Somos Primos


MAY 2015

Editor: Mimi Lozano ©2000-2015

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Pepe Serna is the leading man in "Man From Reno."  His vibrant art is seen throughout his Balboa Island home. 
Cindy Yamanaka, staff photographer. 
Click


TABLE OF CONTENTS

United States
Heritage Projects
Historic Tidbits          
Hispanic Leaders
American  Patriots
Early Latino Patriots
Surnames
DNA 
Family History

Education
Culture
Books and Print Media

Orange County, CA
Los Angeles County, CA
California 
     Southern California
     Northern California
Northwestern US
Southwestern US
Texas
Middle America
East Coast
African-American
Indigenous
Sephardic
Archaeology
Mexico
Central & South America
Caribbean Region
Philippines
Spain
International

 


Somos Primos Staff   
Mimi Lozano, Editor
Mercy Bautista Olvera
Roberto Calderon, Ph,D.
Bill Carmena
Lila Guzman, Ph.D
John Inclan
Galal Kernahan
Juan Marinez
J.V. Martinez, Ph.D
Dorinda Moreno
Rafael Ojeda
Ángel Custodio Rebollo
Tony Santiago
John P. Schmal

Contributors to May 2015  
Mike Acosta
Margie Aguirre 
Edward R. Alcantar
Roy A. Archuleta
Dan Arellano
Norman Atkins
Elaine Ayala'
Mercy Bautista Olvera
Deborah Bulkeley
Nicolás Cabrera
Eddie AAA Calderón, Ph.D. 
Roberto Calderon, Ph.D. 
Gloria Candelaria 
Rosie Carbo
Alfredo E. Cardenas
Francisco Carrillo
Nellie Caudillo Kaniski
Gus Chavez 
Karen Clifford
Robin Collins
José Antonio Crespo-Francés
Ray John de Aragon
Maricela De Leon
Salvador del Valle
George Farias
Susie Flores
Lorri Ruiz Frain 
Hannah Furfaro 
Harry Gamboa, Jr.
Eddie U Garcia 
Margarito J. Garcia III, Ph.D.
Yvonne Gonzalez Duncan
Jason Guberman
Agustin Gurza
Odell Harwell 

David E. Hayes-Bautista, M.D.

Walter Herbeck
Rita D. Hernandez, Ph.D.
John Inclan
Soeren Kern
Galal Kernahan
Tara Z. Laver
Gary Long 
Brenda Lowe
Alfred Lugo
Jerry Javier Lujan
José Antonio López
Juan Marinez 
A.M. Martinez
Eddie Martinez
Leroy Martinez 
Dennis Meldrum
Rosalinda Mendez Gonzalez, Ph.D. 
Bill Millet
Marilyn Mills
Carolina Moreno
Dorinda Moreno 
Carlos Munoz, Ph.D. 
Rosalio Munoz
Ricardo R. Palmerín Cordero
Kent Paterson 
Jose Pena
Joe Perez
Michael S. Perez
Rueben M. Perez
Richard Perry
Kimberly Powell

Gilbert Quezada
Oscar Ramirez
Letty Rodella
Viola Rodriguez Sadler
Olga Rojas
Gloria Romano-Barrera 
Armando Rendón
Tom Saenz 
Ruben Salaz Marquez, Ph.D.
Placido Salazar 
Benicio  Sánchez García
Joe Sanchez 
Pepe Serna
Sister Mary Sevilla 
Howard Shorr
Robert Smith 
Corinne Staacke
Juanita Tijerina
Minnie Wilson
Helen Workman Mora
Albert Vela, Ph.D.
Teresa Valcarce
Phil Valdez, Jr.
Marge Vallazza
Roberto Vazquez
Dr. Albert Vela
Yomar Villarreal Cleary 
Carlos/Nancy Yturralde


Letters to the Editor

Hi Mimi,
Thank You So Much For Including My Paella Review in Somos Primos Newsletter!!  Big Hug to You and Congrats on Another Prize Winning Newsletter!
Rosie Carbo  rosic@aol.com 

Mimi, as usual you have done an excellent job of presenting your readers with thought-provoking stories and ideas. God continue to bless you and your staff each month. Happy Easter! 
Marge Vallazza   grgrands@gmail.com 

SOMOS PRIMOS  |  P.O.  490  |  Midway City, CA  |  92655-0490  |  www.SomosPrimos.com  |Phone: 714-894-8161 

 

"It will be of little avail to the people, that the laws are made by men of their own choice, 
if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, 
or so incoherent that they can not be understood." 
~ James Madison

 

 

UNITED STATES

Boatlift on 9/11 ...... Unbelievable....Takes 12 minutes to WATCH
Pepe Serna: Finally the Star
“Children of Giant” - A Documentary born of Texas History By Rita D. Hernandez
545 vs. 300,000,000 People By Charlie Reese Last Column
Internship with National Park Service, seeking Latinos for Internships
A majority of English-speaking Hispanics in the U.S. are bilingual 
Scholars focus on  violent chapter  from Texas’ past by Lucia Benavides
Chicanos and Latinos facing the challenges of racism in the U.S. by Gus Chavez   
A 'forgotten' war festers in relationships by Agustin Gurza
Mexican Immigration and "How America Inspired the Third Reich"
by Rosalinda Mendez Gonzalez, Ph.D.

  Importance of the ranching and mining skills of the Hispanic people  by Ruben Salaz Marquez, Ph.D.
The Spanish Presence in the Americas
Serra statue a step closer to leaving D.C.




Boatlift on 9/11 ...... Unbelievable....Takes 12 minutes to WATCH
 
We certainly were busy watching the news right after 9/11, but never saw this......BOATLIFT OF 9/11.     And the fact it was all done in   9 hours ...500,000 people!   This is a video well worth watching. The guy at the end (same guy who is at the beginning) has some great words to live by for all of us.   Watch till the end, you won't regret it.     We will never forget what happened that day. 

https://www.youtube.com/embed/MDOrzF7B2Kg?rel=0
Sent by Salvador del Valle    sgdelvalle@msn.com 




PEPE SERNA: FINALLY THE STAR
by Peter Larsen, staff writer, the Orange County, CA Register
April 9, 2015

After 46 years and over 400 roles, 
the Balboa Island resident lands his first leading role.

It wasn’t that Pepe Serna couldn’t get his foot in the door in Hollywood, more the opposite: The veteran character actor stepped off a bus from Texas in 1969, and into his first acting role, and never really stopped.

Pepe Serna, Al Pacino, Steven Bauer play three Cuban immigrants to Miami in the 1983 film “Scarface.” Serna's character meets a gruesome end. Universal Studios
And many of the pictures he worked on were huge: “The Jerk” with Steve Martin, “Silverado” with Kevin Costner, “The Rookie” with Clint Eastwood, and “American Me” with Edward James Olmos, to name a handful of the 100-plus roles he’s had during four decades on screen. 

The parts, though? Tiny, even if the impression Serna left on screen was often powerful. Just ask anyone who’s seen “Scarface” if they remember the scene where Al Pacino’s pal gets handcuffed in the shower. They remember that guy; they remember Serna even if they never knew his name.  Still, Serna always knew there was more he could give, if only offered the chance.

“I always said, ‘I don’t care if it takes me until 70 to make it,’” Serna told us in 2006 when we first stopped by his Balboa Island home to talk about his already long and fruitful career as one of those prolific Hollywood character actors whose face shows up everywhere but whose name always just escapes you.  “If somebody is smart, they’ll hire me,” he said then. “Because my best work is ahead of me.”

Fast forward. Serna is 70. And somebody, director Dave Boyle, not only hired him for the indie thriller “Man From Reno” but the part – Serna’s first leading role – was written specifically for him.

“I feel like it’s my best part I’ve ever done, and the best movie I’ve ever done,” Serna says of his role as Sheriff Paul Del Moral in “Man From Reno.” 
“It’s like I have that eternal youth thing going on.” It’s the small twists that often set the course of what is to come.

A day after Serna arrived in Hollywood, in March 1969, he met a beautiful young woman named Diane. Today, 46 years later, they’re still together.

In similar felicitous fashion, a decade or so ago, Dave Boyle, a young director working on his first movie, contacted an agent about one of his clients.

That actor wasn’t available, but the agent also repped Serna, who was in Bulgaria at the time, shooting Brian De Palma’s “Black Dahlia.” The agent saw in the script a different role with potential for Serna.

“My dad was a huge ‘Buckaroo Banzai’ fan,” Boyle says of the 1984 sci-fi comedy in which Serna appeared. “And like the rest of the 7 billion people on this planet, I’d seen ‘Scarface,’ so I said, ‘Sure, let’s do it.’

“We just kind of instantly hit it off,” Boyle says of working with Serna on the set of “Big Dreams Little Tokyo.”

“I was a scared, young director. But he was supportive, and made things easy for me. ... I told him, ‘One of these days I’m going to write a lead role for you.’”

Sheriff Paul Del Moral was originally written for Serna as part of a horror-mystery script that never made it out of development, Boyle says. The idea for “Man From Reno” is more subtle: Famous Japanese mystery writer meets mysterious man from Reno; he disappears and she, with help from Sheriff Del Moral – after Boyle decided to graft the character into this new idea – are drawn into the mystery.

“I really loved the character. And I loved imagining Pepe playing this guy with the gravelly gravitas, instead of the wild and crazy guy he usually plays in the movies,” Boyle says.

“I really loved the idea of seeing him kind of ride into the movie like a cowboy and be the rock that the audience holds onto for this crazy story.”

Serna, who did a second movie with Boyle while waiting for “Man From Reno” to be made, says one of the things he loved about the part was how, unlike many of the parts he’s had, it wasn’t linked to any ethnicity.

“If it was a studio film, well, they would never do a studio film that’s half Japanese (language). And then they’d never put a Mexican American as the American lead,” says Serna, who was born and raised in Corpus Christi, Texas. “It wouldn’t make any sense to them.

“But that’s one of the things that I really, really love about the movie. It allowed me to just be the American guy that I am.

“The fact that I’m Mexican American has nothing to do with anything, other than that I pronounce all of the Spanish names correctly.”

Screened last year at film festivals around the country, “Man From Reno” earned a handful of honors, including best dramatic feature at the Los Angeles Film Festival. It also was nominated at the Independent Spirit Awards in February for the John Cassavetes Award, given to the best movies made for less than $500,000.

Serna says he spent the last year, before the wider release of “Man From Reno,” working on seven new film projects. In a couple, he says, he’s again the leading man. Most are low-budget indies. But that’s fine by Serna, who says he’s always loved working with new filmmakers and young performers.

He’s also working on a documentary about his life called “Life Is Art.” It explores his film and TV roles, and his many years of teaching improvisation classes to kids and adults. Improv, he says, is a way to help people “connect, communicate and collaborate.”
Boyle says he couldn’t be happier how the film, and the part for Serna, turned out.

“It was enormously satisfying,” he says. “My hope was that if people saw (Pepe) in this role they would rethink the kind of roles he was getting offered.”

For Serna, the attention and strong reviews that “Man From Reno” and his leading role have brought him are energizing.

“I feel like I just got off the bus. ... It’s so much fun.”  But he’s always had that attitude.
“The things I could have done had Hollywood been more open? I don’t dwell on coulda-woulda-shoulda. Because, hey, I’ve had a great career.”  And it’s not over.

Contact the writer: 714-796-7787 or plarsen@ocregister.com


On Apr 8, 2015, at 7:36 PM, Kickstarter wrote:
http://e3.kickstarter.com/mpss/c/2QA/6TYCAA/t.1m1/oV30gzHoRdiL9qxm5M99sg/h0/Kvh8eyEDYxccobuZZtap
CapiCTt1zUTZ1STvm-2BU-2BsnNC-2FM9rJ2XaWO4WphcITkAP #47
   

SAN FRANCISCO and our 3rd Smash Week! 
Posted by Dave Boyle 
Dear Backers! HUGE thanks for everyone's support making our opening weekend 2 weeks ago such a big success! We can't believe how many of you are coming to see it again and again. We're still clinging to 95% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes...! And all theatres have held over MAN FROM RENO at least once, if not more... The massive Regal E-Walk on Times Square is keeping our film for a 3rd week! (where every other screen is playing Furious 7, lol)

http://e3.kickstarter.com/mpss/c/2QA/6TYCAA/t.1m1/oV30gzHoRdiL9qxm5M99sg/h3/Ui9VvRJjQnUdlZjDALwsn
NZ47JaSYCaXcPWO5TaCFEHH-2BKzfWaVSMloVyS35egJ3
 

Los Angeles will keep MFR for a 3rd and 4th week...moving to the Downtown Independent this Friday, April 10th and then moving on to AMC Burbank on April 17th. We are also still playing in IRVINE and TORRANCE - which is amazing for our lil movie!  If you can't keep up with cities and showtimes - we can't either! - just click onto www.manfromrenomovie.com   to see the full lineup (changing every week with new cities). We just added PALM SPRINGS, HOUSTON, LUBBOCK, CHICAGO...and more!

SAN FRANCISCO
Team Reno is currently getting ready to bring this movie HOME - to San Francisco Japantown where most of it was filmed. So PLEASE tell your friends in the Bay...they can't miss this! We have a full week w 4 shows a day at the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas!
http://e3.kickstarter.com/mpss/c/2QA/6TYCAA/t.1m1/oV30gzHoRdiL9qxm5M99sg/h7/mnJ83hnHOScnyx
B3w7EwQwwcpajU6i-2B5QCJFJ8WqBaY-3D
 
Hurry, and get tickets at Sundance Cinemas... We've got Q&As with cast/crew on Fri at 7:10 and 9:40...and all shows on Sat. Then on Sunday, April 12th we have showing the special dual subtitled version (in Japanese and English) all day! 
So many thanks,  Dave
 Here's a recent Japanese interview with English subtitles that aired on UTB to promote the film
https://vimeo.com/123808961

http://e3.kickstarter.com/mpss/c/2QA/6TYCAA/t.1m1/oV30gzHoRdiL9qxm5M99sg/h14/VE2atosPJwyp5yA4oN-2F
Sao8Yww7d9kTjS12d6H439Eg-3D
  Kickstarter     

Want to keep up with projects you love on the go? Try Kickstarter for iPhone and iPad!
Don't want to receive updates from this project? That's okay, you can unsubscribe. 
58 Kent St, Brooklyn NY 11222 · www.kickstarter.com  

Sent by Pepe Serna pepe@pepeserna.com 

 




“Children of Giant” - A Documentary born of Texas History
By Rita D. Hernandez, Ph.D.

San Antonio’s 37th Annual Cine Festival kicked off with the premiere of “Children of Giant,” and on April 17 will air during primetime on KEDT-TV. This documentary produced by Hector Galan, a Texas native son, explores in depth the social, cultural, political and economic issues brought forth in the 1956 film, “Giant,” starring Hollywood icons such as Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor, and James Dean as the protagonists/antagonist. “Children of Giant” traces historically the people and place of Marfa, TX, on the vacuous desert land in west Texas with seemingly little of value in the 50s, now a contemporary arts community.

Hector Galan’s documentary skillfully employs Henry Cisneros as the narrator with clips from the original film interspersed with interviews of local people, the altar boys and children of the choir, now aging. One of the altar boys was Tony Cano, interviewed in the documentary. Also included are members of the production crew and one of the pivotal cast members, Elsa Cardenas, who plays the wife of Jordan Benedict (Dennis Hopper) and Mexican daughter-in-law to Rock Hudson character, Bick Benedict, the big rancher, whose ties to the land are generational. Ms. Cardenas is the only living member of the main characters of the 1956 film, who returned to Marfa in 2012 for a reunion at the formerly segregated school of Blackwell.

Strong, compelling imagery and symbolism abound in the documentary. The commonly used geographic divide, the railroad tracks separating Mexican barrios from Anglo neighborhoods. A fence, separating the two cemeteries-Mexican and Anglo, still prevails to this day in Marfa. Within the walls of the Mexican school, Blackwell, a seventh grade teacher directed the students to bury Spanish words and phrases written in Spanish in a coffin and then, they ceremoniously dug a grave. The act symbolizes that English-only would be standard in school and Spanish, prohibited. When the Blackwell School was reopened as a museum, one of the former students decided to dig up the buried coffin, opening it to reveal the scraps of paper with Spanish words setting them free, scattering in the wind.

Another powerful image is the incident in the diner with a fight ensuing between the owner and Bick Benedict in the original film. Wanda Garcia, the first-born child of Dr. Hector P. Garcia and Wanda F. Garcia, figured prominently in “Children of Giant.” Dr. Garcia served as a consultant to both Edna Ferber, author of the book, and movie director George Stevens, according to G. Steven Jr., who also appeared in the film. The genesis for the diner scene stemmed from an incident that occurred on Feb. 19, 1950 when Dr. Garcia’s wife and daughter Wanda, along with Tito Diaz and his wife, were refused service at the Manhattan Café in Gonzalez, TX. Wanda recalls, “The owner said my mother and I could eat there, but not Mr. & Mrs. Diaz because no Mexicans were served. So, we all left hungry.” When told of the incident, Dr. Hector felt outrage and in his memo to the Forum membership, “Consider insult personal.” (Ignacio M. Garcia in Hector P. Garcia: In Relentless Pursuit of Justice) When the Texas Good Neighbor Commission wrote a letter to the governor, his staff wrote a carefully worded statement, “such treatment of educated, presentable, ex-GI Texans of Latin American descent (was) out of style.” (Carl Allsup in The American G.I. Forum: Origins and Evolution) In short, the governor did nothing.

