see Lenny as a little boy and a photo and when he graduated from high school. I have a special page for him on my Website on the Vietnam page PFC Leonard S. Pelullo.

https://www.facebook.com/angela.p.spegal 
http://bluewallnypd.com/FallenSoldier.htm 

Profile in Courage: An Interview with Medal of Honor Recipient Alfred Rascon
The Hero Project

Ariel Investments President Mellody Hobson interviews Alfred Rascon, a U.S. Army veteran and Medal of Honor recipient. 
See live tweets as Rascon recalls a particular moment in battle and reflects on a life in service to his adopted country.

Medal of Honor Recipient Alfred Rascon 
and Rick Leal, President of the Hispanic Medal of Honor Society 
at the 
Veterans Day Parade in Phoenix, AZ.  2013
 

Sent by Rick Leal, President of the Hispanic Medal of Honor ggr1031@aol.com 

Veteran Artist Program VAP

Title: Letter to Jesus, 
Oil on canvas and article by Leroy Martinez
leroymartinez@charter.net 

In the past, I have donated Veteran-

related art to the Long Beach Veterans Hospital.  Most of this art in located in the Veteran's Hospital Chaplain's surrounding area, including the room where religious services are conducted.   

Some Long Beach Veteran Hospital employees  provide a juried art program with different art forms, including poetry.  The last two years I came in first place in the oil painting media.  The "Letter to Jesus" was my first entry.  Reverend George Vogel helps start this art show.

I was notified by Chaplain Reverend Vogel that he found a VAP program and website.  This web site indicated a juried art show for the Pentagon and registration information.  I submitted an application and I later received a letter that my art was accepted over thousands of others. 

This painting "Letter to Jesus" was used in other national veteran exhibits before it ever went to the Pentagon.  The subject is a homeless veteran sitting on a Ralph's store shopping cart turned sideways and he is writing a letter to Jesus.  Based on his appearance I would say he was about the Vietnam era.

I was asked to provide a biography and images in uniform and civilian attire.  I served in the Army from February 1966 to 1968.  Though I saw no action in Vietnam, I still played a role in preparing chemical warfare for the field.  One of the chemicals was Agent Orange, in which I worked with on a daily basis.  I now qualify for Agent Orange contact.

Art did not come to me naturally, as I am an analytical person.  During my early 50's I feared trying to do art.  However, I said that it did not matter what my art looked like, because it was only for me.  It started with a weekend form of relaxation and later grew into addiction.  It was getting away from work and just letting myself express myself.  After retirement in the year of 2000, I attended the Laguna College of Art and Design and continued pursuing my interest.  I completed all my art studio courses.  Who would have guessed I could get a second Bachelor's Degree, with just trying to learn art.

I am still busy with research, writing, and other analytical endeavors.  But I always have an art project waiting for me to do..  

Pentagon Veteran Artist Exhibit

VAP is honored to launch the first ever dedicated Veteran Artist Exhibit at the Pentagon in conjunction with the Pentagon Art Curator and the Pentagon Patriotic Art Series. We will be releasing a call for submissions this Fall across the country for veterans to submit their artwork to a jury of accomplished arts industry professionals, distinguished Pentagon VIPs, and Veteran leaders. This year-long exhibit will grace the halls of the Pentagon where over 25,000 people work daily and thousands visit over the course of the year. Not only is this a great opportunity to showcase the amazing work of veteran artists but to continue to show how veterans lead the way in redefining the arts in America.  

Mission: To Foster, Encourage, & Promote Veteran Artists 
VAP, a 501c3 nonprofit, takes artists who are also veterans, and propels their works and careers into the mainstream creative arts community through networking, mentorships, collaborations with professional artists, and original productions. We are based in the Baltimore-Washington area but we work with other like-minded organizations and individuals across the country to expand the network and visibility of veteran artists. 

Our scope includes the performing and visual arts, specifically music, theater, filmmaking, acting, painting, photography and many other disciplines in the creative arts. We also provide high quality, veteran-led, professional services such as event and film production, documentation through video and photography, gallery exhibitions and much more.  

Vision: Art is for Us. Art is an Option 
Countless veterans made the brave decision to step away from their art and be part of something larger than themselves and fight for their country. VAP provides the resources, tools, and networking necessary to take the intentional artist to the next level. We are about collaboration in all genres of art with an emphasis on bringing together the veteran and artistic communities. 
The arts have always been the mechanism that a society uses to portray, understand, document, and affect change. As veterans with a unique world perspective, we have the opportunity to not only redefine the veteran as an artist, but influence the communities we live in by being intentional with our creative endeavors.  

The Veteran Artist Program (VAP) was created for veterans by veterans. While in the U.S. Army, founder BR McDonald discovered many other creative types in uniform. What seemed like an unlikely pairing – military and the arts –made sense to BR because of his background in the arts and his degree in music from the University of North Carolina. 
After his service, BR realized the support and camaraderie from the military were still needed as veterans wrestled with the universal question, “What next?”BR reached out to fellow Baltimore-based veterans Rich Blake (Marine) and Mike Subelsky (Navy), who became founding board members, and VAP was born. More veterans came on board the following year, including many of the current VAP team. Josh Davidson, an Air Force veteran and actor/filmmaker, jumped on board to produce documentaries and full-length films. Erin Byers, an Army veteran and visual artist, participated in Telling: Baltimore and is now our VAP VIS lead. 

The arts have been a powerful, therapeutic tool in the healing process for many combat veterans reintegrating back into society and transitioning back into civilian life. The arts, however, also represent something else. Hope. Dreams. A Future. 
Whether it is painting, writing, performing on stage, acting in a movie, or singing opera, the possibilities are limitless. VAP exists to provide other veterans the encouragement, motivation, and means to follow their passion in unchartered territory. Through networking, collaborations, mentorship, and actual productions veterans can realize it is not too late to pursue their dreams. 

EARLY LATINO AMERICAN PATRIOTS

The TCARA booth was manned 
by Past President RoseMarie LaPenta

Sent by Jack Cowan Tcarahq@aol.com 

25th annual Juan N. Seguin celebration in Seguin, Texas
Seguin-Guadalupe County Coliseum on Saturday October 26

Mimi, the program went very well and Janice was an excellent choice as our keynote speaker. She related information so easily, she makes learning easy and enjoyable. Her talk connected and credited her family's survival and existents to Juan Seguin for having sent them information that Santa Anna was on his way toward, (Walnut town later in 1838 renamed in Juan's honor), Seguin and would have eradicated anyone in his path. 

She told the story of Juan Seguin in such a way that she painted a spirited and inspiring visual picture, for example when she so softly said, .....and Juan carried the ashes of the fallen Alamo heroes in his arms to be buried in San Fernando church.....
                                                                                                                                  Albert Seguin Gonzales and Janice Woods Windle  

Janice Woods Windle author of the book and mini-series "True Women" served as Keynote Speaker held in the Seguin-Guadalupe County Coliseum on Saturday October 26. Mrs. Windle's book has been translated into many world languages. Gonzales is the Great Grandson of Col. Seguin who was the only commissioned officer who fought inside the Alamo and survived to fight at San Jacinto. On Sunday the Guadalupe Community Symposium sponsored a luncheon prior to the stage play "Seguin: Unsung Texas Hero" written by Alvaro Saar Rios and held at the Historic Texas Theatre.

Albert Sequin Gonzales, 
ASeguin2@aol.com
 

November 2013 Newsletter of the 
Houston Chapter of the Granaderos y Damas De Galvez

Greetings from the Houston chapter- host of the 2013 October National Meeting

The planning of the National Meeting began in earnest as soon as the date was selected. The initial committee included the Governor of our chapter, Richard Espinosa and his wife Merrilee, along with John Espinosa, Beth Leney, Margie Renazco, Maria Carmen Palle, Melanie Serian and Anthony Startz.

After the wonderful dinner of fajitas the group gathered in front of the new Bandera de Granaderos Y Damas de Galvez and the port flag from the ‘Dedalo’.

The ‘Dos Hombres’ Richard and John Espinosa

 Both Richard and John have been enthusiastic Granaderos now for many years. They share their love of Bernardo de Galvez and his contribution to the American Revolution.  They are standing in front of the port flag that flew from the ‘Dedalo’, Spain’s aircraft carrier.

Also on Friday evening, Dama Cristina Girard presented a beautiful Granaderos Y Damas flag she had commissioned for the organization. In the picture below Cristina is holding the flag with Governor General Joel Escamilla, Maria Carmen Palle and Cesar Vazquez. 

Cristina Girard, Maria Carmen Palle, Joel Escamilla & Cesar Vazquez Display the new bandera of the Granaderos Y Damas de Galvez commissioned by Christina. The crest on the flag mirrors the crest on the Damas pin.

The Saturday business session began at the Kilroy Center at the Beautiful Museum of Fine Arts Bayou Bend estate, former home of Ima Hogg. After a welcome and tour of the home, the meeting got underway. Chapter reports were presented and a wonderful presentation was given by Bill Adriance from the Galveston, Texas Galvez Statue project. Bill is the Chapter President of the Sons of the American Revolution Bernardo de Galvez Chapter. The artist Erick Aposto also spoke about his inspiration and research for the statue. Then both Bill and Erick answered questions about the project. Anthony Startz proposed a donation to the statue project followed by donations from Jill Brooks, Beth

Leney, Margie Renazco and Jackie Huckabay totaling a phenomenal contribution of $975 towards this project.

The afternoon business meeting session concluded with this group photo at the Kilroy Center

John Espinosa, Mary Anthony Startz, 
Melanie Serian, Maria Carmen Palle 
& Richard Espinosa

After the library tour, the last event was a closing "Garden Reception" (Hosted by Maria Carmen & Melanie at Briar Hurst Gardens). The food was fantastic- scrumptious paella!  John Espinosa spoke of the possibility of a trip to Mexico City during April or May of 2014.  

Our chapter was honored to host the National meeting and looks forward to a growing chapter and a growing organization as we spread the word about the role of Spain and Bernardo de Galvez during the American Revolution.

Sent by Joe Perez 

Spanish SURNAMES

MOCTEZUMA’S DESCENDANTS IN AGUASCALIENTES

Copyright © 2013 by John P. Schmal

John P. Schmal: This research is the compilation of research done by others and the recent research of Mercy Bautista-Olvera and me in Mexico City’s Sixteenth Century church records. This article is dedicated to my two Aguascalientes research buddies, Mercy Bautista-Olvera and Paola Ruvalcaba Tamayo.  