The scene of the homecoming for the fallen Mexican American soldier, Angel, who grew up on the big ranch, was stark. No one, except his family, was there to welcome home his flag-draped casket: no fellow soldiers, no band, no pomp and circumstance, no respect for a young soldier who gave his life for the freedoms of this country. This contrasts sharply with what is arguably well-known, Anglo fallen soldiers are not treated in the same manner.

The final image appears in “Giant.” Bick, looking lovingly and proudly at his two little grandchildren: one White and one Brown, has undergone a tremendous transformation and acceptance by the end of the film. A persuasive image of two young cousins, giving hope for a new and tolerant world to come. In a recent interview, producer and director Hector Galan states that the purpose of the documentary is to capture a sense of history, rarely discussed publicly or in classrooms. He poses the question: “Have we really changed that much?”

Rita D. Hernandez, PhD
Adjunct at TAMUCC

©Rita D. Hernández   7 March 2015



545 vs. 300,000,000 People By Charlie Reese Last Column

Charley Reese's final column for the Orlando Sentinel...
He has been a journalist for 49 years.  He is retiring and this is his last column.

Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.
Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?
Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?
Have you ever wondered why the threat of bankruptcy is often mentioned in regards to Social Security, but never in regards to Welfare, food stamps and other entitlements? 
You and I don't propose a federal budget. The President does.
You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.
You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does.
You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does.
You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.

One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one President, and nine Supreme Court justices equates to 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.

I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank.

I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a President to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes.

Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.

What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits. The President can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it.

The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. Who is the speaker of the House? John Boehner. He is the leader of the majority party. He and fellow House members, not the President, can approve any budget they want. If the President vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.

It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million cannot replace 545 people who stand convicted -- by present facts -- of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.

If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair.
If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red.
If the Army & Marines are in Iraq and Afghanistan it's because they want them in Iraq and Afghanistan ...
If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it's because they want it that way.

There are no insoluble government problems.

Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power. Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like "the economy," "inflation," or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.

Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible.
They, and they alone, have the power.  
They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses.
Provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees...
We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!

Charlie Reese is a former columnist of the Orlando Sentinel Newspaper.

Sent by Roy A. Archuleta 
archroy1953@gmail.com
 

 



Hi Friends, 

The National Park Service is partnering with two Latino-serving organizations to provide graduate and undergraduate students with internships at national parks around the country: 
Hispanic Access Foundation
and Environment for the Americas

The internship program is designed to engage the next generation of conservation stewards and will raise awareness of national parks and historic sites, their accessibility, and the need for the Latino community's involvement in their preservation. 

These ten-week internships will be compensated with a weekly stipend, and housing and transportation costs will be fully covered.  Please share these opportunities with your student networks.

http://hispanicaccess.org/our-projects/latino-heritage-internship-program 

Thank you, Francisco Carrillo
Deputy Director, Office of Intergovernmental & External Affairs
U.S. Department of the Interior, Office of the Secretary 
w (202) 208-5541  c (202) 412-8846 

 

 




 English-speaking Hispanics in the U.S. are bilingual 
March 24, 2015

About six-in-ten U.S. adult Hispanics (62%) speak English or are bilingual, according to an analysis of the Pew Research Center’s 2013 National Survey of Latinos. Hispanics in the United States break down into three groups when it comes to their use of language: 36% are bilingual, 25% mainly use English and 38% mainly use Spanish. Among those who speak English, 59% are bilingual.

Latino adults who are the children of immigrant parents are most likely to be bilingual. Among this group, 50% are bilingual, according to our 2013 survey. As of 2012, Latinos with immigrant parents (defined as those born outside the U.S. or those born in Puerto Rico) made up roughly half (48%) of all U.S.-born Hispanics. By comparison, a third (35%) of Hispanic immigrants are bilingual, as are a quarter (23%) of those with U.S.-born parents.

Widespread bilingualism has the potential to affect future generations of Latinos, a population that is among the fastest growing in the nation. Our 2011 survey showed that Latino adults valued both the ability to speak English and to speak Spanish. Fully 87% said Latino immigrants need to learn English to succeed. At the same time, nearly all (95%) said it is important for future generations of U.S. Hispanics to speak Spanish.

Bilingualism is measured in our National Surveys of Latinos by asking Hispanic adults to self-assess their language abilities. Respondents rated their ability to carry on a conversation in Spanish and how well they can read a book or newspaper written in Spanish. The same questions are posed about their English-speaking ability. Bilingualism is linked to age. Some 42% of Hispanics ages 18 to 29 are bilingual. That share falls to about a third among Hispanics ages 30 to 49 and ages 50 to 64, but rises again, to 40%, among those ages 65 and older.

Due in part to bilingualism, in 2013 Spanish was the most spoken non-English language in the U.S., used by 35.8 million Hispanics in the U.S. plus an additional 2.6 million non-Hispanics. Overall, three-in-four Hispanics (73%) ages 5 and older speak Spanish in their homes, when including those who are bilingual.

Given the expected demographic changes, what is the future of language use among Hispanics in the United States? According to Census Bureau projections, the share of Hispanics who speak only English at home will rise from 26% in 2013 to 34% in 2020. Over this time period, the share who speak Spanish at home will decrease from 73% to 66%.

And as a sign of the times, Spanglish, an informal hybrid of both languages, is widely used among Hispanics ages 16 to 25. Among these young Hispanics, 70% report using Spanglish, according to an analysis we did in 2009..

Roberto Vazquez     admin@lared-latina.com 






Handling history: Scholars focus on violent chapter from Texas’ past
by Lucia Benavides
Reporting Texas 

http://www.statesman.com/news/news/opinion/handling-history-scholars-focus-on-violent-chapter/nkjgH/#7046584

 

 (Photo credit: Martin do Nascimento) 

University of Texas English professor John Moran Gonzalez, one of six scholars in a group called Refusing to Forget, which is trying to draw attention to a violent chapter of Texas history known as “La Matanza” or “The Massacre.” During the early 1900s, Texas Rangers, law officers and vigilantes are thought to have killed hundreds, possibly thousands, of Mexicans and Tejanos along the border. Now, six scholars, including four from Texas, have built a website, Refusing to Forget.com, to make sure this history is fully told and accessible to the public.

On a late September day in 1915, Texas Rangers shot and killed Jesus Bazan and his son-in-law, Antonio Longoria, as they rode their horses along a dirt road not far from their ranch near Edinburg.

The men had committed no crimes, but the Rangers suspected they sympathized with Mexican bandits who had been raiding local ranches. Without warning, the Rangers shot the men and left the bodies where they fell. Two days later, neighbors found the corpses and buried them.

The story survives because a witness, Roland Warnock, recorded an oral history of the killing. His grandson, Kirby Warnock, made a 2004 documentary, “Border Bandits,” about this violent but largely untold chapter in South Texas history.

From 1915 to 1919, the scholars say, the Rangers or vigilantes killed hundreds, possibly thousands, of Mexicans and Tejanos in South Texas. Some victims were bandits or Mexican revolutionaries trying to stir up trouble. But many were like Bazan and Longoria — people caught in the crossfire.

“This part of history matters because the state has never taken responsibility,” said Monica Martinez, an assistant professor of American and ethnic studies at Brown University, who is part of the group. “People continue to be impacted by these histories, every time a mother shares her family’s story with her young child.”

The scholars’ efforts are paying off. Thanks to their lobbying, the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum will open an exhibit in January about the era, including the killings.

“We cover all of the stories of Texas, and this is one of them,” said Margaret Koch, the museum’s director of exhibits. “It’s important to tell this story.”

In addition, the scholars persuaded the Texas Historical Commission to erect markers commemorating the bloody conflict pitting Texans against Tejanos.

One will be in Laredo, to mark the 1911 Primer Congreso Mexicanista, the state’s first Mexican-American civil rights conference. It was prompted by the lynching of Antonio Rodriguez, who had been arrested on charges of killing an Anglo woman in Rocksprings. A vigilante mob seized him and burned him alive.

A second Laredo marker will honor Jovita Idar, a journalist and civil-rights activist who crusaded against such killings.

The third marker, near Los Indios in Cameron County, will commemorate La Matanza, or The Massacre, the term used to describe the surge of anti-Mexican mob violence in South Texas.

Historians dispute the numbers but estimate 300 to 5,000 Mexican-Americans were killed. John Morán González, associate professor of English at the University of Texas at Austin and a member of the scholar group, said the wide disparity is due to the “extralegal nature of the violence and the reprehensible attempts by those perpetrators to leave no official, incriminating record.”

Stories of individual killings have been passed down through Hispanic families, including the Longorias, whose current generation includes actress Eva Longoria. But the Refusing to Forget group asserts that Texas public schools do not teach about the violence of the period.

While the indiscriminate killing of Mexicans had been going on since the mid-19th Century across the Southwest, the violence increased around 1915 as the Mexican Revolution roared across the border, Martinez said. Mexicans influenced by the uprising and angered by the large influx of Anglos who had moved to South Texas for cheap land called for Tejanos to reclaim what once was theirs. The “bandits” stole horses and food from Anglo ranchers and killed some of them.

“It’s not like there was no reason for Anglos in South Texas to fear violence,” said Benjamin Johnson, assistant professor of environmental history at Loyola University Chicago and a group member. “This is not a product of the imagination.”

Around 1915, the Rangers were sent to get rid of perceived troublemakers and suppress Mexican revolutionaries. But the Rangers and other authorities killed anyone they deemed suspicious, Johnson said.

One victim was a Mexican teenager who got off a train in Mercedes, according to Johnson’s book. He wore a sling on one arm because of a hand tumor. The Rangers, looking for a man shot in the hand in a recent raid, arrested the teen on suspicion. He was found dead several minutes later, Johnson said.

The situation became so fraught that, in 1919, the Texas Legislature investigated the killings, took testimony from local residents and ordered the Ranger ranks be reduced in size.

“There were so many innocent people killed in that mess that it just made you sick to your heart to see it happening,” Roland Warnock said, in a recording his grandson made in 1974 for Baylor University’s oral history project. “If those ranchers caught a Mexican with a bunch of cattle, they didn’t ask him where he got them, they killed him. … A man’s life just wasn’t worth much at all.”

Although many Texans aren’t familiar with this history, for some it’s a lived reality.

“It still has that palpable presence, so we want to have their stories told as a living legacy,” Morán González said. “Keeping silent perpetuates the injustices done.”

Correction: A photo caption accompanying this story has been updated to say that John Moran Gonzalez is an English professor at UT.

Reporting Texas is a news website produced by the University of Texas School of Journalism. 
For more, go to reportingtexas.com  

http://www.statesman.com/news/news/opinion/handling-history-scholars-focus-on-violent-chapter/nkjgH/ 

Sent by Juan Marinez   marinezj@msu.edu 



Chicanos and Latinos facing the challenges of racism in the U.S. by Gus Chavez  

Recent as well as past racist behavior waged against immigrants, Chicanos and Latinos are well documented and raise many questions as to why in 2015 this is still taking place across the national landscape.  College fraternities and sororities acting out and ridiculing our language and culture, along with police profiling of Latinos, deporting families with children who are U.S. citizens, erosion of voting rights and legislation targeting the Latino community is at an all time high. Question - how long has this been taking place and were these individuals influenced by the John Boxes and Roy Garis of  1926 and beyond? 
The book “Patriots From The Barrio” by Dave Gutierrez opens up the lives of a number of Latino WWII veterans fighting against the Nazis while their families endured racism and segregation at home. 
The background of our many struggles may have started decades ago and set the foundation for historical and present racist behavior against our Chicano and Latino communities.  The legislation proposed by former Congressman John C. Box of Texas is one example of racism endured by our community.  The situation against us intensified with the financial crash of 1929. 
 
Even though lingering feelings of racism continue today throughout the nation, much has changed and continue to change since the introduction of the failed Box Bill.

“In 1926 Democrat Representative John C. Box of Texas introduced House Resolution Bill 6741 to include Mexico into the quota act, it would be known as the “Box Bill.” He wanted to limit the amount of Mexicans pouring into the country.  A report in support of the bill was written by Dr. Roy L. Garis, an economics professor at the University of Vanderbilt. In the report Garis states,  
“The Mexicans minds run to nothing higher than animal functions - eat, sleep, and sexual debauchery.  In every huddle of Mexican shacks one meets the same idleness, hordes of hungry dogs, and filthy children with faces plastered with flies, disease, lice, human filth, stench, promiscuous fornication, bastardy, lounging, apathetic peons, and lazy squaws, beans, and dried chili, liquor, general squalor, and envy and hatred of the gringo. These people sleep by day and prowl by night like coyotes, stealing anything they can get their hands on, no matter how useless to them it may be. Nothing left outside is safe unless padlocked or chained down. Yet there are Americans clamoring for of the human swine to be brought over from Mexico. The bill was never passed.”   “Statements like those of Dr. Garis, referring to Mexicans as human swine, only fueled public dissent towards Mexicans and all immigrants that were working while America was struggling to find work. News articles were written about the Mexican Problems in America, adding yet more fear and dissent at Mexicans.”
Quotes from pages 8-9 in the excellent book “Patriots From The Barrio” by Dave Gutierrez.


Gus, has nailed it. Yesterday year and today the issue of facing Mexican, Mexican American's and the greater Latino world has not gone away, it has only become more visible as well as more verbal. When I saw an email the book of Dave Gutierrez, "Patriots from the Barrio" I ordered it and start to read it. Like Dave, I too had memories of story told to me my dad, uncles and friend of the family about the "Mexican Problem" my dad home town of Crystal City Texas during WW ll was devastated of young men who were of draft age. My dad would tell us of the many buses that departed everyday of Mexican young men to be processed from in San Antonio and how the local draft broad who was made of white ranchers and local business owners provide deferments to the white young men.
Once these young men return they came back with stories of valor in the field by young Mexican American men as well as Puerto Ricans who they met in the services. So, many of the times they got second hand tools, clothing and rifles. Not always the best officers as who wanted to lead a "Mexican" company. You can keep adding to the story as well.
The book of David Gutierrez, is so well written because it capture many of the stories that I heard growing up. Because it was entirely of Mexican Americans from the barrios of south Texas. The Thirty-Sixth Division, 141st Regiment, Second Battalion, Company E. The unit was comprised. It a segregated company and from there day to day life of south Texas of living across the tracks, when they were formed it did not seem any different then what they had always lived. But when it came to the actual combat theater the difference was great, they showed their iron and inventiveness on how to survive under very harsh conditions. When  Ramon G. Gutierrez was capture twice, by the way Ramon is David uncle and his inspiration for the book. The Germans believe that Mexico had come into the war on the side of the United States. Why, because Company E was made up of Mexican Americans and of course all spoke Spanish.
If you can by the book and read it for your self gain your own insights. The other book that I am reading right now is, The World War I Diary of José de la Luz Sáenz; Edited and with an Introduction by Emilio Zamora Translated by Emilio Zamora with Ben Maya
 



Mexican Immigration and “How America Inspired the Third Reich” 

by Rosalinda Mendez Gonzalez, Ph.D.
rgonzalez1@swccd.edu 

In the March 2015 issue of SomosPrimos, Juan Marinez submitted an entry titled: “Ringside at the Revolution: An Underground Cultural History of El Paso and Juarez” informing us of a book written by David Dorado Romo, published in 2005.  It contains a link to an article written by Paul Spike for The Week, (http://www.theweek.co.uk/world-news/35581/how-america-inspired-third-reich) where he writes:  

“A brilliant new book by a Mexican-American historian documents how, in the Twenties and Thirties, the Nazis were inspired by what the United States had been doing to their Mexican neighbors since 1917.”  

Among other things,

“Mexican visitors were forced to strip naked and subjected to ‘screening’ . . . and to ‘disinfection’ with various toxic fumigants, including gasoline, kerosene, sulfuric acid, DDT and, after 1929, Zyklon-B (hydrocyanic acid) – the same gas used in the Holocaust’s death camps.” [emphasis added]  

Romo quoted Hitler’s admiration of how U.S. immigration policy established “specific racial requirements. . .”, and Paul Spike continues, “In 1938, three years before the first death camps of the Final Solution, Nazi chemist Dr Gerhard Peters published a full account, in German science journal Anzeiger fur Sahahlinskund, of the El Paso ‘disinfection’ plant.  He included two photos and diagrams of the machinery which sprayed Zyklon B on railroad cars.  (Peters went on to acquire Zyklon B’s German patent.)” [emphases added]  

Spike clarifies that “It should be noted that while the Americans sprayed their victims with toxic chemicals, they restricted use of Zyklon B to freight and clothes. As the Nazis understood it, spraying it . . . directly on a human caused almost immediate death.” [emphasis added]  

Romo is quoted as saying, “This is a huge black hole in history. . .  It’s incredible that absolutely no one, after all these years, has ever attempted to document this.”  