For many years, Aguascalientes and Nueva Galicia researchers have agreed that one branch of Moctezuma’s descendants ended up in Aguascalientes. However, the paper evidence for this theory has been difficult to assemble. And, at this point in time, there are still some gaps. It is believed that the researchers Guillermo Tovar de Teresa and Mariano Gonzalez-Leal have put together more detailed analysis on this lineage, but at this time, we will present what we have, which present parts of the picture.  

GENERATION 1: MOTEZUMA II XOCOYOTSIN (1480-1520)

MOCTEZUMA II XOCOYOTSIN II was born about 1480 as the son of AXAYACTL TLATOANI (Water Mask” or “Water Face”), who was the sixth Emperor of the Aztecs, reigning over Tenochtitlán from 1469 to 1481. Axayactl was himself the grandson of Emperor MOCTEZUMA I (reigned 1440 to 1469), the monarch that he succeeded. Moctezuma II became the Emperor of the Aztec Empire in 1502 and was killed on June 29, 1520 during the fall of Tenochtitlán.  

In May 2010, Margo Tamez, in submitting a dissertation to Washington State University, discussed the Moctezuma-Esparza lineage and the fact that female descendants of Moctezuma were granted “significant encomiendas in perpetuity” by the Spanish Crown.[i] In fact, three of Moctezuma‘s children were awarded special legal recognition, privileges and rights for themselves and their descendants.[ii] 
 

GENERATION 2: MARIANA LEONOR MOCTEZUMA (1505-1562) 

Marianna was married in 1527 to Juan Páez,[i] a conquistador who died by late August 1529. Two years later in 1531, Mariana married her second husband, Cristobal de Valderrama. Don Cristobal, a native of Burgos, España, was a conquistador who served in Michoacán, Colima and Zacatula. The History of Tarímbaro (Michoacán) states that Cristobal de Valderrama was given the encomienda of Tarímbaro (1526-1537) and of Ecatepec, and he is mentioned in the text of Michoacán’s early history during the 1530s until his death in November 1537.[ii] Mariana and Don Cristobal had only one daughter, Leonor de Valderrama y Moctezuma, who was baptized sometime around 1532.

GENERATION 3: LEONOR DE VALDERRAMA (born 1532 – died 1562)

Doña LEONOR DE VALDERRAMA Y MOCTEZUMA, the second encomendera of Tarímbaro and Ecatepec, was probably born around 1532 and died in 1562 when she was only 30 years old. Leonor de Valderrama y de Moctezuma was married to DIEGO ARIAS DE SOTELO, a native of Zamora, España, who was born around 1525. It is believed that Diego was the son of Fernando de Sotelo and Maria de Villasenor.  

The relationship of Leonor (alias Marina) and X’poval [Christoval] de Valderrama to their daughter Leonor de Balderrama who married Diego Arias Sotelo is confirmed by a segment of the 1574 Archivo General chart referenced earlier:[i]  

Diego Arias de Sotelo came to Nueva España in 1550 as a waiter of Viceroy Luis de Velasco and served as Alcalde Ordinario de Méjico in 1561. Diego and Leonor were involved in lengthy law-suits which consumed the rest of their lives and which, according to Chipman, involved the disputed properties in Ecatepec and Tlatelolco.[i]  

During the late 1560s, Diego Arias Sotelo got into trouble with the Vice Royalty, along with his brother, who was executed for his alleged crimes against the state. Diego Arias Sotelo was exiled to Spain in 1568 for his participation in the plot of Don Martin Cortes, but his son Fernando stepped in to take over the encomienda of Ecatepec from him.  

Leonor Valderrama and her husband Diego Arias de Sotelo had the following children:  

1. Don Fernando de Sotelo, the third encomendero of Tarímbaro and San Cristobal Ecatepec. He later became the Mayor of Colima and died sometime after 1604.
2. Don Cristobal de Sotelo Valderrama was married Juana de Heredia Patino in 1594 in Mexico City and is believed to have died in 1607.
3. Dona Ana de Sotelo Moctezuma, who became a nun.
4. Petronila Moctezuma (Montezuma). She was married to Martin de Gabay, also known as Martin Navarro.

Unfortunately, the 1574 Archivo General chart refers to the Leonor de Valderrama and Diego Arias Sotelo as the parents of Fernando Sotelo de Moctezuma and "otros hijos [other children] de Diego Arias Sotelo."[ii]

However, this excerpt from a 1594 matrimonio informacion document from the Archdiocese of Mexico City provides the following information: "X’poval [Christobal] Sotelo Valderrama natural de esta ciudad hijo legitimo de Diego Arias Sotelo y Doña Leonor ---- [unreadable] - difuntos [deceased]. This is the brother of Petronila Sotelo alias Petronila Moctezuma. This document was the result of diligent research in Mexico City's information matrimonios by Mercy Bautista Olvera.[i]

GENERATION 4: PETRONILLA MOCTEZUMA (born 1552)  

PETRONILA SOTELO MOCTEZUMA was probably born around 1552 in Mexico City. It is believed that in 1571 she was married to MARTIN GABAI DE NAVARRO, also known as MARTIN NABARRO. A marriage of Petronila and Martin has not been located yet, however, they were referenced several times as an ancestral married couple Martin Nabarro and Petronila Montesuma in a 1703 Diocese of Guadalajara informacion matrimonio document for a marriage that took place in Nochistlán as seen below:[i]

[i] Family History Library, Diocese of Guadalajara Matrimonios Film #168605 (1700-1705), Images 318-320. Online: 
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1-18377-19648-67?cc=1874591&wc=M99L-KS2:1242667025  

In an earlier section of the same document, the following relationship is outlined: Theresa Ponze, the daughter (hija) of Nicolas Ponze, the granddaughter (nieta) of Doña Juana de Siordia, great-granddaughter (bisnieta) of Maria Gabai, and great-great-granddaughter (terzera nieta) of Martin Nabarro and of Doña Petronila Montesuma.[i]

The known children of Petronila Sotelo (alias Moctezuma) and of Martin Gabai de Navarro are shown below:  

        Ana-Francisca Gabay, born circa 1573-1577, married circa 1594-95 to Lope Ruiz de Esparza, died March 30, 1652, 
        Villa de        Aguascalientes - married LOPE RUIZ-DE-ESPARZA. He died 14 Aug 1651 in Aguascalientes.

GENERATION 5: FRANCESCA GABAI (1573-1652) – WIFE OF LOPE RUIZ DE ESPARZA (1569-1651)  

According to the doctorate dissertation Margo Tamez, when Lope Ruiz de Esparza (1569-1651), a Basque colonist, married Ana Francisca Moctezuma Gabay (1573-1652), “high status was secured, and certain facets of aboriginal title through his wife‘s ancestral lineage, recognized by the Spanish Crown as a direct line descendent of Moctezuma II, facilitated the acquisition of lands and wealth for his heirs vis-à-vis intermarriage with an Indigenous woman with immense social and political capital.”[i]  

Lope Ruiz de Esparza

Lope Ruiz de Esparza – a native of Pamplona, Navarra – is documented by the Catalogo de Pasajeros a Indias (Vol. III - #2.633) as having sailed from Spain to Mexico on Feb. 8, 1593. Lope, who was the son of Lope Ruiz de Esparza and Ana Días de Eguino, was a bachelor and a servant of Doñ Enrique Maleon.[ii] After arriving in Mexico, Lope is said to have married Francisca de Gabai Navarro y Moctezuma somewhere in Mexico City in 1595. This marriage has not been located.  

Aguascalientes

At some point, Lope and Francesca made their way to Aguascalientes in the Spanish colony of Nueva Galicia. The town of Aguascalientes had been formally established by a decree of October 22, 1575 during the height of the Chichimeca War (1550-1590). As a result, the small villa got off to a bad start and during the height of the hostilities (1582-1585), the population of the villa was reduced to only one caudillo, two vecinos [residents] and 16 soldiers. However the last Chichimec raid took place in 1593, after which the threat from native peoples quickly diminished. At this point Spanish settlers – mostly cattlemen and farmers – began arriving in Aguascalientes.[iii]  

By 1610, the small town of Aguascalientes had some 25 Spanish residents, about fifty families of mestizos, at least 100 mulatos, twenty Black slaves, and ten Indians.[iv] It is likely that these twenty-five Spanish inhabitants probably included persons with the surnames Ruiz de Esparza, Alvarado, Tiscareno de Molina, Luebana, and Fernandez de Vaulus. The Registros Parroquiales (Parish Registers) for La Parroquia de la Asunción (Assumption Parish) in Aguascalientes began at various points around this time: marriages in 1601, baptisms in 1616 and deaths in 1620. And the vast majority of the people who were baptized or married in this church in the early years were mulatos, mestizos and indios (as indicated by the 1610 tally).  

The first evidence we have of Lope’s presence in Aguascalientes is an October 8^th, 1611 marriage of two people who are described as servants (criados) of Pedro Fernandez de Vaulus (most likely a nephew of Francesca Gabai de Ruiz de Esparza). This marriage was performed in the presence (en presencia) of three people, one of whom was Lope Ruiz de Esparza.

GENERATION 6: THE RUIZ DE ESPARZA CHILDREN OF AGUASCALIENTES

 Lope Ruiz de Esparza and Francisca de Gabay had the following children:

1. Salvador, born in 1595, died in Aguascalientes on Sept 29, 1679. He was married about 1618 to María de Vielma, born circa 1600
2. Anna Tomasina, born about 1597. She was married on Nov. 25, 1618 to Francisco Sánchez de Montes de Oca, a native of the Kingdom of Castilla. They lived in Morcenique
3. Martín, born about 1600. He was married about 1625 to Doña María López de Elizalde y Becerra, the widow of Don Juan de Luévana (a peninsular). He died in 1662 in Aguascalientes.
4. Lorenza, born about 1602. She was married in the Hacienda de Morcenique, Aguascalientes, on May 16, 1623, with Capitán Luis de Tiscareño de Molina y Márquez, originally from the Barrio of Triana en Sevilla; Luis was the son of Juan de Tiscareño de Molina y de doña Elvira Márquez.
5. Jacinto, born about 1604. He was the Escribano Real de Aguascalientes. He was married about 1629 with Doña Juana López de Elizalde, who died  in Aguascalientes on May 21, 1682 (she was the daughter of Juan López de Elizalde y de Leonor Becerra y Sánchez de Mendoza). He died in Aguascalientes on July 27, 1679.
6. Bernardo (who also used the surname Salado) was born in 1608. He was married in the Estancia de Morcenique to Doña Catalina Lozano Isla, the daughter of Don Cristóbal y de Doña María (Lozano-Isla)
7. Pedro, was born in 1611. He was married on April 12, 1636 to Isla Juana Lozano, the daughter of Don Cristobal and Dona Maria, already mentioned. His second marriage in Aguascalientes, on March 13, 1688 was recorded as follows: “13 de marzo de 1688: Pedro Ruis de Esparza español vecino de esta villa y vudo de Juana Lozano con Margarita española vecina y natural de esta villa hija lexítima de Luis González y Beatris Gallegos ya difuntos.” He had fathered a child by her. Margarita was baptized on Nov. 24, 1625 in Aguascalientes.
8. María, born in 1613 and married about 1630 with Don Nicolás de Ulloa, who had been born in 1605. They were vecinos de Teocaltiche, where their descendants lived.
9. Capitán Cristóbal, born in 1616. He was marred on August 18, 1646 to Doña Isabel de Alcaraz, o Pérez
10. Don Bernabé, baptized en Aguascalientes on June 17, 1618 and died on October 21, 1672. He was married on May 11, 1643 with Doña Anna Ortiz Ramírez, a native of Sierra de Pinos and daughter Pablo and de Doña Catalina. They had no descendants.
11. Don Lope Ruiz de Esparza y de Gabay, born in Morcenique and baptized in Aguascalientes on August 21, 1620. Lope was also known as Lorenzo Ruiz de Esparza. His first marriage was to Doña Antonia del Castilla (daughter of Juan del Castillo de Contreras and Doña María Ruiz de Aldana) on May 2, 1647. His second marriage was on August 1, 1677 to Doña Josefa de Sandi, widow of Juan Martínez Calvillo, daughter of Alonso de Aguilera y de Josefa de Sandi.

Both Lope Ruiz de Esparza and his wife Francesca served as padrinos at numerous baptisms and marriages in the Aguascalientes during their long lives. However, their own children were not baptized in the Aguascalientes parish church until 1618. It is possible that records were kept in their private chapel in Morcenique and that these records were never turned over to the parish or may have been lost at some point.

LORENZA ESPARZA (The fourth-born child of Lope and Francesca) (1602-1690)

 LORENZA RUIZ DE ESPARZA, the fourth-born child of Lope and Francesca, was probably born around 1602. On May 16, 1623, in Morcenique, Lorenza was married to Luis Tiscareno de Molina, a native of Triana, across the river from Sevilla in Castilla. Their marriage is shown below:[i]   The approximate text of this marriage reads as follows:

The known children of LORENZA RUIZ-DE-ESPARZA and LUIS TISCARENO-DE-MOLINA-Y-MARQUEZ were:  

1. Juan Tiscareno de Molina
2. Luisa Tiscareno de Molina – married on Sept, 3, 1652 to Andres Lopez de Nava in Aguascalientes
3. Francesca Tiscareno de Molina, baptized March 4, 1625, Aguascalientes
4. Elvira Tiscareno de Molina, baptized May 11, 1627, Aguascalientes
5. Maria Tiscareno de Molina, baptized March 13, 1634, Aguascalientes
6. Margarita Tiscareno de Molina, baptized June 27, 1642, Aguascalientes
7. Juana Tiscareno de Molina, baptized August 20, 1644, Aguascalientes

According to the Aguascalientes Parish Book, Lorensa Ruis De Esparsa, the widow of Luis Tiscareño, was buried on June 3, 1690 (Aguascalientes Film 299856, Book 2, page 150).

GENERATION 7: MARIA TISCARENO DE ROMO DE VIBAR (born 1634)

 MARIA TISCARENO was born eleven years after the marriage of her parents, Lorenza Ruis de Esparza and Luis Tiscareno de Molina. Her baptism on March 13, 1634 described María as “hija de Luis Careño [Tiscareno] y Lorenza Ruis.” The actual baptism from the Aguascalientes film was located on Family History Library Film 299421 and has been reproduced below:

Several sources have reported that on May 5, 1658, in the Chapel of Los Tiscareños, CAPITAN JUAN ROMO DE VIVAR (born around 1632) married María de Molina Tiscareño, the daughter of Luis de Molina and Marquez Tiscareño.  

We do not have a copy of this marriage. However, from 1658 forward, Juan Romo and Maria Tiscareno are frequently listed in the baptism book of Aguascalientes, both as padrinos and as parents.  Although they were the parents of several children, only some of those children were baptized in Aguascalientes. Others may have been baptized in the private family chapel, and the records may not have been transferred to the Parish of Aguascalientes.  

Juan Romo de Vibar and María de Tiscareno are believed to have had several children including:  

1. Teresa Romo de Vibar, born circa 1662
2. Antonio Romo de Vibar, baptized Aug 12, 1664, Aguascalientes Parish
3. Domingo Romo de Vibar, baptized Sept. 13, 1666, Aguascalientes Parish

On December 18, 1691, according to the Aguascalientes Parish Book, Juan Romo de Vivar – the husband of Maria de Tiscareño – was buried at the Convento De Nuestra Señora De La Concepsion (Aguascalientes Film 299856, Book 2, page 160). The death record for his wife has not been located.

GENERATION 8: THERESA ROMO DE VIBAR (1662 – 1691)  

Aguascalientes research specialists, including Mariano Gonzalez, have stated that Juana Teresa Romo de Vibar was born about 1662, possibly baptized in the private Tiscareno chapel or in another parish. What is known is that Doña Juana Teresa – when she was about 17 years old – was married to CAPITAN DON JOSEPH DE LA ESCALERA Y VALDES on September 10, 1679. The two page document for their marriage (Aguascalientes Film 299823) is reproduced below:

The known children of Jose de la Escalera and Teresa Romo who were baptized in the Parish of Aguascalientes are listed below:  

1. Margarita, baptized Sept. 1, 1680
2. Juan, baptized March 24, 1682
3. Joseph, baptized July 4, 1684
4. Mariana, baptized May 27, 1687
5. Christoval, baptized Oct. 23, 1689

According to the Aguascalienes Parish Book, Teresa Romo De Vivar – the wife of Joseph de la Escalera – was buried in the Church of Aguascalientes on Dec. 24, 1691 (Aguascalientes Film 299856, Book 2, page 160). She was probably only 29 years old at the time.

[1] Margo Tamez, NÁDASI‘NÉ‘ NDÉ' ISDZÁNÉ BEGOZ'AAHÍ' SHIMAA SHINÍ' GOKAL GOWĄ GOSHJAA HA‘ÁNÁ‘IDŁÍ TEXAS-
       NAKAIYÉ GODESDZOG [Translation: RETURNING LIPAN APACHE WOMEN‘S LAWS, LANDS, & POWER IN EL CALABOZ RANCHERÍA, 
       TEXAS-MEXICO BORDER] (Program in American Studies, Washington State University: May 2010), p. 76.
[2] Donald E. Chipman, Moctezuma‘s Children: Aztec Royalty Under Spanish Rule, 1520-1700, (Austin: The University of Texas Press, 2005).
[3] Ibid., pp. 75-95.
[4] Mexico Archivo General - AGI - MP - Escudos: 211.
[5] Hugh Thomas, Who’s Who of the Conquistadors (Cassell & Co.: London, 2000), p.222.
[6] Enciclopedia de los Municipios y Delegaciones de México, Michoacán de Ocampo: Tarímbaro. Online:
       http://www.e-local.gob.mx/work/templates/enciclo/EMM16michoacan/municipios/16088a.html
[7] Mexico Archivo General - AGI - MP - Escudos: 211.
[8] Donald E. Chipman, op. cit., p. 77.
[9] Mexico Archivo General - AGI - MP - Escudos: 211.
[10] Family History Library, Mexico Distrito Federal Church Records, Aquidiocecis de Mexico (Centro), Film 1512017, Image #96. Online:  
       https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1-17760-104704-6?cc=1615259&wc=M99K-K95:507747687.
[11] Family History Library, Diocese of Guadalajara Matrimonios Film #168605 (1700-1705), Images 318-320. 
       Online:  https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1-18377-19648-67?cc=1874591&wc=M99L-KS2:1242667025 
[12] Ibid.
[13] Margo Tamez, op. cit., p. 329.
[14] Archivo General de Indias, Sección de Contratación, Pasajeros a Indias:  Libros de Asientos (Sevilla, Spain: Imprenta Editorial de la Gavidia, 1940), Vol. VII, 1586-1599, III-163, #2.633.
[15] Peter Gerhard, The North Frontier of New Spain (University of Oklahoma: 1993), pp. 63-65; Philip Wayne Powell, Solders, Indians and Silver
        (Center for Latin American Studies, Arizona State University: 1975), pp. 144, 154-155.
[16] Peter Gerhard, op. cit., p 65.
[17] Family History Library Film 299421, Aguascalientes Bautismos & Matrimonios (1616-1662).

 Copyright © 2013 by John P. Schmal

DNA

Mexico DNA Project, Sephardic Connection 
Administrator, Gary Felix

Sent by Gary Felix   
gary.felix@icloud.com 

by Michael Balter
Science 25 October 2013

"I'm still processing that Native Americans are one-third European," says geneticist Connie Mulligan of the University of Florida in Gainesville. "It's jaw-dropping." At the very least, says geneticist Dennis O'Rourke of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, "this is going to stimulate a lot of discussion."

Researchers have been trying to parse the origins of the first Americans for decades. Most agree that people moved across Beringia, via a vast ice age land bridge (see map p. 410), and began spreading through the Americas, reaching Chile by 14,500 years ago. But the origins of the source populations are not clear, and some archaeologists have even suggested that ancient Europeans crossing the Atlantic were part of the mix (Science, 16 March 2012, p. 1289). Others have contended that early skeletons found in the Americas, such as the 9000-year-old Kennewick Man, show some European features (Science, 10 April 1998, p. 190). In his talk, Willerslev argued that the ancient genome "can actually explain a lot of these inconsistencies," by offering glimpses of prehistoric populations before more recent migrations and other demographic events blurred the picture.