I would like to offer three observations in relation to this:  

1.  Gilbert G. Gonzalez produced a DVD documentary in 2010 titled “Harvest of Loneliness/Cosecha Triste, The Bracero Program” (Awarded the Cine Latino Audience Award for Best Documentary at the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival), where he documents the brutal, deeply humilating treatment that braceros were subjected to before entering the United States beginning in World War II.  (See http://harvestofloneliness.com)  

2.  Many years ago, a student in one of my Mexican American History classes at Southwestern College (Chula Vista, California), told me that her grandfather had been in the Bracero Program, and she brought him to my office and he kindly consented to my interviewing him.  I will look for the original interview, transcribe it and hopefully submit it in a future issue of SomosPrimos. 

What I do remember him very clearly telling me is that where he entered the United States (somewhere in the Texas or New Mexico/Arizona area), braceros were being tattoed with numbers in the arm by the U.S. authorities.  

3.  In a book by Joram Kagan titled Poland’s Jewish Heritage (Hippocrene Books, New York, c. 1992), on page 50, a map of the Birkenau concentration camp, “Plan of Birkenau (during the War)” is included (courtesy of Martin Gilbert 1985), and above the gas chambers and crematoria appears a building for housing inmates titled “B III ‘Mexico’”.  Interestingly, there is another small building identified as “’Canada’”.  These are the only two buildings with names of countries.  I am attaching a photo of this map.  

Birkenau was an extension of Auschwitz.  It contained the extermination part of the Auschwitz complex.  In a page titled “Auschwitz-Birkenau – ‘The Death Factory’” (www.jewishgen.org/forgottencamps/camps/auschwitzeng.html), it is identified as:
Auschwitz II, or Birkenau, established on October 8th, 1941 as a ‘Vernichtungslager’ (extermination camp) . . .”  

On pages 47-51 of Kagan’s book, there appears “A Chronology of the Auschwitz Death Factory”.  It first chronicles the building and functioning of Auschwitz itself from April 1940 to the Summer of 1941:  

“1941       . . .
 Summer   Himmler orders Rudolf Hoess to make Auschwitz the center for the “Final Solution of the Jewish Question” (the Nazi code word for the total systematic murder of the
Jews), according to Hoess’ postwar testimony.  . . .  Sept. 3     First experiments with the poison gas Zyklon B are conducted to find a method 
for killing large numbers of people quickly. . . . [emphasis added] Oct. 14    Construction of a branch camp [of Auschwitz] begins at Birkenau.  . . . [emphasis added]

1942
Jan:  Beginning of mass murder of Jews by poison at Birkenau. . .  July: Himmler’s second visit to Auschwitz includes inspection of Birkenau where he witnesses the killing of inmates with Zyklon B poison gas in two cottages that were converted to serve as improvised gas chambers.  Orders are issued to the Topf Company to construct four large crematoria with adjoining gas chambers.  The previous installations were considered insufficient for the number of victims envisioned.  The new installations were tested and put into operation between March- June 1943.  The capacity for the two larger gas chambers was two thousand persons each.  

A map on page 35 of “Nazi Concentration Camps,” notes:  

“Between 1939 and 1945, six million unarmed and innocent Jewish civilians – men, women, children and babies – were murdered in Nazi-controlled Europe, as part of a deliberate policy to destroy all Jewish life and culture.  As many as two million of these were killed in their own towns and villages, some confined in ghettoes where death by slow starvation was a deliberate Nazi policy, others taken to be shot at mass-murder sites near where they lived.  The remaining four million Jews were forced from their homes and taken by train to distant concentration camps, where they were murdered by being worked to death, starved to death, beaten to death, shot, or gassed.”  

Among these millions murdered at Auschwitz were Dutch Jews and Jews from Salonika Greece, of Sephardic origin.  

The map captions also point out:

“Auschwitz concentration camp in which more than 4 million people were murdered between 1941 and 1944, including Jews, Gypsies, and Soviet prisoners-of-war.” [emphasis added]  

“Among the hundreds of thousands of non-Jews sent by the Nazis to concentration camps were anti-Nazis, Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals, the mentally ill, and the chronically sick,  In addition, more than 250,000 Gypsies were murdered, in a Nazi attempt to eliminate Gypsies as well as Jews from the face of Europe.”  (p. 35)  

Why do “Mexico” and “Canada” appear at Birkenau?  

In the book by Joram Kagan, as far as I could ascertain, no mention is made of why in Birkenau, buildings were named for Mexico and for Canada.   Might the “Mexico” building have been so named because it was on the basis of Mexican immigration to the United States that Hitler learned of Zyklon B?

Spike in his article on “How American inspired the Third Reich” notes:  What Romo does have is shocking proof of the influence of US immigration techniques on Nazi thinking.”  [emphasis added]   

Might the naming of the building identified as “B III ‘Mexico’” be in recognition of this “contribution” of Mexican immigration to Hitler’s “Final Solution”?  Or might it somehow be connected to German designs on Mexico’s loyalty as had happened in World War I with the “Zimmerman Telegram”?  

In regard to the building named ‘Canada’, I emailed some Canadian friends, asking them if they were aware of anything related to U.S. Immigration policy and the Canadian border that might explain why a building at Birkenau would have been named “Canada”, and one of them, Dr. Ana Friede, responded:  “It seems that it has nothing to do with borders.  It’s all very sad.  (From the internet):  Apparently these were large warehouses where the belongings of the prisoners were sorted, and Canada was thought to be a land of riches and plenty.  May we not know of these things for the future . . . “  (email communication, April 22, 2015).  She recommended that I look up “Canada and Birkenau” on the internet, where I would find several sites.  Among these, I found in “The Holocaust Explained” www.theholocauseexplained.org/k3/the-final-solution/auschwitz-birkenau/work/#.VTmKOyFVikp the following explanation:  

Kanada Kommando

The possessions and precious belongings of the Jews transported to Auschwitz-Birkenau were left in the train carriages and on the ramp as their owners were quickly put through the selection process.  

When the selection process was complete, a work group of prisoners called the ‘Kanada Kommando’ collected the belongings of victims and took them to the ‘Kanada’ warehouse facility for sorting and transporting back to Germany.  

To prisoners Canada was a country that symbolised wealth.  They, therefore, gave the ironic name Kanada (the German spelling of Canada) to the warehouse area as it was full of possessions, clothing and jewellery [sic].” [emphasis added]  

In another page, “Hungarian Jews in Auschwitz-Birkenau,” I discovered a further clarification, under section 13, “The Kanadakommando: the Plundering of Victims”:  “The new arrivals had the first encounter with camp inmates . . . on the ramp.  While the Germans were busy with selection, male members of the cleaning brigade . . . quickly emptied the rail cars.  The deportees’ luggage was loaded on lorries and taken to Birkenau’s warehouse complex (BIIg, Effektenlager), popularly known as ‘Kanada’ (Canada).  (The appellation came from Polish inmates, who, in the destitute years of the 1910s envisioned the North American country as the Promised Land.) [emphasis added]  

So, it appears that it was not the Nazis who named it “Canada”, but the inmates.  

In further internet searches on “Mexico and Birkenau,” I then discovered that the “Mexico” building was similarly given its name by the inmates:  The “Axis History Forum” website, under “Auschwitz II-Birkenau ‘Mexico’”, has a post titled “THE MEXIKO CAMP”, which reads:  

“In the last phase of the war, when the armament industry required more and more slave workers, the deportees kept alive because they still were able to work, were transferred into a part of the camp which was called ‘Mexico.’  

This section of Auschwitz-Birkenau was not completely finished.  The inmates waited for a further transport to one of the labour camps.   . . . In this new camp section, the indescribable conditions which had such horrible consequences in the Birkenau women’s camp and the gypsy camp, went on just the same.  The lack of even the most primitive hygienic installations, the absence of water caused a high rate of mortality.  

In the camp jargon, the new section was called ‘Mexico’.  The inmates neither had prisoners clothes nor blankets.  They received blankets of different colours and styles from the stock-camp section ‘Canada’, where all goods of the deportees were collected.  Covered with all these blankets, the prisoners in that camp section appeared like Mexicans.” [emphases added]  

In another website, DEGOB National Committee for Attending Deportees, section titled “The Prisoners’ Fate in Auschwitz-Birkenau,” referring to camp section B III, reads:  Inmates referred to the latter as ‘Mexico”due to the prevailing conditions (with barely any drinking water or plumbing) atrocious even by Birkenau standards.” [emphasis added]  

There are websites with photographs of the “Mexico” section of Birkenau, and there is even one site with a photo titled “Birkenau – The ‘Mexico’ Fence” with the caption:  Small prisoner standing at attention during roll call.”  (www.remember.org/camps/birkenau/bir-mexico-01.html )  

So, ironically, it appears that it was not the Nazis who named Building BIII in Auschwitz-Birkenau “Mexico,” but the inmate prisoners who referred to it as “Mexico.”  Unwittingly, they were pointing to the source of immigration for which the United States developed its policies that including the “delousing” and “disinfecting” of arrivals and the use of Zyklon B gas:  Mexico’s immigrants to the United States.  

Submitted by Rosalinda Mendez Gonzalez, Ph.D.

rgonzalez1@swccd.edu

 

 

 



A 'forgotten' war festers in relationships
by Agustin Gurza

Orange County Register, September 17, 1998

[Gurza is now a staff writer for the Los Angeles Times]

Consider this migration scenario. A horde of foreign immigrants moves into a neighboring nation. They settle there with their big families and their drive to get ahead. They become citizens and promise to obey the laws of their new homeland so they can take advantage of its vast resources. Soon, there are so many newcomers that they outnumber the people who were there to begin with.

But the minute these uppity immigrants disagree with the policies of their adoptive government, they organize an uprising and declare their independence. Then they have the nerve to annex themselves to the country they came from.

Is this the worst nightmare of anti-immigration extremists who fear that swarms of immigrants will capture California and reclaim it for Mexico?  No, this is American history.; This is the unvarnished version; of how Stephen Austin and other ungrateful American settlers  took Texas away from Mexico and turned it over to the United States.

I know. .Some of you thought that people like Austin and Davy Crockett were patriots fighting for liberty against the tyranny of an uncivilized country to the south. You thought, the Alamo represented some glorious martyrdom of high-minded heroes' defending important principles. Don't' blame yourselves for falling for such fairy tales.  I grew up on Disney, too.

But I had a home advantage in. understanding the volatile, unbalanced relationship between Mexico and the United States. As a child, I got both sides of their •troubled history simultaneously.

In textbooks and on TV, I heard the U.S. version of the Texas conflict that led to an all-out war between the neighboring nations. In that telling, the Texans were freedom fighters fulfilling a divine mission for America called Manifest Destiny.

It was God's will for the United States to control North America from sea to shining sea, I learned in grade school. Only heathens-and inferior non-Europeans' stood in its way. Americans were put on Earth to share the democratic virtues of their unstoppable civilization.

At home, I was taught that the war with Mexico was a bald-faced land-grab dressed up as a righteous cause. Some conniving 

Americans under a slave-owning president, James Polk, trumped up a Texas-size excuse to go to war with their weaker neighbor. Far from heavenly, their dastardly mission was to steal land all the way to California, with its enviable ports and its soon-to-be-unearthed veins of gold.

Those clashing viewpoints were tough for a kid to reconcile.

I can still remember the suspense of watching waves of faceless Mexican soldiers on TV scaling the walls of the Alamo. Doomed was my hero, Davy Crockett, played by kind-faced Fess Parker. And, oh, my heart went out to the trapped and wounded men who fought to the death as Mexicans burst into their fortress and gunned them down.

Why, those dirty, rotten ... Wait a minute! I'm Mexican.

Right, said my uncle, and don't you ever forget it. He wept not a tear for the greedy invaders.

My schizophrenic upbringing came back to me recently while watching a new documentary on the U.S.-Mexican War, which ended 150 years ago this year. Produced by the public television station in Dallas, the four-hour special airs again 3-7 p.m. Sunday on KCET/28.

I highly recommend it to anybody who wants to grasp the roots of the rocky relationship that troubles our countries.

To their credit, the producers incorporated analysis from both sides of the border. Essays and interviews with American and Mexican historians, along with an illustrated timeline, can also be found online at the program's Web site at www.pbs.org .

I learned a lot that I didn't get from the bipolar propaganda of my childhood.

I saw, for example, that Mexicans contributed mightily to their own defeat. The country's incessant internal strife, the instability of its institutions and the arrogance of its leaders were as much to blame as Manifest Destiny.

"I do not think there ever was a more wicked war than that waged by the United States in Mexico." ~ ULYSSES S. GRANT

I already knew that many fair-minded Americans stood up to denounce the conflict as a naked war of aggression, including a young congressman named Abraham Lincoln. Also, abolitionists like Frederick Dougiass feared the annexation of Texas would strengthen slavery.

But 1 was surprised to learn that even American military men had second thoughts about the war. A stinging critique came from one of the U.S. officers who fought in Mexico and then went on to become a Civil War leader and later president of the United States.

"I do not think there ever was a more wicked war than that waged by the United States in Mexico," Ulysses S. Grant wrote in his memoirs. "I thought so at the time, when I was a youngster, only I had not moral courage enough to resign."

Today, most Americans know little about the war; most Mexicans can't seem to forget it. That difference alone is reason enough to study this painful event that shaped the futures of both nations.

Our cultural conflicts have roots in this battle, which bared hatreds like oozing wounds. It stings still today to hear the following words from a poet of the caliber of Walt Whitman:

"What has miserable, inefficient Mexico — with her superstition, her burlesque upon freedom, her actual tyranny by the few over the many — what has she to dp with the great mission of peopling the new world with a noble race? Be it ours to achieve that mission!"

For America, victory set the stage for a boundless future. For Mexico-, defeat left a psychic wound that one historian correctly called a "massive inferiority complex."

I know I felt deeply ashamed for Mexico, learning how deftly American troops crushed the resistance and occupied the capital where my mother was born. Watching the program, I felt chiiis again when hearing about the legend of the young Mexican military cadet at Chapultepec who wrapped himself in a flag and flung himself to his death rather than be captured by invading Americans — a story my mother often recounted with pride.

That futile gesture of defiance by a helpless boy was all the nation had left of its dignity.

"In a sense, we continue to fight the war over and over and over," said Antonia Castaneda of St. Mary's University. "We still live that violence. It has not healed."

Today, the war is cultural, she says. The violence is to the soul, evident in modern attempts to erase the culture and language of Mexicans.

"For people of Mexican origin or descent, living these realities means consistently affirming their history, their language and culture — individually, as a family as a collective, and as a people," Castaneda says.

The wounds won't heal unless we all learn the lessons of this still-debated war.

"What's at stake? A continuation of acrimony, anger, rage, distrust and hatred," she says. "The alternative (to understanding) is to continue the way we have — talking past each other, blaming each other and refusing to accept responsibility."

 




Editor Mimi: The article below is by Ruben Salaz Marquez, Ph.D. written as a Letter to the Editor of 
The Albuquerque Journal (12-23-05) in response to a letter which ignored the contributions of the Spanish/Mexican families in the West. 

Importance of the ranching and mining skills of the Hispanic people
 by Ruben Salaz Marquez, Ph.D.

The ranching and mining West was created by Hispanic people from NM, Texas, California, Arizona, and other parts of what is now known as Mexico. English speaking people from east of the Mississippi merely took over the institutions after the USA bludgeoned away the northern half of Mexico and made it American territory. 

Easterners knew next to nothing about ranching or mining, a fact that is seldom publicized due to the nature of American historiography. Americans had never used the horse as a work platform, knew nothing about the horned saddle (an Hispanic creation), and had no traditions like the roundup or cattle drive, not to mention centuries old livestock organizations like the Mesta.

In American life, stock raising was a mere adjunct to agricultural pursuits. Americans were not products of horse culture. For example, when the first English speaking "Texians" migrated to Texas (1821) and were attacked by Comanches, S.F. Austin's Texians tried to pursue these mounted Comanches on foot. They soon understood their futility so they learned horsemanship from Tejano Mexicans. It can also be pointed out that the American Army guarding the rich commerce on the Santa Fe Trail had done the same thing, pursuing mounted Indians on foot, until the U.S. Cavalry was created in 1829. The American government had no mounted troops until that date.