The genome comes from the right upper arm bone of a boy aged about 4 years, who lived by Siberia's Belaya River. Those who buried him adorned his grave with flint tools, pendants, a bead necklace, and a sprinkling of ochre. In the 1920s, Russian archaeologists discovered the burial and other artifacts near a village called Mal'ta, which gave the celebrated site its name. Willerslev and co-author Kelly Graf of Texas A&M University in College Station, traveled to the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, where the boy's remains are housed, and took a bone sample.

Willerslev reported that the team was able to sequence the boy's genome, and also to radiocarbon date the bone. The team then used a variety of statistical methods to compare the genome with that of living populations. They found that a portion of the boy's genome is shared only by today's Native Americans and no other groups, showing a close relationship. Yet the child's Y chromosome belongs to a genetic group called Y haplogroup R, and its mitochondrial DNA to a haplogroup U. Today, those haplogroups are found almost exclusively in people living in Europe and regions of Asia west of the Altai Mountains, which are near the borders of Russia, China, and Mongolia.

One expected relationship was missing from the picture: The boy's genome showed no connection to modern East Asians. DNA studies of living people strongly suggest that East Asians—perhaps Siberians, Chinese, or Japanese—make up the major part of Native American ancestors. So how could the boy be related to living Native Americans, but not to East Asians? "This was kind of puzzling at first," Willerslev told the meeting. But there seemed little doubt that the finding was correct, he said, because nearly all Native Americans from North and South America were equally related to the Mal'ta child, indicating that he represented very deep Native American roots.

The team proposes a relatively simple scenario: Before 24,000 years ago, the ancestors of Native Americans and the ancestors of today's East Asians split into distinct groups. The Mal'ta child represents a population of Native American ancestors who moved into Siberia, probably from Europe or west Asia. Then, sometime after the Mal'ta boy died, this population mixed with East Asians. The new, admixed population eventually made its way to the Americas. Exactly when and where the admixture happened is not clear, Willerslev said. But the deep roots in Europe or west Asia could help explain features of some Paleoamerican skeletons and of Native American DNA today. "The west Eurasian [genetic] signatures that we very often find in today's Native Americans don't all come from postcolonial admixture," Willerslev said in his talk. "Some of them are ancient."

The talk sparked lively exchange, and not everyone was ready to buy the team's scenario, at least until they can read the full paper, which is in press at Nature. "This is a lot to hang on one skeleton," Mulligan says. Willerslev said during the discussion that his group is now trying to sequence the genomes of skeletons "further west."

The new findings are consistent with a report published in Genetics last year (and almost entirely ignored at the time) that used modern DNA to conclude that Native Americans have significant—and ancient—ties to Europeans. "Our group is very excited to see this," says Alexander Kim, who works with geneticist David Reich at Harvard Medical School in Boston and represented the group at the meeting. Reich's team found that populations they identified as Native American ancestors in Asia apparently also contributed genes to populations in northern Europe. Thus, both studies suggest a source population in Asia whose genes made their way east all the way to the Americas, and west, all the way to Europe.

"Mal'ta might be a missing link, a representative of the Asian population that admixed both into Europeans and Native Americans," Reich says. If so, he adds, it shows "the value of ancient DNA in peeling back history and resolving mysteries that are difficult to solve using only present day samples."

FAMILY HISTORY RESEARCH

 Tia Lucina Hernandez Rubio Arcos is in the Photo, who is the Family?
MyHeritage and FamilySearch enter significant strategic partnership 

Thank you, and have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Jaime Rendon Hernandez,  sangerjaime@aol.com 

TEL AVIV, Israel & SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – October 9, 2013 – MyHeritage, the popular online family history network, and FamilySearch.org announced today the signing and commencement of a strategic partnership that forges a new path for the family history industry. Under this multi-year partnership, MyHeritage will provide FamilySearch with access to its powerful technologies and FamilySearch will share billions of global historical records and family tree profiles spanning hundreds of years with MyHeritage. This will help millions of MyHeritage and FamilySearch users discover even more about their family history.

FamilySearch will provide MyHeritage with more than 2 billion records from its global historic record collections and its online Family Tree. These records will be added to SuperSearch , MyHeritage’s search engine for historical records, and will be matched with family trees on MyHeritage using its matching technologies. MyHeritage users will gain access to an unprecedented boost of historical records and family tree profiles, which are key to researching and reconstructing their family histories. This reinforces MyHeritage's position as an international market leader, with gigantic assets of family trees and records, which are the most globally diverse in the industry.

FamilySearch members will benefit from MyHeritage's unique technologies which automate family history discoveries. Smart Matching™ automatically finds connections between user-contributed family trees and Record Matching automatically locates historical records relevant to any person in the family tree. By receiving accurate matches between FamilySearch’s Family Tree profiles and historical record collections, such as birth, death, census, and immigration documents, FamilySearch members will be able to more effectively grow their family trees in size and in depth and add conclusions supported by historical records.

“For more than a hundred years, FamilySearch has been dedicated to working with the world’s archives to preserve their records for future generations” said Gilad Japhet, Founder and CEO of MyHeritage. “Their massive undertaking has made family history more accessible to everyone. This partnership highlights MyHeritage’s technology leadership and our firm commitment to adding historical records on a massive global scale, accelerating our vision of helping families everywhere explore and share their legacy online. We look forward to a fruitful future working hand in hand with our friends at FamilySearch.”

“FamilySearch values collaborative partnerships that enable more people, in more places, to discover their family history” said Dennis Brimhall, CEO of FamilySearch. “MyHeritage is an innovative company that has a fast growing, global online audience. We are excited to commence this partnership which enables FamilySearch to better serve the global family history community.”

About MyHeritage

MyHeritage is a family history network helping millions of families around the world discover and share their legacy online. As technology thought leaders and innovators in the space, MyHeritage is transforming family history into an activity that’s accessible, exciting and easier than ever before. MyHeritage empowers its global community of users with unique social tools, a massive library of historical content and powerful search and data matching technologies. The service is available in 40 languages. For more information visit www.myheritage.com

About FamilySearch

FamilySearch International (online at FamilySearch.org) is the largest genealogy organization in the world. Millions of people use FamilySearch records, resources, and services to learn more about their family history. To help in this great pursuit, FamilySearch has been actively gathering, preserving, and sharing genealogical records worldwide for over 100 years. FamilySearch is a nonprofit organization sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Patrons may access FamilySearch services and resources free online at FamilySearch.org or through over 4,800 family history centers in 70 countries, including the renowned Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Press Contacts

Aaron Godfrey, PR Manager for MyHeritage
Phone: + Phone: US +1-347-329-5461 | UK +44-208-816-7571
Email: aaron@myheritage.com

Paul Nauta, FamilySearch PR Manager
Phone: US +1-801-240-6498
Email: nautapg@familysearch.org

ORANGE COUNTY, CA

Orange's connection 
to 
Hollywood history

In the 1910s, the area around 
Santiago Canyon was fertile 
ground for Westerns 
by Fermin Leal, 
Orange County Register
Oct 25, 3013

“The land around Orange was then considered ‘Indian Country' for Hollywood producers,” said local historian Douglas Westfall.

Another historian, Jim Sleeper, described the area in his book “Great Movies Shot in Orange County” about the first part of the 1910s: “Santiago Canyon saw more massacres per acre than the Great Plains states saw in a lifetime.”

Sleeper, who died in 2012, chronicled in the 1980 book more than a dozen scenes for films shot around what is today Irvine Regional Park, Irvine Lake, Santiago Canyon and Santiago Creek.

Some movies featured actors, directors and other crew members who would later work in bigger Hollywood productions. Many locals believe the legendary director Cecil B. DeMille also traveled to the area to film.

Devilled is often referred to as one of Hollywood's founding fathers. His 1914 version of “The Squaw Man” has the distinction of being the first feature-length production filmed in Hollywood.

“The Squaw Man” was adapted from a 1905 play that tells the story of a British officer who moves to America to work as a cattle rancher, then falls in love with an American Indian girl.

Several versions of the story were produced into films, including the short shot in Orange's hills in 1912. In that version, the American Indian girl was played by actress Princess Red Wing. She would later play the same role in DeMille's 1914 adaptation.

DeMille Presley serves as a trustee emeritus at Chapman University.  DeMille's most famous Orange County film location was Seal Beach in the early 1920s.  The city's shoreline served as the coast of the Red Sea for “The Ten Commandments,” which came out in 1923 and starred Theodore Roberts. DeMille later went on to direct the more famous Charlton Heston version of “The Ten Commandments,” which was released in 1956.

Contact the writer: 714-704-3773 or fleal@ocregister.com

Left to right: Jeffery Jones and father Jim Jones

Last of the wild West
Los Alamitos Lawman, Juan Orozco gunned Down and Forgotten
Phil Brigandi

Over the course of two years the Brigandi has uncovered this intriguing story from the waning days of orange County's wild and woolly pioneer era.

Surrounded by freeways, condos and strip malls it's easy to forget that orange County was once part of the wild West, complete with bandits  and horse thieves, tough lawman, Indians, cat houses, rough-and-tumble saloons, false front stores, blacksmith, shootouts, cattle roundups, prospectors and nearly any other old West cliché you'd care to conjure up. Los Alamitos was such a stereotypically tough and rugged Western town that movies directors would later use it as a location set for their "oaters."

Orozco seems to have been the first Orange County law enforcement officer killed in the line of duty, said  Brigandi. "the story has been forgotten mostly because we don't have constables anymore or any successor agency to keep a list of their own fallen officers. This is a story I ran across a couple of years ago and there are still some questions to unravel. But the basic facts are clear.

Phil Brigand has written over 20 books on local history, has been a museum curator, teacher, public speaker, historical consultant and newspaper columnist and served as Orange County's archivist for five years. He also leads OCHS's, history hikes and is editor for OCHS's Orange Countiana  Journal.

This was the first time the Phil Brigand had spoken on the subject of Juan Orosco, an article about his research appeared in the May 28 2013 issue of the Orange County Register.

Source:  County Courier, Official Publication of the Orange County Historical Society
www.orangecountyhistory.org 

It's a collection of history spanning more than 160 years. Almost 15,000 photos chronicle how Orange started as a small housing track, then grew into Orange County's fourth largest city.