Further, Americans in general and Texians in particular knew nothing about roping technique so they couldn't use the horned saddle properly. Due to their lack of expertise, when they roped a steer and turned the rope around the horn (the technique called dale vuelta) they couldn't get their thumb out quick enough before the steer pulled on the rope with tremendous force. Lots of Texians lost their thumbs that way. (The technique came to be referred to by Texans as "dally welter" and then simply "dally.". Most Spanish ranching vocabulary was similarly converted into English. For example, "ranch" came directly from rancho.) American ranching was taken over wholly from the Spanish-Mexican institution, with the vaquero now referred to as a "cowboy." The "American cow pony" had its origins in the Spanish horse. "Texas longhorns" are likewise Spanish-Mexican cattle. If historians are timid about relating this historical truth then it is time for the people to champion it.

The Western scenario is about the same for mining. Americans had so little experience in mining there was not even a mining law in the entire USA until around 1866. The first mining codes were mostly translations of Spanish-Mexican mining codes. Spanish/Mexican mining techniques and vocabulary were also picked up by Americans because they had none of their own.

So who are the real pioneers of the West? Amerindian groups were the first settlers. Hispanics were the first European settlers and they brought with them ranching and mining, which are inextricable from the concept of the American West.

It could be asserted that various groups of Americans created settlements of their own but this is as far as their "pioneer" status goes. They helped populate the West but they did not create the ranching and mining West merely because they started a town or helped populate one already in existence. Despite the efforts of Orwellian historiography and silent academics or historical societies, that honor belongs to Hispanic people, many of whom have descendants living in the Southwest to this day. It is a noble heritage that will no longer be ignored.

Ruben Salaz M. is the author of the Southwest history EPIC OF THE GREATER SOUTHWEST, http://www.historynothype.com 

 

 



THE SPANISH PRESENCE IN THE AMERICAS


1810 USA had expanded to the Mississippi river, the rest was New Spain and Mexico after independence in 1821.

  
The following is the historical introduction to a study: Latino Political Participation & Representation in Elective Office by Kevin Coleman, Analyst in American National Government, Government and Finance Division, CRS REPORT FOR CONGRESS Order Code RS20353,
Government Report, Updated July 27, 2001

Map below includes some Spanish explorations and discoveries between 1519-1550.

Arriving first, Spanish was the European language and culture of all territories from New Spain to Nueva Granada and Nueva Andalucia, and the rest of the American continent. 

Spain united the diverse tribal factions into one Nation roughly 100 years before the pilgrims arrived in the East Coast (as the report points out).

By the time England established a permanent new world settlement at Jamestown in 1607, Spain's colonial empire spanned both American continents, from Cape Horn to what is now Canada. Shortly after Columbus's expeditions for Spain, explorers and missionaries founded colonies at Hispaniola (the Dominican Republic) in 1496, Puerto Rico in 1508, and Cuba in 1511. Within a century, Spanish missions extended across southwestern North American from St. Augustine (Florida, 1565 to Santa Fe (1609): "There has been no other conquest like this in the annals of the human race. In one generation, the Spaniards acquired more new territory than Rome conquered in five centuries."1

By the beginning of the 17' century, as French and English colonization of North America gained momentum, Spain's power had begun to ebb. England had repelled Spain's attempt to invade the British Isles in 1588 and destroyed the Spanish fleet. Spain's effort of maintain its far-flung empire further burdened the nation and, over the next two centuries, its empire receded as the result of competition from other European colonizers and armed conflict.
Although Spain had claimed much of the North American interior, Spain's presence was found primarily in missions scattered along the Gulf coast and across the southwest to California. A series of agreements transferred the Louisiana territory, once claimed by Spain, back and forth between Spain and France until France sold the area to the United States in 1803. The U.S. nearly doubled its size by acquiring Louisiana, a vast region that extended from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains. Shortly thereafter, Spain accepted the transfer of east and west Florida to the U.S., under Transcontinental Treaty of 18119. Mexico declared independence from Spain in 1823. and Texas subsequently declared independence from Mexico in 1836. The U.S. annexed Texas in 1845. Following the Mexican-American War, the U.S. acquired lands north of the Rio Grande River under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) and the Gadsden Purchase (1853). Under the terms of the Treaty of Paris (1898) that ended the Spanish-American War, Spain lost its remaining possessions in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines.
Spain's cultural influence on the territory that became the United States remained long after the Spanish Empire collapsed. Explorers, missionaries, and conquistadors had pushed the boundaries of European settlement in the Americas and created a distinct people and culture, with the Spanish language as the common element. When the United States expanded to the Pacific, the Spanish-speaking people of the west and southwest, and the settlements they established at San Francisco, Santa Fe, and San Diego, became part of the new nation.

Until immigration laws were revised I 1965, most Latinos in the U.S. were of Mexican descent. Cuban communities inn Florida, New Orleans, and New York can be traced to the 19th century, and a Puerto Rican community emerged in New York in the 1930s, but most of the Latino population in the 1950 was found in the Southwest, including the descendants of the Spanish who originally settled the territory when it was called New Spain. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 (79 Stat. 911) eased previous restrictions on immigration and established a 120,000 a year limit on immigration from countries in the Western Hemisphere. Latino immigration the U.S. has increased sharply since then, reinforced by migration from South and Central American countries because of political and social unrest. From 1950 to 1990, the Latino population of the U.S. grew by an estimated 265%, whereas the total population grew by approximately 50% during these four decades.2 Latinos will be the largest minority group in the country within a decade, according to the Census Bureau, a phenomenon which has focused greater attention on Latino voters and their impact on electoral politics.
1 Samuel E. Morison, Henry Steele Commager, and William E. Leuchtenburg. The Growth of the American Republic.

2 Edna Acosta-Belen and Barbara R. Sjostrom. The Hispanic Experience in the United Slates Contemporary Issue and Perspectives: (New York: Praeger, 1988) P. 10.

Mimi: Ooops . .  I didn't copy over the name of  the submitter . .  sorry, please let me know. 




Serra statue a step closer to leaving D.C.
by Matthew Fleming
Orange County Register, March 30, 2015 

Father Junipero Serra’s statue in Washington, D.C., is getting closer to coming home to California.

Last week, the Senate Governmental Organization Committee unanimously approved a resolution that would replace the Serra statue in the U.S. Capitol’s National Statuary Hall with one of the late Sally Ride.

Critics of the resolution dislike the idea so closely following Pope Francis’ announcement in January to make Serra a saint by the end of the year.

But the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Ricardo Lara, D-Bell Gardens, argued that Ride, an astronaut, also deserves to be recognized and that it would take years for the statue to actually be replaced.

“Sally is a modern-day representation of the American dream,” Lara said in committee. “This is about modernizing our heroes.”

The bill is likely to be voted on by the entire Senate near the beginning of April. If approved, it would continue to the Assembly. If passed, it would take some time for the funds to be raised from private donors and for the statue of Ride to be sculpted, long after the canonization ceremony in September, Lara said.

Sandra Palacios, the associate director for governmental relations for the California Catholic Conference, spoke in opposition to the measure last week, calling the timing “sad and inappropriate.”

“Unfortunately, this resolution puts us in a very awkward and uncomfortable position,” Palacios said.

In Statuary Hall, each state is represented by two statues that must each be displayed a minimum of 10 years. California is represented by Serra and former President Ronald Reagan.

While Serra’s statue has been on display since 1931, Reagan’s has only been there since 2009, making it ineligible for replacement. Sen. Ben Hueso, D-San Diego, spoke in favor of a more consistent rotation of statues in Statuary Hall.

“I don’t see it as a removal of Serra, but a rotation that I think needs to take place on a regular basis,” Hueso said. “California has many important figures to represent.”

The bill is silent on where the Serra statue would be housed in the state, and many senators, including Lara, posed the possibility of a rotation through places like the first mission founded by Serra, which is in San Diego, or his burial site at Mission Carmel.

Mechelle Lawrence Adams, the executive director of Mission San Juan Capistrano, said that with the blessing of her board of directors and the city, she’d lobby to have the statue stop in town.

The bill’s analysis, used by staff and legislators, lists only the city of San Juan Capistrano and Councilwoman Kerry Ferguson as opposed, although the mission and many supporters have voiced opposition.

Ferguson and Lawrence Adams have both requested to meet with Lara, but the senator has so far not responded.

“It is a real slap in the face to our city, where California’s founder actually conducted services,” Ferguson told the Register in an email. “Snubbing one of the premier California historic landmarks, a world heritage site – in the year when Father Serra is to be canonized – is hard to comprehend.”

Lara did not respond to requests for comment.

Contact the writer: mfleming@ocregister.comTwitter: @mattfleming1181

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/serra-656181-statue-lara.html
 



 

HERITAGE PROJECTS

Art, HIstory & Culture: 16th Century Sevilla 
Soy de Duval Blog maintained by Alfredo E. Cardenas
Did another Miracle Occur at 4th Annual Pilgrimage Honoring Sor Maria, 
       The Mystical Lady in Blue?





The focus of this blog is to recall the early history of Duval County, Texas. This history covers most of the 19th century and the early 20th century. Additionally, it will also comment from time to time on other aspects of life in Duval County, including current events that may have an impact on historical aspects of the county.

 

Orlando Martinez reads marker for Santo Nino Cemetery


Hi Mimi,
I wanted to share this story and link dealing with a historical event that took place in Duval County recently. As you may recall, my parents as well as my maternal and paternal grandparents/great grandparents were from Duval County, TX. Several of my ancestors are mentioned in the Historical Marker Plaque. Needless to say, this Historical Marker will bring much pride and dignity to the many families associated with Duval County-and, what a way to honor the ancestors who served as the pillars of Duval County in that era!  ~ Tom Saenz

Editor Mimi: Please go to the site.  Lots of photos during the event, and more information. http://soydeduval.blogspot.com/2015/04/large-number-of-families-turnout-for.html )

Alfredo E. Cardenas maintains the blog . . Corpus Christi, Texas, United States
A freelance writer and researcher with a special interest in Duval County and that part of Texas known as Medio Mexico or South Texas. Born in San Diego and grew up and received my education in Duval County. Received BA in Political Science from St. Mary's University and eventually returned to San Diego where I started the Duval County Picture, a weekly newspaper. In 1992 I was elected mayor of San Diego and served two four-year terms until 2000 when I resigned to go work for the state. Returned to the area in 2010 as editor of the South Texas Catholic.


Soy de Duval
Excerpts:    
Large number of families turnout for dedication of historic Santo Nino Cemetery in Duval County

Despite a downpour the night before and threatening skies, a large crowd turned out to commemorate the unveiling of a Historic Texas Cemetery marker at the Santo Nino Cemetery in Duval County on April 18. The day was dedicated to the memory of Jose Noe Martinez for his “commitment and care” of the cemetery.

The Texas State Historical Commission granted the historic designation to the cemetery on March 21, 2012 and Martinez passed away three days later. His son Orlando Martinez of San Diego picked up the torch and guided the project through its unveiling. Also on the Santo Nino Cemetery Association are Gloria Guajardo of Laredo, Sara Flores of Corpus Christi, Shelley Bryant of McAllen and Angel Noe Gonzalez from Dallas. 

The Santo Nino Cemetery is located on El Senor de La Carrera land grant. The state of Tamaulipas granted El Senor de la Carrera to Dionisio Elizondo on October 15, 1835. It consisted of two leagues, six labores and 891,000 square varas. It was located about 55 miles southwest of Corpus Christi on the Laredo road which traversed the grant at the very northern tip. Also on the northeast corner of the grant was the Laguna Traviesada. The grant was surveyed on September 1, 2, and 4, 1854 by Felix Blucher. Chain carriers were Refugio Salas, Nieves Garcia, Rafael L. Salinas and Albino Canales. It is recorded in Book E, Pages 127-129 in Nueces County. 

El Senor de la Carrera was resurveyed on March 12-14, and 16, 1868 and a judgment and decree was issued to Benito Gonzales Garcia on October 31, 1868. Suit was filed on May 21, 1864 in the 14th District Court in Nueces County presided over by E. B. Carpentier. The suit was brought under an act to ascertain and adjudicate certain legal claims for land against the state, situated between the Nueces and Rio Grande rivers approved on February 11, 1860 and amended on January 11, 1862 and Ordinance Number 212 of the convention of the People of Texas passed March 30, 1866. (GLO File 542)

The family of Vicente Gonzalez Elizondo and Benigna Saenz Bravo donated the northern part of the cemetery. Jose Maria Martinez Gonzalez donated the southern part of the cemetery. The cemetery is located off FM1329 on County Road 210.

Luis Noe Martinez served as master of ceremonies for the dedication. Other participants included Lydia Canales, chairwoman of the Duval County Historical Commission; Angel Noe Gonzalez presented the application history; County Judge Ricardo Carrillo who read and presented a proclamation for the occasion; Father Eddie Garcia who blessed the marker; and the San Diego VFW 8931 color guard who presented the colors.

While the cemetery has no doubt existed for much longer, the earliest “readable” tombstone is that of Eleuterio Saenz Martinez dated June 19, 1908. More than 120 burials are located at the cemetery which is surrounded by a chain link fence and is well maintained. Orlando Martinez maintains the records of those buried at Santo Nino. Names and photographs of some 50 tombstones can also be found on the Web site FindAGrave.com.



Did another Miracle Occur at 4th Annual Pilgrimage 
Honoring Sor Maria, The Mystical Lady in Blue?

Last year's pilgrimage was led by Dr. Casso to the Quarai Ruins north of Mountainair. It was a pilgrimage of thanksgiving to Sor María of whom he had asked her for intercession to save his other leg from amputation due to his diabetes. She saved his leg and documented the miracle! His doctors were most surprised.

This year's miracle is being claimed by don Desiderio "Desi" Baca and his wife doña Martha. Desi Baca at one time was Superintendant of Albuquerque Public Schools. 


Don Desiderio and doña Martha Baca

One of their daughters, Dr. Louise Baca, Psychologist, age 55, of Tempe AZ was diagnosed with juvenile leukemia, the most aggressive form of leukemia. She was fortunate enough to find a compatible bone marrow donor, her own sister, nurse practitioner, Gloria Baca. Louise underwent chemo and radiation treatments. Those treatments work at times, but are "iffy." 

Both Desi and Martha Baca have had a strong devotion to Sor María for years. According to them, "On June 28th, 2014 we had been invited by our daughter, Dr. Louise Baca, to attend the pre-nuptial blessing at Tempe Arizona. 

Our daughter, Dr. Louise, would be unable to attend the wedding of her daughter Andrea, in Palo Alto, California on July 5th, 2014, because of her serious illness with leukemia. Therefore, it was decided to have a pre-nuptial blessing on June 28th in Tempe, Arizona.

As parents, we needed to chose attending the pre-nuptial blessing in Tempe or attending the attending the Sor María de Ágreda celebration at Abó, New Mexico. We chose to attend the Sor María celebration and asked Sor María de Ágreda to cure our daughter, Dr. Louise Baca. Immediately after the mass celebrated in honor of Sor María de Ágreda at Abó, New Mexico the condition of our daughter improved in a remarkable way. 

We attribute Sor María de Ágreda and several other saints and our Lord for her remarkable improvement. The improvement has been so remarkable that she attended the wedding mass of her daughter at Palo Alto California.

It is remarkable and a true miracle that our youngest daughter, Gloria Baca a nurse practitioner was a perfect match for the bone-marrow transplant. Gloria Baca resigned her nursing job in order to assist her sister Dr. Louise Baca with the bone-marrow transplant. The process of a bone marrow transplant is very painful for the donor, but our daughter, Gloria, showed so much courage, generosity and kindness in being a donor and in helping save the life of her sister, Dr. Louise Baca.

Dr. Louise Baca (left) Gloria Baca (right) in younger years.
A milestone took place on the 100th day of her diagnosed illness. She had not relapsed! Our daughter, Dr. Louise Baca continues to improve and the doctors at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Arizona are amazed at the progress she is making as she continues to be on the road to a complete recovery."

Now, this is easy to understand and accept among believers. However there are always skeptics out there. For sure there could be an intense public debate and differing opinions that will emerge from these claims. They are most welcome, as broad public debate enhances further understanding and knowledge. Of course there are those who will not be moved by any arguments pro or con, for they have already made up their minds. But there are those who know nothing about this phenomenon that may be moved to further investigation, which is always a good thing helpful for human growth and development. You decide!

Adding to the spiritual ambience and pageantry was the unveiling of a Sculpture of Sor Maria preaching and teaching the faith to the Jumanos. This was sculptured by renowned sculpturer, don Reynaldo "Sonny" Rivera. 

The unveiling and blessing of the sculpture was performed immediately following the end of the mass, by Fr. Sena. 

Don Desiderio "Desi" Baca helps don Reynaldo "Sonny" Rivera unveil the sculpture of Sor María by Sonny Rivera; "oohs and aahs" could be heard from the crowd upon completion of the unveiling. Mr. Rivera donated his sculpture to Isleta Pueblo.

Sonny Rivera asks Fr. Sena to bless  Sor María sculpture. 