The orange public library and history centers archive of photos the pics the boom of the agricultural packing industry shows the development of old town and offers a glimpse into 
the daily lives of Orange residents from the mid-1800s until today County's.

All the photos are available digitally on the library's website. Library staff spent several 
years scanning the photos or film that get negatives into the archives.

The Santora Arts Building, the iconic Spanish Colonial style building that anchors Santa Ana’s downtown Artists Village, has been sold to Newport Beach resident Jack Jakosky, according to the Voice of OC. The 1928 Santora building at 207 N. Broadway, became home during the 1930s and 1940s to a restaurant which attracted Hollywood's. The building is listed on the national register of historic places.

Jakosky said in a brief interview that he wants to rekindle the building’s art scene, which has been declining in recent years as other businesses fill studios vacated by artists.  “I want to increase the number of art-related tenants,” Jakosky said. “It needs to go back to its roots frankly, and that’s my objective.”

Inter-cultural Marriage Discussion Arises 
from Somos Primos November issue on the Ontiveros Family of Orange County  

On Oct 28, 2013, at 7:12 PM, mimilozano <mimilozano@aol.com> wrote:

Hi Al . . I would surely welcome an article along that line on any or all of the OC families, Yorba, Grijalva, or Peralta. It makes the points in many, many ways. 

Also, would have the time to write up a personal article about a Christmas memory in Orange County? As you know, I am trying to get readers to start writing their stories and sharing. I thought Christmas would be a good time to show how much fun it can be, and insightful at the same time.

God bless, Mimi

From: Albert V Vela, PhD [mailto:cristorey38@comcast.net] 
Sent: Tuesday, October 29, 2013 7:22 AM
To: mimilozano
Subject: Re: InterMarriages in OC / 1800s /

Hello Mimi,  Early this yr I started work on the early history of the Santa Ana Canyon. Only one major significant study has been done, a Masters by Tracy Smith, CSU, Fullerton.  Other than that there are pieces in journals here and there / Was in OC recently 
and was happy with what I learned including an interview with Marilyn Yorba Lasker.  What I'm saying, Mimi, is I have my hands full at this time. But I encourage you to keep telling folks to write their personal/family stories. 

The InterCultural marriages in early OC between the ranchero sons & daughters with AngloAmericans is not unusual.  Happened up and down the coast / Here again, not a whole lot has been written by scholars on this topic . . . just lines here and there . There 
are rivers of "Spanish/Mexican/Indian/mestizo blood" flowing in the lives of Orange Countians.  I was surprised to learn that some of my Mater Dei HS classmates of the 1950s had a Latino cultural connection.  This surfaced years following graduation / Who would have guessed it with German surnames like Bain & Wagner among others?

Fondly,  Al

On Oct 29, 2013, at 12:15 PM, George, Stephanie wrote:

Just thought I’d mention, too, that the Anaheim families that are often evoked as “German” were very much inter-cultural marriages. August (Augustus) Langenberger, a German native, who owned the general store in 1858 (a year after Anaheim incorporated) was first married to Maria Petra de Jesus Ontiveros, the daughter of Juan Pacifico Ontiveros (who sold his ranch land to the Colony) and, one of my favorite families, the Rimpaus, who’s patriarch, Theodore, married [Maria Marcilina] Francisca Avila. Her father was Francisco Avila (and alcalde of the pueblo of Los Angeles) and her mother was Maria Verdugo. 

*This* is one of the other research topics I’m working on, since these families have, more times than not, been identified as “German” when it comes to Anaheim. Moreover, they were influential in the development of St. Boniface (again, the German connection) but Langenberger and Rimpau were NOT Catholic! Of course, there wives were – and you can see the influence their wives had on the religious education of their children and financial support of the RC church in town. It was only after Rimpau’s wife died did he convert. (That’s always baffled me; why wait?!) 

Anyway, one of these days, I’ll get back to this. I was very heavily into this when researching for the St. Boniface sesquicentennial exhibit that I curated for them. 

Hope you’re doing well, Al!

Stephanie

In a message dated 10/29/13 10:33:38 Pacific Daylight Time, cristorey38@comcast.net writes:

Hi Stephanie, 

You've got your hands full on this topic / I guess the authors/contributors to The Story of a Parish were/are the same mold as the writers of Yorba Linda, Santa Ana, et al. where the focus is on the latecomer AngloAmericans (1860s) which for them is the beginning of history in OC / This bias,  I've learned, has a long history. . .goes to Pres Thomas Jefferson. . .with roots in England / Los hispanos don't count for much in The Story of a Parish! By the way, how did the early records of the San Antonio Church disappear? What a shame! 

Why did el señor Teodoro Rimpau wait till his deathbed to convert? We'll have to wait for the true answer! Hopefully I'll be able to visit St Boniface's Holy Cross Cemetery to ck dates/names / That's where early Mexicans / MexAm's got married, baptized, confirmed / You did a great story on the cemetery in Orange County (2011).

Fondly, al

LOS ANGELES, CA

CUENTO

1937 Christmas in Los Angeles, and the Yale Puppeteers by Mimi Lozano

The department stores outdid themselves with full window displays of animated figures and trains running all day long through little mountain villages with smoked snow-covered roofs. Among the little houses were children playing with sleds and dogs and building snowmen. The snow looked clean and soft like a raspada before the sugary syrup has been added. It was like a dreamland of perfection.

Inside the store was special too. Decorations hung from the ceilings, and Christmas music added to the joy. Sometimes employees dressed as elves or Santa helpers would walk around with a basket of candy's and give those to children. But, the most special of all the merchant gifts with the children's entertainment offered throughout the holiday season. My favorite were the marionette shows. They marked me for life. They carried me into the land of make believe, reinforcing the radio program of Let's Pretend, which we listened to daily.

I did not know why I had such a vivid memory of viewing my first marionette performance,  but it was and is deeply imprinted in my memories of Christmas.  It was a performance of Hansel and Gretel and the lovely music, accompanying it . .  which starts out "When at night I go to sleep, fourteen angels, guide to keep. . . "  It was etched into my mind, but I did not know why. When I had my own little girl, my mother shared with me what had happened, so long ago, when I was about three.

Mom had taken my sister and me to a large department store, timing it so we would arrive for the first puppet performance. I remembered attending, but it was only after she awaken the full incident. Mom said that after the first performance, I staunchly refused to leave. She said I kicked and screamed and carried on to such an extent that we stayed not only for the next performance, but for several more scheduled for the day. Because I was always very cooperative and obedient, Mom didn't really know how to deal with me.  I remember she even pretended to leave, a few times, but I did not care.  I sat on the floor, feet outstretched, all alone, looking at the closed curtain, waiting for the magic to begin again. Finally Mom  asked the puppeteers for their help. They kindly came out and, let me touch the marionettes, and showed me how they moved.  Since I only spoke Spanish, some how they were able to convince me, with Mom acting as translator, that tt was their last performance for the day, and that I should go home.  Whether it was the last performance are not, I will never know but my love for the theater was surely awakened.

I
In 1956, I was at UCLA in graduate school working on a thesis concerning drama and theater offerings of public recreation departments. At that time UCLA offered its first course in puppetry. The UCLA class focused on marionette construction and performance. In addition I did fieldwork at the Shatto Drama Center with the Los Angeles Recreation Department. Television was just developing. The Shatto drama center was invited to produce and perform puppetry shows on their television network, so about 57 years ago, I had the fun of doing puppetry on television. Come to think about it .  . . . .  the Los Angeles Recreation Department may have been among the first to do puppetry on television . . .  and my fascination went all the way back to the magic of Christmas in 1937.

In the late 1960s, I pursued a Teaching Credential. After, I started my student teaching in a Junior High in Manhattan Beach, I suggested and convinced the principal that the multi-faceted aspect of  puppetry (script writing, construction, stage design, and performance) was a valuable teaching instrument. I put together a curriculum and taught a series of  6-week classes.  The puppetry class was adopted and continued as part of the regular school program.    

In the 1970s, I was teaching puppetry part time at Golden West College in Huntington Beach, and did so for five years, My students were of all ages.  They were mostly teachers and librarians, but also professional performers.  I wrote and we put on puppet shows at Golden West College, with Spanish and English performances, and in the community at libraries and schools. I was a member of the Puppeteers of America and spoke in Washington, D.C. at an International conference on the use of puppetry for Bilingual Education.  

As part of my advanced puppetry class, I also made arrangements for a field trip to visit the famous Yale Puppeteers, Harry Burnett, Forman Brown, and Richard Brandon, co-founders of the Turnabout Theatre, a Hollywood institution for 15 years.  

After a few years of  interacting with the Yale Puppeteers, the most touching part of this memory came to a touching closure.  During the 5 years that I taught at Golden West College, my classes and I had occasion to meet quite a few times with the Yale Puppeteers.  When the three gentlemen (and they definitely were refined and delightful) I mentioned my interest in puppetry going back to my Christmas experience in Los Angeles department stores in the 1937s, the three elderly puppeteers were quite startled . . They looked at each other and than Forman Brown said, "We were just getting started, performing our marionette show of Hansel and Gretel, during the Christmas season in Los Angeles."   I answered, "Do you happen to remember an occasion when a little Spanish speaking girl of about three refused to go home?"  

 I think it was Richard Brandon, who said. "Yes. I remember"  He made some comments to Harry and Forman, which seemed to tickle their recall of  the incident.  Whether they fully remembered (with so many years and so many performances, I don't  not know.  But, the softness, warmth, and joy in their eyes clearly spoke to me.   They were overjoyed that they had touched my life with such a deep imprint.  I looked at these three kind men, filled with gratitude.  I don't know who was more pleased, me or them.  They had entranced, captured, and swept me into the fantasy land of drama, which I never forgot.  

Harry Burnett, Forman Brown, and Richard Brandon (lt. to rt.)

Burnett transferred to Yale--adopting that name--where he recruited a third partner, Richard (Roddy) Brandon, who died in 1985.  The trio toured the country with their growing marionette troupe during the 1920s, driving a truck they dubbed Camille "because she died so beautifully." Burnett designed the puppets, Brown wrote the satirical songs, Brandon handled the business arrangements, and they all pulled the strings.

In 1929, they settled in Hollywood, performing first in a club in Beachwood Canyon, where their audience included silent film stars Theda Bara and Colleen Moore and evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson.

When Olvera Street was refurbished in 1930, they moved to an 80-seat theater there called El Teatro Torito and charged $1 a ticket. "We entertained Charles Chaplin, Greta Garbo, Lionel Barrymore," Burnett recalled for The Times in 1965. "We presented a special show for Dr. Albert Einstein when he visited the street while teaching at Caltech."

One reason the trio remained popular with the Hollywood crowd was that many of Burnett's puppets caricatured stars.  "We did it with tongue in cheek, poking fun at them," he said, "and they always took it good-naturedly."  The puppeteers toured in the East for a couple of years and delighted Broadway audiences with such spoofs as "Mister Noah" and "The Pie-Eyed Piper."  Hollywood beckoned again, this time inviting them to create puppets for the Fox Studio film "I Am Suzanne" and later "Who the Gods Would Destroy."

On July 10, 1941, the three puppeteers realized their dream of opening their own stage, the Turnabout Theatre, at 716 N. La Cienega Blvd. Equipped with seats from the old Pacific Electric streetcars, the theater presented a marionette play at one end, then invited audiences musically to "turnabout, turnabout" to watch Elsa Lanchester, Burnett and other live performers do vaudeville songs and gags at the other end.

If you were in the first row for the puppet show, you were in the last row for the live theater, "turnabout" being fair play. Instead of numbers, the reversible trolley seats had names, such as "Cream," "Sugar," "Fine," "Dandy," "Fat," "Sassy," "Hot" and "Bothered."

Actors flocked to the little theater, which never had more than 180 seats, and left their autographs on the walls. Tourists followed, as eager to see the Turnabout Theatre as the La Brea Tar Pits or the movie studios.  It was the first full-time marionette theater in America and one of the handful of live stages operating in Los Angeles during its day.  Times theater critic emeritus Sylvie Drake described the playhouse 30 years after its demise as "a joyous beacon for theater lovers and one of the very few local stages producing mime, puppet shows and original musical theater in that unremarkable stretch of the '40s and '50s."

Brown continued as the writer, turning out satiric plays with such titles as "Gullible's Travels" and "Caesar Julius." Burnett remained the creator of the puppets, turning out witty likenesses of such topical notables as Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, Adolf Hitler, the Marx Brothers, Gary Cooper and Helen Hayes.

Audiences dwindled during the 1950s, however, turned off by lack of parking on La Cienega and turning on their new television sets at home. Closing the theater in 1956, the puppeteers moved briefly to San Francisco and San Diego. They finally returned to Hollywood where all three lived in a big two-story house dubbed Turnabout House and produced occasional shows for friends.

Burnett's studio behind Turnabout House was always open to students. In 1965, he took over Claremont's Marionette Theater, where he helped children, senior citizens and the handicapped learn to make puppets.

"Puppetry is infectious," he told The Times then. "There is so little of the make-believe world left anymore."
In 1988, the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle gave Burnett and Brown its first lifetime achievement awards.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turnabout_Theatre  
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~tlosborne/Burnett/Burnetthistory/Harryburnett/harryburnett.htm

The mystery and magic of Christmas 1960  . . .  Flintridge, California
Aurora Chapa Schwartz
Oct 11, 1913 - June 21, 2003

If I were to speak for my mother, I think this is what she would say about her most memorable  Christmas
by Mimi Lozano

I decided this Christmas was going to be really special. I had a beautiful house to share with my daughters. It would be a spectacular Christmas tree with lots of gifts underneath and a huge delicious dinner dinner. Actually, it would be my first time of preparing an American style Christmas dinner. The traditions that I remembered as a child in Mexico had long ago been lost along the way. Our family in Sabinas Hidalgo, Nuevo Leon enjoyed many of the Mexican folk traditions of the Christmas season, but since neither my mother or father practiced any religion, we did not have the foundation for what the season was all about.

I had never did really gotten the reason for the season. Going to my mother and dad's home for tamales and buñuelos, and seeing the family was celebration enough for me. Papa's attitude was that it was all foolish supersititions.  

My first husband, Catalino, "Lino" Lozano, father of my two daughters, was born in San Antonio Texas. His family observed Catholic traditions and set up Christmas trees. Lino was the one that pushed to celebrate Christmas. Usually he would go out  Christmas Eve to a tree lot, and bring home a bargain tree. The girls would decorate with home-made decorations.  Once he even talked someone out of a tree fully decorated. I rarely got involved.  

I finally grasped what Christmas was about when I was not able to be with my parents and siblings, nor with my daughters.  My parents and siblings had all moved to northern California, most to Stockton.  My husband and I had divorced and I was afraid of him.. I got an apartment in Los Angeles at a woman's hotel.  

I had scrimped and saved, secretly squirreling away money, and with the help of one of my sisters had bought a little tiny 3-room house, in a Manteca, close to Stockton. I had decided for my daughter's safety to have them live there by themselves. 

That Christmas of  1949**, I cried and I cried. I was so lonely, and I really wondered about the situation. I was alone and they were alone. Had I done the right thing? They were just 15 and 16.   Fortunately, my two daughters survived.  I am sure that angelic beings were watching over them. They lived most of their high school years, with the little bit of money that I was able to send them.    

By 1960, I had become a Christian.  In fact, all my sisters were now Christians.  

My two daughters  married well, more than I could have imaged, men with college degrees.  The both had two children. My eldest grandchild was a boy, Aury, who had just turned three, son of my daughter Mimi.  The youngest grandchild, a boy, Greg, was six months old, son of my oldest daughter. My two granddaughters were a year and a half, born two weeks apart, one to each of my daughters.  

This Christmas of 1960 would be the first time I would be preparing a Christmas dinner for my daughters, their husbands and children, my four grandchildren.    

It was a joy.  My second husband, though of Russian Jewish heritage was very supportive.  He enjoyed all the preparation, as much as I did.   I prepared a turkey, with a rice, vegetable, and raisin stuffing and all the trimmings, , home made biscuits and buñuelos.   I felt wonderful being able to enjoy the whole message of Christmas, the celebration of the birth of our dear savior, and the love of family.  I served my family with love, as my mother had done since I was a child, with her home made tamales and buñuelos. 

With our vaulted ceilings, I was able to get a huge Christmas tree and decorated with shining balls,  lights and other decorations. plenty of gifts.  I enjoyed shopping for gifts.  Two of everything for the girls was easy.  One of the strangest little occurrences had to do with my oldest grandson Aury. He  loved cowboys.  He had a red cowboy hat, boots, slept with a cowboy blanket, and loved to listen to cowboy music, I think there was a Sheriff John program*  that he used to watch.   I had promised Aury a cowboy get-up, with a vest, and cap guns in a holster.  As soon as Aury got to the house, he kept asking if he could open his gift with the holster and guns.   

We had planned to have dinner first, and then open gifts.  While we adults were chatting, three-year old Aury could not wait.  Somehow, among all the boxes, he himself found the box that contained the toy guns and holster. He brought the  gift box to me for permission to open it. He was not reading yet.  He could not have read the name tag. We were all puzzled.  No one had helped him.   How did he do it?     An added memory of the mystery of the Christmas season,  love . . .  1960

* "Sheriff" John Rovick, was beloved Los Angeles children's TV show host whose gentle, fatherly persona made him a welcome guest in homes throughout the 1950s and '60s. 

**It was almost 40 years later that my Mom shared her feelings of not being with us Christmas 1949. We had moved to the little town of Manteca, three weeks before the Christmas vacation was to start. We didn't know anyone in town, however my sister and I were together. My sister and I had each other, but Mom was alone. Going to and from school, we passed houses with lighted Christmas trees, but I don't remember being sad. It was peaceful and it was quiet. Christmas Eve, we slept well. Christmas day we spent playing basketball in a school yard. We had long ago learned to accept whatever happened in life. And . . it was well.

Credit: Photo courtesy Blaise Nutter

Troubled Waters No More: Echo Park Lake Reopens

After a two-year renovation, this 1860s reservoir in Los Angeles is back in the limelight and better than ever.

By Lauren Walser | From Preservation | Oct. 1, 2013

It was a far cry from the lake’s earliest days. In 1868 Echo Park Lake began as a reservoir for drinking water, one of several waterworks projects completed in the late 1800s to accommodate the city’s growing population. The reservoir became a park 24 years later, and for decades people went there to picnic, fish, boat, and enjoy the annual Lotus Festival, which began in 1972 as a celebration of the city’s Asian and Pacific Islander communities.

Now a basin in the city’s storm drainage system, the lake was named a Los Angeles Cultural Historic Monument in 2006.

“We knew it was important to maintain the historic and cultural significance of the site, while also making many large-scale improvements,” says Julie Allen, the Echo Park Lake Rehabilitation’s project manager.

Shortly after the state’s designation, city officials met with community groups, and after five years of designing and planning, construction began in July 2011.

Working with a team of historic preservation consultants and Ford E.C., Inc., a local contracting company, the City of Los Angeles Department of Public Works’ project team drained the lake, removed the sediment, added a clay liner to reduce water leak­age, and installed several features to improve water quality, including new circulation and aeration systems. The iconic fountains built for the 1984 Olympic Games were restored, and the lotus beds that inhabited the lake since the 1920s were reconstructed.

Beyond the lake, the 1932 boathouse underwent a complete restoration and seismic upgrade. The Lady of the Lake statue, designed in 1934 as part of a project undertaken by the Works Progress Administration, was returned to the north side of the lake, with its cracks repaired and missing fingers replaced.

The $45 million project, funded by a voter-approved bond measure, came in well under budget, and hundreds of people celebrated the park’s re-opening in June. Pedal boats returned to the lake the following month, and a cafe opened in the boathouse in August.

“There’s a sense of community and responsibility around the lake now,” Allen says. “The hope is that people will want to keep it looking like it does now and do the right thing by the environment and keep the park healthy.”

CSRC Library: Sal Castro exhibition on view

Sal Castro: Legacy of a Teacher, an exhibition of materials from the Sal Castro Collection, recently donated to the CSRC by the Castro family, remains on view in the CSRC Library and vitrine through December 13. Photos, awards, memorabilia, and ephemera from throughout Castro’s life and career are on display. Videos, including Susan Racho’s Taking Back the Schools (1996), provide dramatic context. The exhibition can be viewed during regular library hours.