Blessing of Sor María’s sculpture by Fr. Sena

Sent by Jerry Lujan    jerry_javier_lujan@hotmail.com 

Hola,   Yes, we are back in San Antonio and in good health, after spending three weeks in the peaceful and quiet hamlet of Zapata. While there, I read A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens and I enjoyed it just as much as when I first read it in the sixth grade at St. Augustine. In between my writing project, I am now assiduously reading The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne. I finished writing my first draft of my memoirs and ended up with about 114,000 words. Now I am doing the necessary emendations until I am completely satisfied with the prose and the story. I am down to 100,325 words. It might take me a few more months to finally polish it. 

In the Sunday, April 12 edition of the San Antonio Express-News, there is a front-page expose article by John MacCormack entitled “Big Bend Bent Out of Shape” (concluded on pagers A-20 and A-21). Naturally the focus is on Alpine and the Big Bend, but on page A-20, left column, third paragraph is a blurb, almost as an after-thought, about one of the participants in the gas pipeline consortium being “Carso, a company owned by Carlos Slim, the richest man in Mexico, . . .” The executive director of the Condumex Library in Mexico City, Dr. Manuel Ramos Medina, was an eloquent speaker at the Lady in Blue conference at St. Mary’s University. In turn, he has extended an invitation to Bill Millet and Dr. Almaráz not only to discuss the possibility of Condumex publishing the companion book as a beautiful bilingual edition, but also to film the last scene for “Texas Before the Alamo” at his private hacienda near Santiago de Queretaro. The Carlos Slim Foundation not only owns and supports the Condumex Library, but it also publishes beautiful scholarly books. Dr. Almaráz is going to do the Lady in Blue anthology of essays that would include the one by Dr. Ramos Medina! That would be a crowning jewel as Texas’ gift to the Cause of Sor Maria de Jesus de Agreda. 

Take care and may God bless you.

Gilbert Quezada
 jgilbertoquezada@yahoo.com 

Sent by Jose Pena  JMPENA@aol.com

The Blue Nun

Attached with this correspondence are links to Television broadcasts in Spain regarding the delegation from Agreda & Pamplona's visit to Texas and "the Lady in Blue conference" we produced at St. Mary's University March 2015.  Click on the links to below to watch the new coverage, or coy and paste into your browser.

http://www.rtvcyl.es/Soria/1e8f0e3cc30e122d2c2b
http://www.rtvcyl.es/Soria/0eaa30be3c4af4ed040e
http://www.rtvcyl.es/Soria/88b97a3811dcdb436dcc

www.texasbeforethealamo.com
billmillet@yahoo.com
 

Telemundo and Fox TV news broadcasts re: the Lady in Blue Press Conference at San Antonio City Hall 
March 20, 2015.  Click the link below to watch the news broadcast.  https://vimeo.com/123251603 
produced by:  www.texasbeforethealamo.com 



El Cinco 
De 
Mayo

HISTORIC TIDBITS

El Cinco de Mayo, the Real Reason We Celebrate by Dan Arellano
April 4th, 1689 -- Spanish explorer names the Nueces
April 13th, 1888 -- Millionaire Robert Mills Dies
National Humanities Center Web Site



EL CINCO DE MAYO
 THE REAL REASON WE CELEBRATE

 

 
On May 5th 1862 in Puebla Mexico a rag tag army of Mexican soldiers, Indians armed with only machetes and Tejano volunteers would defeat the French Army that was considered the most powerful in the world at that time. Napoleon III, wishing to reconquer the empire gained and lost by his famous Uncle, Napoleon I had armies in Algeria and would attempt a glorious come back. Ignacio Zaragosa, born in Goliad Texas was the general in charge of this Mexican Army in 1862.  But that is not the reason Tejanos celebrate this event. We also know that the U.S was involved in its own Civil War and would not be able to enforce its Monroe Doctrine which warned European countries of intervening in the US area of influence. Napoleon, fearing the ever expanding US and its growing economic power sought to stop its growth by entering in to Texas and joining the Confederacy to destroy the Union. Obviously he needed to defeat the Mexicans first. In 1846-1848 the US went to war with Mexico and she would lose half of its territory. 

The reason Mexico was defeated so easily by the US was that there was no nationalism in Mexico at that time. Mexico still identified itself as separate communities and did not consider itself a nation of its own. The Battle of Puebla would change all that. The victory at El Cinco de Mayo would galvanize the nation and a feeling of national pride would sweep throughout the entire nation, and the Mexicans would unite like never before and eventually drive the French out. Had it not been for the Mexicans the issue with that institution of slavery could have remained unsolved. But that is still not the reason Tejanos celebrate El Cinco de Mayo.
 
The reason we celebrate El Cinco de Mayo is because of the Tejanos that fought in the War of The French Intervention. From Palito Blanco in South Texas would come Porfirio Zamora with 500 mounted Tejano Vaqueros and Tejano Rancheros who had become US Citizens after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848.  Arriving in Puebla they would join forces with the Mexican Cavalry under the leadership of Porfirio Diaz. Late in the evening on May 5th the French Infantry were in the process of with drawing from the field of battle and it had been a long extensive exhausting battle. Ignacio Zaragosa orders Porfirio Diaz to withdraw his cavalry. 

Diaz, seeing an opportunity to destroy the retreating French Infantry disobeys the order and orders his cavalry to attack. Among these attackers was our own Tejano Cavalry. A mighty charge ensued resulting in the total destruction of the infantry forcing the entire French Army to abandon the field of battle. Diaz knew that if he allowed the infantry to regroup he would have to fight them again the next day. It was a glorious Mexican victory. General Diaz, instead of being reprimanded would be the hero of the day. 

Six years later the surviving Tejanos saw this battle and victory as their contribution in defeating the French and started the celebrations in South Texas.  Porfirio Zamora would be decorated with the second highest combat decoration “La Condecoracion de Segunda  Clase” for his bravery and patriotism in the battle. After Benito Juarez died the next candidate for the presidency Porfirio Diaz, would ride all the way to Alice Texas to seek the endorsement of Porfirio Zamora.

 
And now you know the rest of the story.
 
Dan Arellano Author/Historian
President Battle of Medina Historical Society
Our Mission: To Protect, Promote and Preserve Tejano History  
danarellano47@att.net 

 



Dear Readers,
 
The response from our readers (about El Cinco de Mayo) has been astounding!  I am honored and humbled that so many of you throughout the U.S. want to get involved with celebrating El Cinco de Mayo.  I forgot to mention to those of you who might need such, that I also have sample legislative resolution "Whereas's" for you to take to your government leaders to ask them for a resolution in you local city, county, and/or state.  Just let me know if you need that information, ok?
 
Meanwhile, please enjoy attached El Cinco de Mayo paper (in PDF format) sent in by Dr. David E. Hayes-Bautista and Cynthia L. Chamberlain.  Please see e-mail below--the authors' paper underscores what I said earlier to you that El Cinco de Mayo is indeed "An American Tradition" just as much as it is also a Mexican tradition.  Enjoy.
 
Margarito J. Garcia III, Ph.D.
Su Hermano Chicano
(517)894-2881

From: dhayesb@ucla.edu
To: aicragjm1205@aol.com
Sent: 4/28/2015 2:31:52 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time
Subj: Re: El Cinco de Mayo Preparations
 
Dear Margarito,
 
I published a paper in California History that provides the data for the origins of the El Cinco de Mayo in the Latino communities of the American West during the American Civil War.  If you would like more detailed information, I published a book "El Cinco de Mayo: An American Tradition:" (University of California Press, 2012) that gives complete source materials.  I hope this clarifies some of the mystery, please feel free to share with your complete list serve.
 
I have enjoyed your posts, this is the first time I can offer something in return.
 
David E. Hayes-Bautista
Distinguished Professor of Medicine
Director, Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture
David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA



April 4th, 1689 -- Spanish explorer names the Nueces

April 4th, 1689 -- Spanish explorer names the Nueces
On this day in 1689, Spanish explorer and governor Alonso De León, marching from Coahuila in response to news of a French settlement in Texas, crossed a river in what is now Dimmit or Zavala County which he named Río de las Nueces ("River of Nuts") for the pecan trees growing along its banks. The Nueces River, although not explored in its entirety until the eighteenth century, was the first Texas river to be given a prominent place on European maps. It is identifiable as the Río Escondido ("Hidden River"), which first appeared on a 1527 map attributed to Diogo Ribeiro, signifying the obscure location of the river mouth behind its barrier island. It was to this river that René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle--confused by the period's inadequate maps--sailed in 1685, believing that it was the Mississippi. De León discovered the remains of La Salle's Fort St. Louis on Garcitas Creek eighteen days after crossing the Nueces.

Texas State Historical Association  Day by Day



April 13th, 1888 -- Millionaire Robert Mills Dies


April 13th, 1888 -- Millionaire Robert Mills, erstwhile "duke of Brazoria," dies
On this day in 1888, Robert Mills, early Texas merchant and the largest slaveholder in antebellum Texas, died at Galveston. In Brazoria, the Kentucky native began engaging in the Mexican trade in 1830. Bars of Mexican silver were stacked like cordwood in the Mills brothers' counting room, and Mills became known as the "duke of Brazoria." In 1839 he built the first cotton compress in Texas. He became a shipping magnate in the 1850s. By 1860 the Mills brothers cultivated approximately 3,300 acres on their four Brazoria County plantations. Mills was reputed to have been worth between $3 and $5 million before the Civil War. He freed about 800 slaves in 1865. His firm lost heavily when customers were unable to pay their debts, and suffered additional postwar losses when the cotton market collapsed. He declared bankruptcy in 1873 and was dependent on relatives in his final years.

Texas State Historical Association   Day by Day





Editor Mimi:  Just a sample of what I found with a search on Spanish History.  Since it was the National Humanities web site, I expected the materials would be factual, but I noted the unscholarly use of very broad generalizations.    For example: in the 4th item below, the description reads . . "At every point the Spanish attacked Indian villages."  There are too many accounts of Spanish/Indigenous peaceably co-mingling for that statement to be included. Sadly, there seems to be an anti-Spanish bias among government sanctioned groups, of which we need to be aware.  Note the print they use, (Spanish hanging Indians) in the first selection below, and label the material for primary use.  

Indian accounts of the Spanish conquest in Mexico, 1500s (PDF) .... and resources for teachers and students from Nancy Fitch, Dept. of History, California State ...
nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/amerbegin/contact/.../text7read.htm
LabeledPrimary ...

 


Isabella was the "first of the Indies," declares Antonio de Herrera, the seventeenth -century historian who compiled this history of early New Spain from state ...
nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/amerbegin/.../settlement.htm
LabeledPrimary ...

In this fifth and last section of the Toolbox, we consider the fuel driving this two- hundred-year history of Europe in North America: power. Getting it, keeping it, ...
nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/amerbegin/power/.../text1read.htm
LabeledPrimary ...

At every point the Spanish attacked Indian villages. The Historyof New Mexico is a political device as well as a literary account, ...
nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/amerbegin/.../text1/text1read.htm

File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat
learned from the Indians of the Spanish presence in the region ... (4) Cuberta letter in Charles Wilson Hackett, ed., Historical Documents relating to New Mexico, ...
nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/.../SpanishFrenchRivalry.pdf
LabeledPrimary ...

Spanish: Letters from New Spain (Mexico), 1558-1589. -, English: ... [Richard Ligon, A True & Exact History of the Island of Barbadoes, 1657]; MARYLAND.
nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/amerbegin/.../permanence.htm
LabeledPrimary ...

When one views North American history as "proto-United States" history, the story begins in the Spanish Caribbean with Columbus and Cortés, as it should, but ...
nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/amerbegin/power/power.htm
LabeledPrimary ...

File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat
In Eric Williams, ed., Documents of West Indian History (Port-of-Spain,. Trinidad: PNM ... no foreign ship should be spared in either the Spanish or Portuguese ...
nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/.../SpanishEnglishRivalry.pdf
LabeledPrimary ...

File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat
The history of indigenous and European relations in the Americas shows us the limits ... or the stabilization of Spanish colonization of the socially and ethnically ...
americainclass.org/wp.../WEB-Spanish-Empire-Presentation.pdf

File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat
Compiled from Spanish state papers by Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas in ... ( General History of the deeds of the 
Castilians on the Islands and Mainland of the.
nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/.../text1/ColumbusHispaniola.pdf
LabeledPrimary ...

 

 

HONORING HISPANIC LEADERSHIP
                                            Death at age:

Raul Hector Castro: AZ only Hispanic governor 1916 - April 10, 2015     98
Manual Vicente Perez: Businessman  April 14, 1934 - April 3, 2015         80
Anticeto Molina: Musician 1939 - 2015                                                    76  
Eduardo Galeano:  Uruguayan writer  Sept 3, 1940 - April 13, 2015         75
Tony Cantu, a longtime professor and administrator   1951- 2015            64     
Remembering:  Anthony Quinn  April 21, 1915- June 3, 2001                  86
Remembering:  Cesar Chavez  March 31, 1927 -  April 23, 1993   65, 11 months 

Raul Hector Castro, Arizona's only Hispanic governor and an American ambassador to three countries, died Friday, April 10th.  He was 98.  AP Paul Davenport & Jonathan J. Cooper

PHOENIX (AP) — Family spokesman James Garcia said Castro died in his sleep in San Diego, where he was in hospice care. Castro was a self-made man, the embodiment of the American dream. He overcame poverty and discrimination to graduate from college and launch a successful career in politics and diplomacy.

"America is the land of opportunity," Castro told The Associated Press in 2010. "Here, one can accomplish whatever they want to be. But you've got to work for it."

Growing up on the U.S.-Mexico border near Douglas, Arizona, Castro saw discrimination around him. He said he wondered why the Hispanics were laborers and none delivered the mail or worked in offices.

It didn't seem right that the Hispanic children had to walk miles to school every day while the white kids would wave from a passing school bus, he said.

He set out to beat the odds. When he couldn't get a job as a teacher — schools didn't hire educators of Mexican descent back then — he became a drifter for a while, working as a farm hand and boxing here and there.

He landed a job with the U.S. Consulate in the border city of Agua Prieta, Mexico. After five years, a senior official told him he was doing a great job but had no future in the foreign service — he had a Hispanic name and no Ivy League education. Castro quit and moved to Tucson.

A law school dean at the University of Arizona told Castro he wouldn't be accepted because Castro couldn't afford to quit a job teaching Spanish. Besides, the dean said, Hispanic students didn't do well in law school.

Undeterred, Castro went to the university president, who convinced the dean to give Castro an opportunity to prove himself. He excelled and went on to be elected the first Hispanic county attorney and later the first Hispanic judge in Pima County Superior Court.

"One of the finest men I ever knew," former Gov. Rose Mofford, a fellow Democrat, said of Castro during a 2010 interview with the AP.

Born in Cananea, Mexico, in 1916, some 50 miles south of Arizona, Castro grew up in Arizona and graduated from Douglas High School. He was the second-youngest in a family with 12 children — 11 boys and one girl. His father was a union leader forced out of Mexico for organizing a strike at the mine in Cananea.

His father died when Castro was 12, and his mother became a midwife to feed the family. She delivered babies for the Mexican families around Douglas in exchange for flower, corn, beans and other staples.

Education was the best way out, Castro determined.

He went on to serve as U.S. ambassador to three Latin American countries under three U.S. presidents. Lyndon Johnson sent him to El Salvador, where Castro became known as "Yankee Castro" to differentiate him from the other Raul Castro — the brother of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.

Johnson later sent him to Bolivia, and he stayed for a short time under Richard Nixon before returning to Arizona and making the first of two bids for governor.

His statewide races were two of the closest gubernatorial elections in state history. He lost to Republican Jack Williams in 1970 by 1.5 percentage points.

He fared better four years later as the Republican Party was embroiled in the Watergate corruption scandal. Castro defeated Republican Russ Williams by less than 1 percentage point three months after Nixon resigned in controversy.

As an ambassador and judge, Castro was used to having unquestioned authority; he struggled to adjust to the checks and balances imposed on a governor, said Alfredo Gutierrez, a Democrat and legislative leader while Castro was governor.

"It was a very difficult beginning for him," Gutierrez said. "It was quite an adjustment."

Castro was governor for 2½ years before resigning when President Jimmy Carter appointed him ambassador to Argentina.

He told the AP he was proud of his work motivating Hispanics to vote, many of them for the first time despite deep nerves.

"The thing that bothered me the most when I resigned as governor, the Hispanic community felt that I had betrayed them, because they worked so hard to get me elected," he reminisced decades later. "I had to convince them and persuade them that being an American ambassador was just as important as being a governor. I had more authority."

Castro spent his waning years living in Nogales and talking to students around the state, motivating them to work hard and chase lofty dreams.

http://news.yahoo.com/raul-castro-arizonas-first-hispanic-governor-dies-98-154310413--politics.html?soc_
src=mail&soc_trk=ma
 

http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona/2015/04/10/raul-castro-dead/25573955/?from=global
&sessionKey=&autologin=
 
  <  Wonderful Legacy Award winning documentary of Governor Castro with an uplifting interview.     More:  View gallery       http://azc.cc/1yiLNTq  

More Information extracted from yahoo also by AP Paul Davenport & Jonathan J. Cooper
Sent by Eddie Calderon, and Maria  Elizabeth Embry 
https://ph.news.yahoo.com/poor-immigrant-arizonas-1st-hispanic-governor-234438905.html 

 

Castro would stare down discrimination and overcome extreme poverty on his way to becoming Arizona's only Hispanic governor and a respected American diplomat.

 . . . .  a message he'd deliver to young audiences well into his 90s.  "I like to motivate them and say, 'Look, this is the land where anyone can accomplish whatever they want to accomplish," Castro told The Associated Press in a 2010 interview.

Castro's success in politics was unlikely for a Mexican-American in the 1970s.

Arizona's Hispanic community was sizeable but not active in politics. Despite deep nerves, many voted for the first time when they cast a ballot for Castro, he said.

"From then on they became more engaged, they became active participants, they became part of the state," he recalled.

Castro's races for governor were two of the closest in state history. He lost to Republican Jack Williams in 1970 by 1.5 percentage points. He fared better four years later, defeating Republican Russ Williams by less than 1 percentage point.

Castro, a Democrat, was governor for 2½ years before resigning when President Jimmy Carter appointed him ambassador to Argentina.

As an ambassador and judge, Castro was used to having unquestioned authority; he struggled to adjust to the checks and balances imposed on a governor, said Alfredo Gutierrez, a fellow Democrat and legislative leader while Castro was governor.

Survivors include his wife, Pat Castro and daughters Mary Pat James and Beth Castro.

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey said Castro "lived a full life of exemplary service to Arizona and its people." "He was an honorable public servant, a history-maker, a beloved family man and a strong friend and fighter for Arizona," Ducey said in a statement.

Information sent by Mercy Bautista Olvera and
  Sister Mary Sevilla  msevilla1256@gmail.com 






MANUEL VICENTE PEREZ 
Engineer and Businessman
April 14, 1934 - April 3, 2015

Los Angeles Times, April 11, 2015


Manuel was born in a dirt floor shack in Puente, CA back when it was an active farming town. His parents Vicente and Julia Perez (nee Larrache) were immigrants from Spain (and the Basque, Country) who met and fell in love while employed as domestic servants of a wealthy family in Los Angeles, and who married and moved to the San Gabriel Valley to pursue their shared dreams of family and prosperity- dreams that would come to fruition in the little town of Puente, a place evoking the memory of their native lands in its pastoral beauty, in its hills and valleys. In its bosom they would raise their sons to be very proud Citizens of America.

Imbued with a very strong work ethic, Manuel excelled in school and graduated with a degree in Electrical Engineering from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo back when it was a men's only institution and classes were held in Quonset huts. Having not had enough of Quonset huts, apparently, he graduated college and served in the United States Army, learning the hard way that "you've got to be flexible," and after serving two years he returned home to a good job with General Dynamics in Pomona.

He soon met the love of his life, Julie Busch, like him an alumna of Puerto High School and a graduate of USC, and through one of those beautiful quirks of fate. "Manny, as he was often known in business, was laid-off from that great job at GD during one of the cyclical downturns of the defense industry in 1965.  Now with a young wife carrying their first child, he carefully weighted the prospects of work in San Diego with the more heartfelt desire to be near his father and to join his brothers Patrick and David in the two-truck garbage hauling operation they had just started, figuring that it wouldn't be glamorous but it would be "steady work." Over the ensuing decades the brothers and their employee family built the Company into an enterprise that serves multiple communities and employs a few hundred men and women. Manuel always believed that had a duty to his employees - providing family health insurance, pension, and profit-sharing since the 1970s - long before there were any regulations or requirements to do so.

Manuel and Judie have four sons, and the couple loved to take them on trips around the western United States, driving through the small towns, and visiting the National Parks, especially the Teton area in Wyoming. Manuel also te Valley and the towns, a ng the National Parks, especially the Grand Teton area in Wyoming. Manuel also had a very deep love for the Puente Valley and the people that live there.  Com munity and family have the Grand Teton are had a very deep love for the Puente Valley an people that live there. Community and family have always been important to him, punctuating his strong belief that you should always leave things better than you found them. Storytelling was a joy of his life, and few could entertain and inform as well as he, whether it be from his vivid memories of Puente as a boy, the exploits and antics of his ' father, Vicente, the "dichos" of his mother, Julia, the lessons of politics and life, or the joys and trials of watching a family and a business grow. His laugh was infectious and was at times a merciful salve he applied after curtly checking his audience with a hard truth.

Manuel was very proud of his wife and best friend, Judie, his four boys and daughters-in-law, Vincent, Christopher (Michelle), David (Carol), and Peter (Michelle), his four grandsons and three granddaughters, as well as his brothers and sister-in-law Vincent Patrick and David (Shirley), and his four nieces. He has left a lasting legacy in what he has built, who he has loved, and especially in the example of his life. He lived and will live on as compassionate, visionary, loving, tenacious, strong, responsible, and fun. He was never afraid if what he thought he was doing was right, and he was always purposeful in finishing what he set out to do. He was a man who kept his promises.

Manuel's final hours were marked with the Grace of awakening to the Great Reality, preparing for the fragile journey Home to the beautiful Father. Manuel peacefully surrendered his spirit early Good Friday morning as Psalm 23, "The Lord is my shepherd" was being read aloud to him. Then, "while he was still a long way off, his father caught sight of him, and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him." Rest in peace, Dad.


Sent by Sister Mary Sevilla  msevilla1256@gmail.com 

Aniceto Molina

"El Tigre Sabanero” 

1939 - March 31, 2015
My long-time friend, Aniceto Molina “El Tigre Sabanero” died March 31, 2015 in San Antonio. Every time we met….. or when he was playing at one of his thousands of concerts, he would say, “Este es mi amigo (this is my friend) Placido Salazar “La Voz Del Momento” (The Voice of The Moment”). Saben porque le llamo “La Voz Del Momento”? (Do you know why I call him The Voice of The Moment?) Porque la voz solo le dura un momento (because his voice only lasts a moment), luego soltaba una carcajada (then he let loose with loud laughter). You brought happiness to many people throughout this world – now the time has come for you to rest……. Rest In Peace (Descansa en Paz) Gran Amigo.

Placido Salazar (La Voz Del Momento)  
psalazar9@satx.rr.com   
Anticeto Molina dies at age 76 
  1939 - 2015

(Photo: Aniceto Molina y Los Sabaneros De Colombia Facebook)

RIP Aniceto Molina, Renowned SA Accordionist 

Posted By Matt Stieb on Tue, Mar 31, 2015 
El Tigre Sabanero died yesterday at the age of 76 

Famed accordionist and Aniceto Molina died March 31 at the age of 76. After being hospitalized in February for respiratory problems, Molina died due to a bacterial infection in his lungs. 

Born in El Campano, Córdoba, Colombia in 1939, Molina began playing the accordion at the age of 12. He quickly took to the cumbia rhythm, mining the triplet beat for incredible squeezebox riffs. In 1973, the 34-year-old singer and instrumentalist moved to Mexico City, where he established a recording career with his band Los Sabaneros.

In 1984, Molina moved to San Antonio, setting up shop in a city quite fond of his instrument. In addition to his popularity in San Antonio, Columbia and Mexico, Molina had a particularly strong following in El Salvador.

Source: San Antonio, Current Voice 
http://www.sacurrent.com/Blogs/archives/2015/03/31/rip-aniceto-molina-renowned-sa-accordionist 

Sent by Dorinda Moreno 
pueblosenmovimientonorte@gmail.com
 



Death of Tony Cantu, Fresno City College president, shocks campus
By Hannah Furfaro
The Fresno Bee  
April 6, 2015



Fresno City College President Tony Cantu, a longtime professor and administrator who became the school’s leader in 2012, died unexpectedly over the weekend.  State Center Community College officials notified staff in an email sent early Monday morning. Cantu, 64, called in sick last week, State Center Community College spokeswoman Lucy Ruiz said. No other information about his death has been released. 

The news was a shock to those who knew him best, like Mendota City Council Member Joseph Riofrio. Cantu was raised in Mendota, the son of hardworking parents and brother to several siblings, Riofrio said. The two are 11 years apart, but Riofrio said he grew up just down the block from the Cantu family and has long been close with Cantu’s brothers and nephews.

Youngsters who grew up on the Valley’s west side in Cantu’s time “respect their families, their parents, their backgrounds,” Riofrio said. Cantu was the primary caretaker of his elderly mother at the time of his death, Riofrio said, and stayed close with several of his siblings. He’s long been the pride of the Mendota community, he said, and will truly be missed.

“We’re so proud of him,” he said. “It’s a huge loss, it’s a huge shock and it’s sad. Now we’re waiting for the next Cantu.”

The news also stunned those on campus, said Fresno City College spokeswoman Kathy Bonilla, a longtime friend of Cantu.  She said Cantu was known as “a no-nonsense kind of guy” who always had students’ best interests at heart.  “He told you exactly what he thought but he was always very student-oriented in everything that he did,” she said.

Cantu assumed the president post after serving in a string of administrative roles at Fresno City College and Reedley College. He was the dean of instruction at Reedley for two years and served as dean of humanities and vice president of instruction at Fresno City. Early in his career he worked as a professor and department chair at the college.

When Fresno City College President Cynthia Azari resigned in 2011, Cantu was tapped as interim president and later applied for the job on a permanent basis. 

“He was the kind where (he said), ‘You need me, and I’ll go,’ ” she said. “He didn’t have the ambition to be a president but the need was there and he answered the call,” Bonilla said.

Those who knew him said he was a humble man who was always active in campus life. Deborah Ikeda, president of Clovis Community College Center, first got to know him when he was a professor in Fresno City’s English department and she was dean of counseling. Back then, she said, he was a spirited member of the faculty Academic Senate.

He continued that passionate approach in all his roles, she said. As president at Fresno City, he navigated tough budget years while juggling deep-rooted challenges such as chronically low graduation rates. He also pushed for programs he believed in, like funding services for students who performed at lower rates than their peers.

“He felt he could affect change that would really help all students,” Ikeda said.

He made a big impression on those he met, said SCCCD Trustee Miguel Arias, who recently began working with Cantu on a project to support undocumented students. Cantu took Arias on a two-hour stroll of Fresno City a week ago, Arias said. The moments they spent together showed Cantu’s passion for his job and his willingness “to always keep students front and center in everything he did.”

“As we walked through the campus, at least five students ran into him,” Arias said. “Students spoke to him, he interacted with them as if it was a high school campus.”

School officials said Cheryl Sullivan, vice president for administrative services, will serve as the acting head administrator.

Cantu wasn’t married and does not have any children.   Contact Hannah Furfaro: hfurfaro@fresnobee.com, (559) 441-6412 or @HannahFurfaro on Twitter.

Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/2015/04/06/4464180_tony-cantu-fresno-city-college.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy 
Sent by LARED-L@LISTSERV.CYBERLATINA.NET




Eduardo Galeano ltk (cropped).jpg Uruguayan  Eduardo Galeano  
3 September 1940 – 13 April 2015) 
In honor of the author’s memory, Huffington Post gathered 10 quotes that will inspire you to view human history and the written word in a different light. 
Carolina Moreno
April 14, 2015
Huffington Post 

The Progressive , Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano will be best remembered for his 1971 cri de coeur “Open Veins Of Latin America,” in which he analyzed the effects of colonialism and imperialism in the region during the last 500 years. The award-winning journalist and author died Monday, April 13,  in Montevideo, El Pais reported. He was 74.

Galeano’s anti-imperialist work was published just two years before separate right-wing military dictatorships took hold of Uruguay and Chile, later followed by Argentina. “Open Veins” was banned in all three countries for over a decade , and its author was arrested and exiled from his native Uruguay.

Since then, Galeano has continued to write books with a clever look into human history, including “Children of the Days: A Calendar of Human History” and “Mirrors: Stories Of Almost Everyone.”

In honor of the author’s memory, we’ve gathered 10 quotes that will inspire you to view human history and the written word in a different light:

1. History never really says goodbye. History says, see you later." 
In a 2013 interview with the Guardian.

2. "While we can’t guess what will become of the world, we can imagine what we would like it to become. The right to dream wasn’t in the 30 rights of humans that the United Nations proclaimed at the end of 1948. But without it, without the right to dream and the waters that it gives to drink, the other rights would die of thirst.” 
Excerpt from “The Right To Dream.”

3. "In 1492 the natives discovered they were Indians, they discovered they lived in America."Excerpt from “Children Of The Days.” In a 2013 interview with the Guardian.

4."My great fear is that we are all suffering from amnesia." In a 2013 interview with the Guardian

5. "The division of labor among nations is that some specialize in winning and others in losing. Our part of the world, known today as Latin America, was precocious: it has specialized in losing ever since those remote times when Renaissance Europeans ventured across the ocean and buried their teeth in the throats of the Indian civilizations.”  Opening to “Open Veins of Latin America.”

6. “I think the purpose of the writer is to help us see. The writer is someone who can perhaps have the joy of helping others see.”  Interview with Argentina newspaper, Clarín.  
In a 2010 interview with Spanish newspaper El Pais.

7. "The walls are the printing press of the poor."   In a 2010 interview with Spanish newspaper El Pais.

8. "One writes out of a need to communicate and to commune with others, to denounce that which gives pain and to share that which gives happiness."  From “Days And Nights of Love and War."

9. “The human rainbow had been mutilated by machismo, racism, militarism and a lot of other isms, who have been terribly killing our greatness, our possible greatness, our possible beauty.” In a 2013 interview with Democracy Now. In a 2010 interview with Spanish newspaper El Pais.

10. "I believe in the diversity of the human condtition. The best thing about the world is the amount of worlds it has."
In a 2010 interview with Spanish newspaper El Pais.




Today April 21, 2015
Anthony Quinn 
would have 100 years old.

 

 
Quinn was born Antonio Rodolfo Quinn Oaxaca on April 21, 1915 in Chihuahua, Mexico during the Mexican Revolution. His father,  Francisco was born in Mexico to an Irish immigrant and a Mexican mother. Francisco rode with Pancho Villa and later moved to the East Los Angeles neighborhood of City Terrace.
 
In 1982, Belvedere Library was renamed the Anthony Quinn Library and I was invited to the dedication. Quinn was a tall/large person with the biggest hands I had ever seen. I had a chance to speak to him and he was quite humble with  very good memories of the community. 
 
"I have lived in a flurry of images, but I will go out in a freeze frame."
 

Anthony Quinn library holds trove of Latino film history
 
A mural at the Quinn Library 

~ Howard Shorr   
 howardshorr@msn.com 




Remembering Cesar Chavez

By CARLOS MUNOZ JR. 
cmjr@berkeley.edu

March 31, 2015 

 

Today is Cesar Chavez's birthday, and we should commemorate it by renewing our commitment to the workers who continue to labor in the factories of the fields. 

Chavez, who became one of the world's best-known labor organizers and spokesmen for the poor, came from humble beginnings. He was born Cesar Estrada Chavez in 1927 in an adobe house in Arizona to poor Mexican-American parents. 

At age 10, Chavez and his family moved to California to look for migrant work after the family lost the farm. By the eighth grade, Chavez had to stop his schooling to work in the fields full time. 

Before the emergence of Chavez and the farm workers union in the 1960s, not a single Mexican-American leader had achieved national recognition. 

In fact, Mexicans and other Latinos seemed not to exist in the nation's mind. We were the "invisible minority." 

I remember feeling proud when his portrait appeared on the front page of Time magazine's 1969 Fourth of July issue. The caption read "The Grapes of Wrath, 1969 - Mexican-Americans on the march."  I wrote to congratulate him but in his reply thanking me, he said the men and women on the picket lines deserved to be on Time’s front page and not him.  

Now, decades later, a Cesar Chavez holiday is celebrated in California. (It is an optional holiday in Texas and a day of recognition in Arizona.) 

My first contact with Chavez occurred when I was president of the United Mexican American Students at California State University in Los Angeles in 1968. We had organized a non-violent protest against segregation and racism in the barrio high schools of East Los Angeles. 

Chavez was busy dealing with his union's historic Delano grape strike, but he took time out to defend us and send us a telegram expressing solidarity for our cause. 

Chavez, like the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., was a deeply religious man who also advocated non-violence. He incorporated the tactics and strategies of the civil rights movement led by King. Chavez once said that the "truest act . . . of courage is to sacrifice ourselves for others in a totally non-violent struggle for justice." 

The work for farm workers' rights continues today. The health, safety and well-being of many farm workers and immigrant workers are once again under attack by the corporate interests that Chavez fought. 

While many of the workers may have won the same rights other American workers were granted by the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 - such as the freedom to form a union and the power of collective bargaining - many continue to be exposed to pesticides and other unhealthy working conditions as they toil to bring food to our table.

It is important for us to reflect and remember what Chavez stood for as he himself stated it. 