New collections in process

The CSRC Library is proud to announce the addition of the Luis C. Garza Papers to its holdings. Garza is a Chicano photojournalist who moved from New York to Los Angeles in the 1960s and launched his career as an artist and documentary photographer. Garza was a staff photographer for the Los Angeles-based Chicano magazine La Raza. Garza’s collection contains a number of films that he produced, including episodes of the KABC-TV documentary program Reflecciones (1972–1974).

The CSRC Library has also added the Nikki Darling Papers to its collections. Darling is a Chicana music journalist and memoirist based in the San Gabriel Valley. Her collection includes her personal papers, manuscripts, photographs, and ephemera documenting her family history and career as a writer. This is the first collection acquired in conjunction with the CSRC Library’s collaboration with Marissa López, who teaches undergraduate course CS 191A, “Documenting L.A.: Oral Histories, Podcasting, and Future of the Archive.” In this research seminar students explore oral history as a genre of Chicano and Latino literature. López is the CSRC’s associate director and an associate professor of English and Chicana/o studies.

To learn more about these collections and projects please email your queries to the CSRC librarian, Lizette Guerra, at lguerra@chicano.ucla.edu.

Sent by Roberto Calderon,  beto@unt.edu 

CALIFORNIA 

CUENTO

Christmas for the Homeless in Stockton
Dena Rupert  
denarupert@aol.com
  
Dena Chapa Reynosa Ruppert is the figure on the left in a black sweater. 

CUENTO

THE ADVENTURE OF CHRISTMAS IN THE SNOW
2009 
by Audrey Mills

A Christmas celebration that really stands out in my mind is one our family celebrated in 2009.  I grew up near the beach in Orange County, California.  I loved it, the weather was generally great - we could even go to the beach at Christmastime.  

In 1995 my parents, Bob & Yomar Cleary, chose to move to Big Bear Lake for their retirement.  This was an elevation change of 8,000 feet!  At that elevation it SNOWS!  I am not a snow person, and told my parents it would be very hard for me to make any Christmas celebrations while they lived in the mountains. . .  due to the snow.  Sadly, it had been many years since my children and I celebrated Christmas with my parents, at their home and it had been even longer since my parents had me, and both my sister’s, Babette and Cheryl, at their home for Christmas.  

In 2009 I decided that we really needed to make the trip. Babette and Cheryl were on board too – this would be a special Christmas with all of us together for the holiday.  My parents assured me that it wasn’t supposed to snow during that week, and I believed them.  Then a few days before we were set to make the trip my parents called and asked if we could arrive a day earlier.  I asked why and they said they just thought it would be nice, so I agreed.  Little did I know that a large storm was headed that way. 

The roads were clear but the snow was everywhere.  I was glad I had purchased snow pants, jackets, boots and gloves for the boys.  Once we arrived I found out why my parents asked us to arrive a day early!  At least we made it in before the storm.  I told my dad that my van was parked for the week since I do not drive in the snow and he would need to play chauffer while we were there – he readily agreed and I sighed with relief.   

We settled in for the week, Parker (16) and Walker (14) were excited to have a white Christmas; I was a bit more hesitant.   Growing up a beach bunny I do not like being cold. My parents had to make a few concessions when I agreed to the trip.  First concession, my dad had to start the fire in the fireplace earlier in the day than he generally did.  He may have grumbled a bit but I know that my parents were happy to have us there for Christmas week.  So every day dad started the fire a couple hours earlier than normal, I only had to remind him once or twice.  The second concession my parents had to make was to NOT turn off the heater at night.  They agreed and my dad would set the heater before he went to bed.  After he was asleep I would go and nudge up the thermostat up a few degrees, like I said I don’t like being cold.  

Parker and Walker had a great time in the 1’ - 2’ of snow that was on the ground.  They made a snowman and we had snowball fights.  The day after we arrived, the storm arrived.  It was snowing like it was never going to stop.  Thankfully we were nice and cozy in the warm house with a fire blazing in the fireplace.  That was short lived.  I am not sure who had the bright idea (it may have been me) that the fire hydrants in the neighborhood needed to be dug out so the fire trucks could access them if there was a fire (I read about this in the local paper).  Parker and Walker thought this was a great idea.  They geared up and headed out to do this good deed in the spirit of Christmas.  Being the type of mother that I am I went out with them, mostly to take photographs. 
 

The first five minutes I was having a great time watching them, and then I got too cold.  The boys were determined to get at least the three closest fire hydrants unburied; they would not stop until this was done.  Of course the hydrants are on the side of the road and when the snow plow had come through it had plowed the road and piled the extra snow on the side of the road.  This meant that the hydrants were under 3’ – 4’ of snow, but the boys were determined.  They worked for hours shoveling snow while it was blizzard conditions.  You could not see the house across the street it was snowing so hard.  I was determined to show them that I supported them and what they were doing (plus I was watching out for cars), so even though I was frozen to the bone I stayed outside with them.  Finally they were finished and we were all able to go inside and get warm.

The snow let up which allowed Babette and her son Kyle as well as Cheryl, her husband Gene and children Brittany and Adam to come up the mountain for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  We had a great time celebrating the holiday all together, for the first time in a very long time.  I know that my parent’s hearts were full of love and joy to have all their children and grandchildren together for the special holiday.   

A day or two later, it came time for the boys and me to head home.  It had stopped snowing but there was still a lot of snow on the ground.  My parents checked the weather report and chains were still being required to get off the mountain (Ughhhh).  I had brought chains for my car but disliked them, even more than I disliked the cold.  Dad provided a “how to put on chains” lesson as I reluctantly help put the chains on my car.  Once the chains were on we said our goodbyes and headed towards home in the warm central valley of California.   

All was good for about four miles … then it happened.  One of the chains came loose and was flopping around, I had to pull over and deal with it.  I was not a happy camper having to pull over on a narrow two lane road with almost no shoulder with two kids and a dog in the car, to deal with a snow chain. Being such a dangerous location I told the boys to stay in the car.  I got out of the car and was trying to figure out what to do short of curling up in a ball at the side of the road and crying until it fixed itself.   Then one of the boys popped his head out of the car and told me grandma and grandpa were on the cell phone.  Close to tears I take the phone and tell them the problem I was having.  Thankfully they called to tell me chains were no longer needed so I could just take them off.  I was so happy to get those chains off the car and get off the mountain.  

In the end the trip was well worth it, to have the whole family together; however, for the following year, I did tell my parents I would meet them at their place . . . in Palm Desert . . . . instead . . . .  too cold in Big Bear.

Editor: Audry is my second cousin.  Her Mom, Yomar Villarreal Cleary was my mother's sister. Audrey currently lives in Modesto and is the Project/Construction Manager for Kitchell. She manages and oversees construction projects at two Junior Colleges, one in Modesto and one in Stockton.   Prior to that Audrey was Modesto City Manager.  I am SO proud of Audry!!

Seeking Descendants of delegates to the 1849 Monterrey Convention

I would like to find Descendents of delegates to the 1849 Monterrey Convention that drafted California's original state Constitution, beginning with Hispanics.  The goal is to eventually have a family representatives from each signer of the California Constitution, and promote the important fact that California's Constitution was a bilingual document.   

Galal Kernahan, 619-C Avda. Sevilla, Laguna Woods, CA 92637   (949) 581-3625

NORTHWESTERN UNITED STATES 

1959 Christmas in Richland, Washington by Mimi Lozano 

1959 Christmas in Richland, Washington by Mimi Lozano 

• 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  http://en.wikipedia.org
  /wiki/Snowflake   

We moved to Richland in the middle of summer from our tiny two-room Veterans Housing unit at UCLA,  On July 10th, 1959, when we got off the plane, the headlines read, Hottest Spot in the United States.  

Arrangements had been made for a rented company house which was waiting for us, a two bedroom, with a full basement, washer, dryer, refrigerator and a full bath.  After our tiny two-room UCLA, unit,  I was delighted, in spite of the heat wave, and no furniture, we settled in for the night on the cool wooden floor with the few items we had brought in our luggage .  The following day our household items and beds arrived.  Most of our neighbors were sleeping in their basements, but we set up our beds in the bedrooms.  Summer seemed to last into October.  I enjoyed the change from the busy Westwood atmosphere to a landscape that was bare, dry, and flat. 

It was November when a treasured incident of nature's happened.  It with the first snow fall, very different from the snow we had experienced during our year in the middle of Trinity National Forest.  I was looking out the front window.  The sky was a very light grayish blue fog. Light seemed to be shining through from above the sky.  I saw what at first looked like soft little tiny feather falling.  They didn't fall straight down, but floated gently, swaying back and forth as the fell. The flakes were weightless, soft and fluffy, most the size of a quarter. 

These flakes did not splattered when they hit the window or cement stoop, as I recalled other snow flakes, more like drops of crushed ice, held together until they hit the ground. . These snow flakes floated down and just rested softly where they fell, on the windowsill, on the grass, on my arms and hair.  I stepped out on the front stoop, and stretched my arms out, letting the delicate flakes fall on my sweater.  I had never viewed nature's incredible beauty with such clarity.  With my own eyes, I could actually see the intricate complex patterns of  each flake; just as I had seen and marveled about in books.  

Mesmerized, I realized, it was true, each snow flake was different. I was actually seeing it.  Standing there with the snow flakes falling on me, I wondered if I could capture their beauty. I tried to lift them from my sweater, but they collapsed as soon as I touched them.  The warmth of my hands melted them.  I wanted to share the beauty of their existence with my husband.  My children who were little oozed and awed a bit.  

Being far from family during Christmas was different too.  Rather than fly up, my Mom flew two of my young cousins to visit during the Christmas vacation. Dena Chapa and Laura Schultz were both in high school.  They enjoyed the fun of the Christmas the tree that we set up. Appropriate to our interesting desert experience, we sprayed a tumble weed gold, and hung chains of silver paper clips.  These tumbleweeds blow wildly along the desert floor, and also in the air, resting against fences, homes, and building.  Quite a contrast to the gentle snowflakes.  

We did have more snowfalls throughout the winter, but nature's conditions did not always result in and showcase the  millions of  nature's fragile  little crystal jewels each time.   

The wonder and magnitude of God's world has never left me.  It is proof to me, that just as each snowflake is different and beautiful, so people come in great diversity too.  To seal this fact is a  second testimony, our finger prints, each of us is unique, wonderfully made. 