"We do not belittle or underestimate our adversaries, for they are the rich and powerful and possess the land. We know that our cause is just, that history is a story of social revolution and that the poor shall inherit the land." 

Chavez was a labor leader who shunned the spotlight and remained dedicated to the rank and file of his union until his death in 1993. 

He continues to be a hero to all Americans. 

Carlos Munoz Jr. is professor emeritus at the department of ethnic studies at the University of California-Berkeley.

 

Cesar Chavez to receive Navy funeral honors
Labor rights leader will be honored at his California memorial for his Navy service on 22nd anniversary of his death

April 23, 2015

Civil rights and labor leader Cesar Chavez is going to be honored for a different kind of service.  On Thursday, the 22nd anniversary of his death, Chavez will get full graveside honors from the U.S. Navy at his memorial in California.

The idea for the ceremony came from a current Navy sailor who learned Chavez did not receive the honors at the time of his death, according to the Cesar Chavez Foundation.
The foundation is hosting the ceremony, along with the National Park Service, which operates Chavez's memorial.

Current sailors, veterans and Chavez relatives are expected to attend the formal ceremony that will include a Navy bugler playing "Taps," a rifle salute and a folding of a U.S. flag that will be presented to Chavez's widow, Helen.

The ceremony won't be the first time the Navy has honored Chavez. In 2012 it launched a cargo ship it named the USNS Cesar Chavez.

Organizers say Thursday's honors are an opportunity to show the public that Chavez, not known for his time in the military, served in the Navy just after World War II, and it helped him become the fighter and organizer he would later be known for.

"Cesar endured discrimination in the Navy and at home during the '40s," the foundation said in a statement. "Cesar belonged to a generation of Latinos and other people of color who returned home from the service after World War II determined to see that the country for which they sacrificed fulfilled its promise of equality and freedom. That motivated him to work for civil and labor rights starting in the early '50s."

The Associated Press
Sent by Harry Gamboa, Jr.
http://harrygamboajr.wordpress.com
 

EDUCATION

Major Hector P. Garcia, M.D. Charter High School by Rita D. Hernandez, Ph.D.
Legacy of Dr. Hector P. Garcia Extends Nationally by
Rita D. Hernandez, Ph.D.
UCLA to require diversity course
Students weave quilt honoring Hispanic soldiers who earned the Medal of Honor
CAPS, Creating a Path to Success
Urban farm helps urban school get its fresh on by - Hannah Madans
The World War I Diary of José de la Luz Sáenz



Major Hector P. Garcia, M.D. Charter High School 


“Uno-Garcia” is how students affectionately call this school, while its official name is Major Hector P. Garcia, M.D. High School located on Veterans Memorial campus on 47th and Kildare in Chicago, IL. 

This is the first high school in the country named for the well-deserving civil rights leader who fought for social justice and the rights of all people. At this time, it was his people, Mexican Americans.

The four students and three teachers I interviewed were all from the early years of the founding of the school. All student interviewees were in the first graduating class of 2012, including the valedictorian, and all pursued higher education as was in the vision of the high school. At least one of the four was an undocumented student, who referred to himself as a “Dreamer”. This is, of course, referring to his hope of completing college and becoming a productive, integrated citizen of the only country he really knows, USA. His progress is at a slower pace since he has to work harder by having a full-time job and going to a community college full-time. Nevertheless, the training and education all students received have motivated them to complete university studies, some going on for advanced degrees. All say they are life-long learners, also a part of the mission statement of the UNO-Garcia HS. All students and teachers gave credit to the principal at the time, Josephine Gomez, who has since moved on within the UNO charter school structure, and was unavailable for comment.

The students felt that there was tremendous rigor and discipline, sometimes to the point of excess. They also felt that because of the size of the student body, with a freshman class of 143 (pictured in the yearbook), a great camaraderie developed among all the students. I counted one Black student; all others were Latina/o students. By senior year 107 Latino students were pictured in the student annual. The familial feeling amongst students, teachers and parents established trust, and the school became a sanctuary in the neighborhood. One student stated that they spent nine hours daily at school. Another student said, “During the first two years there was a greater number of Latino teachers than by the time I graduated. I feel that had a negative effect on us.” Students had the support of family, who attended one or two workshops for parents, called “Escuela para Padres” during the school year “to help them understand how to support their children’s learning.” Students also felt the expectations were high, encouraged, motivated, and inspired by their teachers and principal. In order to become a student at the charter high school, parents and students were interviewed. Once accepted, students had to wear uniforms and work hard, which was the hope of the parents as well as the dedicated teachers, who spent more than nine hours a day at school, including weekends. Often times, students went on field trips or participated in after-school club activities. Frequent exploratory trips to various colleges were taken.


Curiously, the foreign language offered for a four-year study was Chinese, with a culminating activity of a trip to China during their senior year. Students had to pay their own way. Of the four students interviewed, only one of them went on the China trip. The students all stated that the two-year Spanish language program was inadequate. They stated unequivocally: “there was not much focus on improving our Spanish or Latino identity.” Another student stated: “I felt the school did not fully take advantage of the cultural relevance of its student body,” further adding, “ rarely focused on the premise of us being Latino and what would be particularly challenging . . . nor why it is difficult for us to make it in higher education.” The valedictorian, a current Northwestern University student, maintains: “As people of color, specifically Mexican females at this institution, we face challenges on a daily basis. It is difficult to feel represented and welcomed in an environment that is plagued by privilege and pretentious entitlement when you come from a place of disadvantage and struggle.“ All I can say to this young lady is times have not changed in that respect since I was an undergraduate college student. This young lady expresses it best: “during my time at UNO I do not recall learning at all about Garcia or the contributions he made for Mexicans in the U.S., which truly saddens me.”


©Rita D. Hernandez, Ph.D,
11 April 2015
hernandez.rita@sbcglobal.net






The Legacy of Dr. Hector P. Garcia Extends Nationally

 

Dr. Ernesto Galarza, an immigrant to the US where he was educated, author of the book Barrio Boy (1971) and nominated for Nobel Prize in Literature, stated in his introduction: “Psychologists, social anthropologists, etc. have spread the rumor that Mexican immigrants and their offspring have lost their ‘self-image.’”   

Already having read Barrio Boy in the early 70s, I noted the similarities in the life of Dr. Hector P. Garcia, also a Mexican immigrant and educated here in Texas. I first began exploring who Dr. Garcia was through a book dedication by a native of Corpus Christi, Dr. Guadalupe San Miguel, Jr., history professor at the University of Houston and my mentor in a doctoral program at Loyola University Chicago in 1993. However, my education began much earlier framed by my childhood through my parents, particularly my father. He was the same generation of Dr. Garcia and had he lived in Corpus Christi, I am sure he would have worked enthusiastically with Dr. Garcia in his civil rights efforts. You see, I am a post-WWII baby, i.e. Baby Boomer. That gives me a living historical perspective of several generations and insights into the conservative 50s era, the civil upheaval of the 60s, up to the millenials.  

As a new teacher in the Chicago Public Schools I could see how disparagingly Mexican Americans were portrayed in textbooks, e.g. the stereotypical Mexican lazily leaning against a cactus. Raised quite differently by my proud parents, an Anglo mom and Mexican father, whose mantra was always “do your best,” whenever discrimination occurred in school, I would be perplexed with certain behaviors of others. Consoled by my father’s words, I would just brush off the negative remarks, and go about my business of doing my best.  

As a relatively new resident of Corpus Christi, everyone always asks: why did you move here? I usually give them the standard answer: water and weather. The longer explanation is I was drawn to this area because of Dr. Garcia, his legacy, and his archives.  I spent one spring vacation here to research Dr. Garcia for my first publication in Latino History and Culture: an Encyclopedia.  

As the educational historian from our museum, I worked with my partner to get a high school named for Dr. Garcia. We tried four times, four years, four different schools. You may ask: why bother? Well, in Texas and other parts of the Southwest, it is the norm to see some Hispanic/Latino/Mexican American leaders. Since the formative years of our country, Mexican Americans in the Southwest have had leadership roles, such as mayor. Chicago did not have that luxury, having its first Mexican American mayoral candidate in 2011. In 2002, I was the only Mexican American woman with a PhD working in the Chicago Public Schools and possibly, the first. I say that is disgraceful! At the time, Chicago, with its immigrant population, had the second largest growing Mexican American population in the country after Los Angeles, bigger than either Houston or San Antonio. Why weren’t there more? I was raised in Chicago where we did not have figures, historical or otherwise, who serve as heroes and leaders.  Realizing that the Chicago Mexican population boom began occurring in the late 60s, it is only then when bilingual programs were initiated under duress in the public schools of Chicago, officially in 1970, as stated in my book: The Silent Minority: Mexican Americans in CPS, 1970-2001.  As an educator, I can state unequivocally that leaders need to be visible for the good of all: E pluribus unum. This comes from decades of experience as an educator, administrator, and educational historian.  

Getting the UNO (United Neighborhood Organization) high school named for Major Hector P. Garcia, MD on the Veterans Memorial School Campus and dedicated on June 3, 2009 in a minority community area was an extraordinary feat that my Museum partner, LTC William Luna (US Army ret.), and I accomplished with the support of the Dr. Hector P. Garcia AMVETS Post #326. March 26, 1948 commemorates the founding of the American GI Forum by Dr. Garcia in Corpus Christi. This is the first high school in the country named for Dr. Garcia and is located in Chicago, IL, thus extending the reach and visibility of the legacy of Dr. Hector P. Garcia, an immigrant, who excelled and gave back to his community both as a physician and civil rights leader.  

© Rita D. Hernandez, PhD.

     26 December 2014

 




UCLA to require diversity course


Freshman students enrolling at the University of California Los Angeles can expect to be thrust into another mandatory course alongside science, math, and English prerequisites. Now, as per a Faculty Staff vote, they will be forced to take a class on ethnic, cultural, religious or gender diversity.

UCLA Chancellor Gene Block couldn’t be happier with the vote, which went 916 to 487 in favor of the mandate. “A diversity-focused course has been a long-standing priority for me because of it’s clear value to our students,” Block said.

Others in the UCLA faculty aren’t so convinced of that value. Political science professor Thomas Schwartz said the mandated course was insulting. “The idea that 21st century American 18-year-olds who have been admitted to UCLA are so afflicted with bigotry that they must be forced to endure an attitude-altering course is preposterous.”

Dean of Physical Sciences Joseph Rudnick disagreed. “Just as a proper introduction to the nature of the scientific enterprise is an irreplaceable component of a complete education, an exposure to rigorous scholarship on diversity is essential preparation for life in the world that awaits our graduates.”

Sigh. The search for answers in need of a question continues.

Perhaps an enterprising bookie can open a line on how these courses will look. What’s the over/under on how many times the word “privilege” will appear in the curriculum? How much of the course will concentrate on teaching black students about the nuances of white culture? How many pages of the religious diversity course will be devoted to explaining the good Christianity has done for the world? I guess these wagers don’t work when the answers are obvious.

One nation, indivisible. Anyone remember that old chestnut? - See more at:
http://www.fixthisnation.com/conservative-breaking-news/ucla-votes-for-mandatory-diversity-course
/#sthash.cWhcOKrg.dpuf
 



Threads of History: Students weave their heritage into a quilt 
honoring Hispanic soldiers who earned the Medal of Honor.
by Elizabeth Chey, The Orange County Register
October 8, 1999

Anaheim: South Junior High eighth-grader Francisco Perez deftly maneuvers a needle through a sewing hoop, weaving the name of a man he knows little about. On a square-foot piece of blue cloth with a red cutout resembling California, Perez stitches with white thread the words "David Gonzales, California, 1945."

Perez bears no relation to Gonzales. He was born 39 years after Gonzales died in enemy fire, after digging out and saving three soldiers pinned beneath bombshell rubble during World War II. But Perez feels an inexplicable connection to this American hero.

"He was one Latino who gave his life bravely and valiantly to this country," says Perez. "It makes me proud to be here, in a country where we respect those who fought for freedom." As part of Hispanic Heritage Month, Perez's teacher, Linda Aguirre, wanted to give her
class of newly immigrated Mexican and Central American students a glance at history that isn't often found in textbooks: the contributions of Hispanic soldiers from the Civil War through Vietnam.

And she wanted them to learn through a form of commemoration that dates to the time of Betsy Ross, when quilting and flag sewing fueled an American tradition.

Each student is sewing a patch in a quilt that will bear the names of the 38 Hispanic soldiers awarded the Medal of Honor, each soldier's place of birth and the year he was awarded the medal. The quilt will be showcased in a tribute to Mexican-American veterans at Santa Ana College next month.

"Every year Hispanic Heritage Month comes along, we celebrate by bringing in Ballet Folklorico dancers and make Mexican food, but a more valuable lesson is to show the contributions Latinos made to building and protecting this country," said Aguirre, who teaches English to recent arrivals and is the daughter of a World War II veteran.

For Aguirre's students, each square represents a lesson on how Hispanics — the largest minority group bestowed with the Medal of Honor in proportion to their population — contributed to their new home. It is their way of weaving their heritage into the fabric of America's international patchwork.

"These kids learn new English words like pin, fabric, hero, medal. They learn history and geography," Aguirre said. "They learn patriotism and love for country."

While sewing the patches, students spend a few minutes a day searching computer databases for more information about their chosen soldier. They sift through a volume of "America's Medal of Honor Recipients," in hopes of writing a basic report to complete the quilt project. "We're doing something important," said 13-year-old Carlos Rivera, who says "Students need to " know what Latinos have done."



 

2015 CAPS Scholarship Program Applications Now Available!

The CAPS program celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2014, and from its inception continues to empower Hispanic college students to become the next generation of successful Hispanic civic and business leaders through training, network-building, and ongoing engagement with leaders in business development. The CAPS program provides full scholarships for a select group of college and university students from schools throughout California to participate in the CAPS program.

The 2015 CAPS program will be at the CAHCC Annual Convention in Sacramento, CA August 19-22. Curriculum highlights include professional etiquette, interview skills, self and group awareness, Gallup Strengths Finder, and more.

Student Applicants: Click here and scroll down to "How to Apply" to learn more about the CAPS program, download the student application, and view curriculum highlights.

CAPS Alumni Student Advisor Applicants:
Are you a CAPS alumnus and would like to help advise the new class during the CAPS 2015 program? Click here and scroll down to "How to Apply" to view the Student Advisor application.

Facilitator Applicants:
We are seeking a CAPS Facilitator to guide the programming August 19-22. This leadership role includes supervising the student activity for the duration of the program, providing structured activities to encourage peer to peer relationships and professional development, and assisting CAHCC staff with program needs during the above dates. Click here and scroll down to "How to Apply" to view the Facilitator application. 

All applications are due June 15, 2015.  Please contact Aja Uranga-Foster, Program Manager, with questions regarding the CAPS program: aja@cahcc.com or (916) 444-2221 x 12

Testimonials from CAPS Class of 2014 Students:

"The CAPS program has truly been a life changing experience. I was challenged and pushed to learn how to give an elevator speech, how to network, follow up, make connections, proper etiquette, how to present myself...My collaboration with others has improved tremendously with the skills and tools developed in the CAPS program"
-Raquel Cortez

"I feel much more confident in myself that whatever decisions I make they are going to lead me down the right path as long as I follow my heart/passions. The support that we saw at the convention was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. I saw this giant community of 500+ people come together, connect with on one another and inspire our CAPS group to be the best people that we can be. It was through this and their support, that I realized that I can be and so whatever I set my mind to. And not just for myself but for the communities that need leaders, like the leaders at the convention and the leaders that made up this year's CAPS students, to bring our communities up"
-Annalisa Duenas

"I am grateful for the experience and for having met the other CAPS students and created a lasting friendship with them. I am thankful for the hard work put forth by everyone involved to help make this a successful program. I will forever remember the experience and all that I have learned from these four days."
-Vincent Sanchez



 



Urban farm helps urban school get its fresh on
by  - Hannah Madans
October 8, 2014

 

Next to students chatting in. the quad at Bell Gardens High sits something you don't often see at school: a vertical garden overflowing with vegetables.

Five towers with six layers of pots in each are part of the school's hydroponic farm, a soilless system created by Laguna Beach-based Alegrfa Fresh.

The urban farm company has helped the high school build and expand its minifarm, the only one of its kind on a high school campus in Southern California. This week, the school added a GardenSoxx system, which differs from a hydroponic vertical farm in that it is flat and built over man-made surfaces such as- concrete.

Students this spring visited Alegrfa's farm in Ivine's Great Park, where they learned about healthful eating habits and jobs in urban agriculture. Inspired by their visit, the students created their own vertical farm and had a salsa-making competition with vegetables grown at school.

Erik Cutter, managing director at Alegria Fresh, said he was excited to help expand the high school's farm."If you really want to make a difference in the urban environment, you need to bring farms~into the city," Cutter said. Bell Gardens High is located a few miles from Angeles.