King James, Psalms 139:14 
I will praise Thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; 
marvelous are Thy works, and that my soul knoweth right well.

SOUTHWESTERN UNITED STATES   

Cuento: A Mexican American Christmas Story in Flagstaff,  Arizona During the Great 1930s Depression. by J. V. Martinez
Historical Novel: Part 2: My Days as a Colonist/Soldier with Don Juan de Onate

A Mexican American Christmas Story in Flagstaff,  Arizona During the Great Depression.

by

J. V. Martinez*

The following account took place during the Great Depression, either 1934 or 1935 in the Flagstaff, Arizona area.  We lived  "South of the Tracks" which defined the White/Brown areas. Of course, most all major businesses were north of the Santa Fe RR tracks.  Our house was across the street from the elementary school for "Mexican" students.

As was the rule, with few known exceptions at the time, Mexican immigrants in our “hood” rented places to live. This took into account the largesse of the local sawmill which made its housing available to its employees. Talk about downright poor, residents of those “shantes” (shanties) were barely able to get by. At least our family did not live in company housing, and we had shoes to wear.

While my father was a lumberjack, it was a separate operation than being a sawmill employee, who lived in company housing. The latter simply walked up a small hill to the mill to work. My father's activity was sited in the forest. He was one never to work a 48 hr. position; rather, he preferred contract work and cherished his independence. Working in the mill was at least 8 hr. Monday through Saturday. It may have been the mill employees worked only half days on Saturday but that is my conjecture.** 

I did have relatives living in company housing and caused me, even as such a young age-say 10. or so, in my few visits to them, to appreciate how lucky I was that we did not live in company housing. Whatever conditions of company housing-and they were stark-the employees did not complain. Again, it was one of making do. Considering what I learned later of the conditions they left in Mexico, I was unable to understand their (our) resilience.

In our two-room rental house, there was but one light bulb hanging from a cord in the middle of the one room where we all slept. The only source of heat for the house was a wood burning potbelly stove unless the kitchen wood burning stove located in the smaller room is considered a source of heat. As part of their acculturation into their new country, my parents eventually found it appropriate to follow tradition and set up a Christmas tree which I, as a two year old, could easily see from the crib. (Considering my father was a lumberjack, I am certain obtaining the “right” tree did not offer him much of a challenge.)

Once in place, the tree was decorated by my father by placing two lights on the tree which was decorated with tin foil icicles. He installed two regular light bulbs using a three bulb socket device placed in the middle of the tree. One socket held a wire lead that led to the house electrical power, a red bulb was screwed to one socket and one other socket accommodated a green bulb. That was my father’s idea of lighting the tree. As for presents under it, forget it. There were none. Instead there was enough love in the house.

No sooner had the so decorated tree been in place when my sister Helen (May she rest in peace.) who was then 18 months older than me, pulled down the tree. Just how she did so, will never be learned. Fortunately, it is clear to me now, there were no presents under the tree. They were too much of a luxury for us. 

The turmoil that the falling tree caused, must have made an indelible impression on me.   I watched the whole thing unfold, as I stood in my crib, fascinated. I can imagine the panic must have been augmented by watching the broken bulbs flashing about with the threat to start a fire which, to put it mildly, in our little wooded house, would have been a disaster. The tree was promptly taken out and trashed.

As I now best recall, the next Christmas tree we had in our own house-after we left the rental when I was five years old-was.  By the time I was 7th or eighth grader, we did have a few presents underneath the tree. They were not toys, but items that had a practical use like shirts, socks, etc. These were times of poverty, but we did not know it then. We were aware that certain individuals had wealth, but it did not bother us. What we did understand by then is that we had learned well, how best to manage with what little we had, and with what we were able to earn. Not once did our family depend on government welfare.

My father lamented that sight for as poor as the family appeared, at least they had access to clean water, under-scoring the statement that we did the best we could, with what we had. Apparently, the family hoped to get to the West coast, reminiscent of survivors from the Dust Bowl, which was over by then. We do count our blessings, don't we?

____________

** Early in the nineteenth century, most Americans worked twelve hours a day, six days a week. The work week shrank gradually during the nineteenth century and more quickly during the twentieth. The traditional six-day week was shortened to five and a half days during the 1920s and to the five-day, forty-hour week during the 1930s.  

The year 1935 figured greatly in the discussions of a a shorter work week. 
http://www.preservenet.com/studies/WorkHours.html 
Source of photos:  http://www.azarchivesonline.org/xtf/view?docId=ead/nau/AHS47.xml 

My Days as a Colonist / Soldier with Don Juan de Onate 
Historical Novel Part 2

By Louis F. Serna
Oct 2013
sernabook@comcast.net 
http://sernasantos.blogspot.com /

Gracias a Dios..! I awake after another night of half-sleep… Last night one of my compadres told me that he awoke yesterday morning and when he reached for his boots a little black warrior with his pinchers raised high and his tail stinger flailing in the air scurried out of his boot…! He said that in this Tierra Nueva, big hairy tarantulas and these deadly little escorpiones love to crawl into your boots at night, both for their own safety and for the little morsels they find in your boots that they can snack on during the night..! He also told me to be wary of thieves in the night who may find my boots better than theirs, and in this hot dry thorny ground you sure don’t want to be forced to go barefoot or with holes in your boots, so he said, “I tie a cord to each of my boots and to the toe of each foot while I sleep…! Although we are among friends who will fight shoulder to shoulder with you, they will not hesitate to take your boots if they feel they need them more than you do”..! While I thought he might have been enjoying a little humor at my expense, I thought it good advice and so this morning I awoke with leather cords tied to my toes but my boots were at the ends of the chords so I will take that advice to heart.  Just one more thing to remember if I am to survive this journey..!

As I look around I see women hurrying around, dressing themselves and their children, I see that they are wearing their best clothes, such as they are… and I recall my orders to prepare myself for a proper formation among my fellow soldiers as we will be part of the Gran Entrada ceremony this morning… I can hear buglers testing their instruments and the flag bearers are already stringing banners at the now completed Altar down by the grove of trees. Up ahead, I see the Padre Commisario, Fray Alonso Martinez preparing for his Mass and the very popular brothers, Vicente and Juan de Zaldivar, nephews of Don Onate and very worthy of every soldier’s respect. With them is Don Pedro Robledo, aged and highly respected warrior who at times serves as a counselor to Don Onate on military and other decisions.  Also with them is the Expedition Notario who records everything of any consequence, Capitan Gaspar Perez de Villagra. They are all waiting for the Gobernador who soon shows himself in full splendor..! On cue, the men of the cavalry dressed in their finest and in shining armor, mount their horses already in formation and are handed their weapons. There is much snorting and farting by the horses and as if in respectful self-discipline, they hold their stomach contents, at least for the time being… and now the man said to be one of the five richest men in Mexico, and the son of the Gobernador in Nueva Galicia, and a fine-looking man in his own right steps forward in his best of six complete suits of shining armor. He is respectfully bareheaded in the presence of the Cross and he stands beneath the Royal Standard where he begins to real aloud.  I, and I’m sure everyone else, hope that he keeps his speech short as the sun is now showing its best color and there are no seats for anyone to rest… and there is still the Mass to come by yet another great orator / showman, who will not be outdone… the Fray Martinez..! It will be a long day and Don Juan finishes his oraciones, and the Fray finally completes his holy Mass. The celebration finally breaks for the more than welcome noon meal! It has been a long day and we all know that it is an epic day and one that will be remembered for years to come. It is a worthwhile event and one that our friends and our enemies should remember as we have shown our Spanish reverence and our Spanish might, what with the harquebus shots fired and the swords and lances flashing, banners waving, cries of “Que Viva..!” and the bugles blatting loud and clear! We know the savages are watching from the hills beyond and the message is clear to them.

I remind myself that all this pageantry, pomp and ceremony seems a bit much… but then I remember my father’s words that this kind of ceremony is necessary so that the English, the French, the Dutch and others, will know that among the nations of the world, we Spanish have a powerful position among them… and we have it by “officially” claiming as many lands as we can conquer, so that our diplomats can prove before the courts of the world and before the all-powerful Pope in Rome, that we are as powerful as we say we are and that, is how we maintain our place in the world.  And that, is why this voyage is so necessary and why we must succeed in our conquest and colonization of this land that seems so worthless to us now for after all, are we to be defeated by bands of savage Indians? Are we to be forced out of this land by people who fight with rocks and sticks? The world we live in is watching and we must show our Royal pageantry, we must blow our horns, we must fire our harquebus and canons, we must show our Spanish steel swords, lances and daggers if we are to maintain our place in the world we live in. We must succeed…!

So today we celebrate and we feast, as meager as the table may be, because tomorrow our test begins. Will we be a nation of conquerors and colonists? That remains to be seen and for every one of us soldiers and settlers, there is the dream of Hidalgo and the riches that we must take from this land for ourselves for it will not be given up easily. Many of us will never know whether we succeeded or not as we will become the casualties of war and the inspiration for others to take our place and advance our Spanish dominance among nations. We will be like the warriors of old who were told by their wives as they went off to war; “Return home with your shield on one arm and your achievements in the other… or be carried home on your shield…!” I feel fulfilled today… proud yet humble… ready to fight but not angry… and as I look around me, I see my companieros with broad smiles and the same look of determination that I must be displaying as we embrace each other, bless each other, bless our King and our leaders, and we  strike our breasts with a tight fist… we are ready for the journey ahead…! I can hardly wait..!    

MIDDLE AMERICA

CUENTO

Christmas Memories by Lila Guzman, Ph.D.

At the advanced age of (mumble mumble), I have so many Christmas memories swirling in my head, it’s hard to pick just one or two.  So here are the ones I remember best.  My childhood memories were in Kentucky. Aunt Ethel lived in Lexington, my grandparents in Lincoln County.  My husband and I raised our kids in Round Rock, Texas.

When I was a child, our church would put on a Christmas play each year.  My brother and I were pre-teens and were assigned roles.  Luckily, I was an extra shepherd and had no lines to memorize.  My brother, on the other hand, was the innkeeper and had just one thing to say: “This is the inn, friend.”  His best buddy was playing Joseph.  During rehearsal, they got a serious case of the giggles and changed the line to “This is the end, friend.”  Yep!  You guessed it.  On opening night, my brother forgot his one line and his friend said in a stage whisper, “This is the end, friend.”  The audience dissolved into laughter.