Although the school paid for the materials, Cutter donated the labor and design of the farm system. He also helped train the 30 kids who now care for the garden. '•• The plants in the vertiq

lowers use yo percent less water than other planting systems because the water used trickles down from one planter to the next. The plants in the GardenSoxx farm will use 70 percent less water and grow leafy vegetables like kale.

Hydroponic farming accounts for some 3,000 business in the U.S. and brings in an estimated $607 million in revenue annually, according to a report by IBISWorld.



The World War I Diary of José de la Luz Sáenz
Published 2914

Wednesday, June 27, 2012
J.L. SAENZ'S DIARY OF WWI MEX-AM VET TO BE PUBLISHED
By Emilio Zamora, Ph.D.
Special to El Rrun-Rrun
(El Rrun-Rrun Editor's note: After we published an article about LULAC founder Jose de la Luz Saenz in the December 2003, we received a pleasant surprise. Dr. Emilio Zamora, the University of Texas historian and Associate Professor in the Graduate School of Library and Information Science called us to touch base. Zamora is currently translating the diary Saenz wrote about his service in World War I. He expects to publish the translation though the Texas A&M University Press. The following is taken from a paper published based on the Saenz diary. We extends our gratitude to Dr. Zamora.) 

AUSTIN – In the midst of World War I, a 30-year old Mexican from Texas named José de la Luz Saenz recorded his thoughts and observations in a diary entitled "Los México-Americanos y La Gran Guerra y Su Contingente en Pro de la Democracia, la Humanidad y la Justicia: Mi Diario Particular." Luz began making entries when he enlisted in the army in February 1918; he made his final entry at his discharge, 17 months and 298 pages later. Luz’ diary is the only such personal account by a Mexican soldier in the U.S. military.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-b7ucNtoABdc/T-uHpbgyrsI/AAAAAAAAG0A/C2yvIM-mZ6Y/s320/002TitlePage.jpg

That distinction alone would make the work worthy of attention. What is even more significant, however, is the author’s appropriation of the wartime rhetoric of democracy and the sacrifice of the Mexican soldier to craft an argument of his own. Luz returned over and over in his diary (and elsewhere) to the idea that the democratic ideals sustaining the effort at the front were equally applicable at home. He explicitly conjoined the rhetoric of democracy with the call for the equal treatment of Mexicans in Texas.

Luz’ commentary was part of a general discourse on minority rights emanating from Mexican communities throughout the southwestern part of the United States. 
Luz elaborated on his reasons for joining the military when he was being transported for duty. As his train passed by the farming community of Dittlinger, he remembered that the suffering of the Mexican people in the area had moved him to act on their behalf. He would continue invoking another motif: the enemy in France and in Texas as one and the same by virtue of its ethnic background and despotic ways.

Although not as explicit here as elsewhere, Luz reminds us that he joined the army so that he could use his war experience as a justification to wage a more effective battle against injustice at home. His sacrifice against totalitarianism would demonstrate Mexican loyalty and provide the protest community a moral advantage over “the bad citizens that we often encounter.”

“As the sun was setting we passed by Dittlinger, a community where many Mexicans worked and where I taught their children for one year. For me, that farming area is another battleground. I fought battles there until I convinced county officials to pay the teacher for the schooling of our children.

"Those were the triumphs that I sought in civilian life, to open the school doors for the workers’ children. Now that I wear the uniform of a warrior I have the hope of winning other battles that will bring justice for our people, one of many groupings that make up the suffering humanity that reclaims the sacrifice of their sound-minded and free men. It was exactly here, in this farming community, where it occurred to me to pick up a rifle. I was driven by the mistreatment that our people face in these parts, where the Teutonic and German races predominate. 

"They are ungrateful, they deny us equality as a people, and they forget the thousand and one guarantees given their ancestors when they came to colonize these lands. . . And I think that those of us who have offered our services to fight the unjust and prideful Germans across the ocean could begin by making an example of the Izcariots, the bad citizens that we often encounter.”

W. E. B. Dubois, one of the most distinguished early leaders of the African American civil rights leaders, recognized this soon after the WW I. Like Luz, Dubois urged his compatriots to now fight the home front war: “We are cowards and jackasses if now that the war is over, we do not marshal every ounce of our brain and brawn to fight a sterner, longer, more unbending battle against the forces of hell in our own land.”

Military service also made it possible to serve the young in a more general way: “My country’s call took me from where I was, teaching the children of my people, and placed me where I could defend their honor, their racial pride, where I could assure them a happier future.”  His plans were to return to Texas and to point to the military contribution of Mexicans to justify a civil rights agenda. Luz thus called on Mexicans to consciously link the wartime language of democracy and the Mexican civil rights cause.  Luz also defined the Allied cause and the fight against discrimination in Texas as one war. Although the conflict was occurring in different places and involved different issues, the fighting was joined by a general concern for the rights of the dispossessed, both in France and in Texas.

Luz makes this connection especially clear in a passage where he is lamenting the unjust treatment of a soldier from Martindale, Simón Gonzalez. Gonzalez had been denied an exemption, although he was the only caregiver for his incapacitated father. The father died, presumably alone, while his son was overseas. Addressing Gonzalez in his diary, Luz promised, “The war for you and for me will not end when we finish with the Germans, unless they finish with us first. For us the worse war will remain, the one back home against the ones from Martindale that killed your father and unjustly sent you to war.”

The tragedy of the senior Gonzalez’ lonely death was not the end of the story; the son was killed in battle soon after Luz made his diary entry.  In another contemplative moment, Luz ponders the war back home as an immanent challenge: “As I see it, we will soon see our brothers in the grip of the “German” back home. This time, however, without a rifle to defend ourselves as we did against the Germans in Europe.”

The diary might never have had an audience beyond Luz’ immediate family, except that he eventually became a founder and leading spokesperson for a Mexican civil rights organization, the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC).

In 1933, with the help of financial contributions from LULAC members and supporters in South Texas, Luz published the diary along with additional materials that he had written during the war.

Luz’ work merits scholarly interrogation on several counts…most importantly because his subtext, which argues that Mexicans served honorably and earned the right to equal treatment, is more than a personal view. He shared it with other soldiers and with fellow LULAC founders, who initially adopted this assessment as part of the emerging ethnic identity and accommodationist strategy of the postwar period.

Excerpts from his newspaper articles and other writings of the 1930s and 1940s suggest that, despite Luz’ high-level involvement in LULAC, he continued to reject the flag-waving brand of patriotism and the narrow definition of loyalty that historians usually attribute to this organization of upwardly mobile Mexican Americans.

A close reading of Luz’ work thus helps us see that identity is not a single, static construct but an evolving constellation of attributes and ideas that often either overlap or contradict one another. Notions such as the Mexican homeland, US citizenship, inequality, and an imagined community back home may coexist neatly as abstractions. In real-life, however, they may prove much less mutually agreeable partners.

The small print run of his book and the general practice of excluding the Mexican voice from recorded Texas and U.S. history effectively restricted Los México-Americanos y La Gran Guerra to the Spanish-speaking readers of his own generation and region.

Luz was born in May 17, 1888, in the South Texas rural community of Realitos. His family migrated from central Mexico to the border area in the late 1860s. Luz’ widowed grandmother brought the family into Texas during the early 1870s. Luz’ father, Rosalío, did ranch work in shepherding in the Hebbronville area. Around 1880 a San Antonio family that Luz affectionately described as having “gachupín,” or Spanish, features passed through the area. They stopped long enough to earn enough money to continue on their trip to Mexico. They left, however, without one of their daughters, Cristina Hernandez, who stayed to marry Rosalío.

Luz spoke fondly of his parents. Rosalío was a hard worker, a fair-minded person, and highly responsible husband and father. Luz especially admired the caring and uncomplaining nature of his father who worked as a laborer in ranches, farms, and railroad lines throughout South Texas. Earnings were low and work often took Rosalío away from the family for months at a time. In part because of limited resources and his absence, Rosalio expected everyone in the family to always behave with the same sense of family responsibility. 

Cristina inculcated this value too. She was a highly independent and resourceful person who labored hard in her home and in her garden, often as a single parent. Luz attended the local public schools and became, in 1905, the first Mexican American male graduate of Alice’s high school.

His earliest venture into public life allowed him to embrace his indigenous identity and to launch a career as a teacher and leader in the Mexican community of South Texas. At about the same time as his graduation, Luz and a small group of friends established a literary club and organized a formal celebration commemorating the birth and life of Benito Juarez, a member of an indigenous community who became one of Mexico’s major historical figures. 

Local papers gave wide publicity to the Juarez festivities and acknowledged Luz’ role as the president of the literary club and one of the program’s major orators. A group of parents in the adjoining working class community expressed deep admiration for the public leadership role that Luz had played. Years later he wrote in his characteristically humble manner, they “received me so well and with such respect that I may not have deserved.” 

The parents proposed that he teach the children during the day and the adults in the evenings. He agreed, and this is how Luz began his career of over forty years as a teacher and a public figure concerned with issues of inequality and discrimination in the Mexican American community of Texas. Soon after the school term at Oso, Luz attended a business school in San Antonio and obtained a teaching certificate. He taught in numerous places, beginning in the area around San Antonio and ending in the Rio Grande City and McAllen region. 

He joined the Mexican Protective Association during the 1910s and served as its president in Moore. He married María Petra Esparza, a descendant of Gregorio Esparza of Texas revolutionary fame, and they eventually had nine children. Although Luz may have been able to obtain a deferment from military service because of his occupation and his young family, he volunteered for military service in 1918.

When he joined the military, Luz was the parent of three young children. He had eight years’ experience as a teacher in predominantly Mexican schools and sophisticated language skills in English and Spanish. Luz was posted to the Intelligence Section of the 36th Infantry Regiment of the 90th Division, which allowed him the opportunity to use his translation skills primarily in English and Spanish, but also French, which he learned once he landed in that country.
After his discharge, he led an effort to build a monument in San Antonio to commemorate the contributions of the Mexican soldier. 

The group, however, diverted the enlisted funds to support the famous desegregation fight against the Del Rio Independent School District, which became known as the Salvatierra case of 1930. A local court favored the plaintiffs, however, a state court reversed the ruling and decided that the school district was not segregating children on the basis of race. In his private moments Luz must have seen this early legal challenge against school segregation as a symbolic tribute to Mexican American veterans of WWI.

In 1924, Luz, Alonso Perales from San Antonio, and José T. Canales from Brownsville attempted to form a statewide organization that could effectively address discrimination and inequality. He joined Perales in a speaking tour in the Rio Grande Valley with this in mind. 

During the first failed attempt in 1927 to form this organization in Harlingen, Luz served as the Secretary of the convention. 

During the first failed attempt in 1927 to form this organization in Harlingen, Luz served as the Secretary of the convention. 

Two years later, Luz delivered a key address during the Corpus Christi Convention that was to successfully unite various organizations as LULAC. According to his family, Luz wrote the first constitution of what was to become the leading Mexican American civil rights organization.
He remained one of LULAC’s most active members as evidenced by his membership on the organization’s Board of Trustees between 1930 and 1932. He also served as the president of the McAllen chapter in the 1930s, and throughout the 1930s and 1940s Luz promoted and expanded the views of LULAC with numerous articles in English and Spanish-language papers.  Luz retired from teaching soon after WW II. 

He did not remain inactive, however. Luz wrote two manuscripts; an autobiography that focused on his childhood and a philosophical treatise on life here and in the hereafter. He also accompanied his youngest son at Sul Ross University and used the opportunity to complete his B.A. studies. Luz continued using his pen to comment on issues affecting the Mexican community. In 1947, parents and community leaders from Alice successfully petitioned the naming of an elementary school after Luz. 

He received this recognition for his long years of service to the teaching profession as well as for his tireless work on behalf of the Mexican community through LULAC, the American G. I. Forum, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the American Legion, the Texas Council on Human Relations, and the American Council of Spanish Speaking Persons.

Posted by jmon at 5:53 PM 
http://rrunrrun.blogspot.com/2012/06/jl-saenzs-diary-of-www-i-vets-to-be.html 

Recommended by Dr. Albert Vela and Tom Saenz 

 

CULTURE

The Mexican Cure-All  
Mexico’s Tarahumara Tribe is Getting the Video Game Treatment  
Zarco Guerrero Chicano Sculptor, Mask Maker & Performance Artist 
Birthday Traditions: History of the Quinceanera
El Majahual Restaurant in San Francisco


It is always a surprise to have a memory push itself forward into a conscious recognition.  That happened to me recently.  I was walking two of my great-grandsons, the two year old stumbled and scratched his knee slightly. 

Not even remembering saying it to my own children,  I started rubbing his knee and heard myself say sana sana . . .  colita de  . . .  but I could not recall the rest of the saying.

The subject on this email from Walter Herbeck was the Mexican cure-all, and there it was the ending of the jingle.   walterhole@gmail.com 

 



Mexico’s Tarahumara Tribe is Getting the Video Game Treatment  
Written by Danilo Aguilar April 6, 2015 

Nowadays, the gaming industry can feel a little diluted, with limited options for the types of game genres available. Shooters and FIFA are what dominate home consoles, and like anything in life, too much of the same makes you go looking for that side piece. And so I did, on the internets. Which is how I discovered the Kickstarter page for an intriguing new game out of Mexico called Mulaka.

Normally, video games seeking crowdfunding are too 8-bit retro for my taste. But there’s something special about Mulaka. The game aims to bring the ancient, mythical lore of Mexico’s Rarámuri people – also known as the Tarahumara – into the digital world, through an immersive, 3D combat and puzzle environment set in the Sierra Tarahumara. 

The Tarahumara have long been famous for their legendary endurance – running long-distances barefoot for hours or even days. 

But even as outsiders have marveled at their running abilities, the Tarahumara live largely in isolated communities, where they remain largely ignored, and suffer endemic poverty and hunger. This has been the case for nearly a century.

Lienzo Studios, a small but visionary team of developers based in Chihuahua, the Tarahumara’s home state), want to change this. 


Rusiwari render

“We believe games are a potential tool to change society for good,” they state on their Kickstarter page. “Through Mulaka, we intend to generate awareness, communion and respect for the Rarámuri culture.”

The gameplay follows a formula very similar to Nintendo’s Zelda series; exploring, puzzle solving and toe-to-toe battles against larger-than-life bosses.What makes this 3D, open-world quest unique is its promise to not sway from its source material. Players become a Tarahumara shaman named Mulaka, who must face the tribe’s deities and mythological creatures, both good and evil, as he develops his spiritual power. The artists at Lienzo pledge to replicate the mountain ranges, rivers, cascades and caverns of the Sierra Tarahumara region, and have developed the game entirely in the Tarahumara’s native language. It hopes to be an interactive Wikipedia of all things Rarámuri and pack in tons on mythology in just five hours of gameplay.

It seems short on time, but if Lienzo delivers on their magical vision, it could be a very rewarding experience that educates a new generation of geeks about the mythos of a resilient community they may have never imagined. Lienzo is looking for supporters. 
Your support may not only bring the game to life, but also allow for the developers to give back – they have pledged to donate a portion of proceeds to modern day Rarámuri communities. Kickstarter information: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/
lienzo/mulaka-origin-tribes
 
Sent by Mercy Bautista Olvera     scarlett_mbo@yahoo.com 




Zarco Guerrero Chicano Sculptor, 
MaskMaker & Performance Artist Displaying Art Thru May 8 at Francesca’s Art Gallery
 
4745 N Central Avenue, Phoenix, AZ, 


(Above) Zarco Guerrero. El Profeta is the name of this mask. Currently in exhibition at Francesca’s Art Gallery.   Contact@ZarkMask.com 
551 N Alma School Rd.; Mesa, AZ 85201 
Phone: 480-834-5731 – FAX: 480-834-5750
Click Francesca’s Art Gallery to learn more about the effort. https://www.facebook.com/pages/
Francescas-Art-Gallery/871418599563797


Zarco Guerrero, Chicano Sculptor, maskmaker and performance artist has dedicated his artistic endeavors to create positive social change through the arts. He adopted Cesar Chavez ideology of art as a social service. His art includes music, poetry and theater. He is the founder of Xicanindio Artes (now Xico, Inc.), the Cultural Coalition, Inc, and has been instrumental in the development of Latino Arts statewide. He has exhibited and received international acclaim and many prestigious awards. In 1985 PBS broadcast a one hour documentary about his art entitled “The Mask of El Zarco”. He received the Japan Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, The Arizona Governors Arts Award, the Artistic Excellence Award from American Hispanics in Higher Education and the Esperanza Teacher of the Year Award among many others. 

Source: Apr.09, 2015 Chicano radio Network, U.S.A. blog
Sent by Mercy Bautista Olvera scarlett_mbo@yahoo.com 




"Birthday Traditions: History of the Quinceanera"

I wanted to send you a 'thank you' for your webpage.  http://www.somosprimos.com/heritage.htm ). I am a tutor for a group of students, and we've recently been learning about Latin American culture! I wanted to let you know that your information has been helpful!

One of my students brought in a resource that she found that was also helpful to us. It has lots of information on the Quinceanera. The article is: "Birthday Traditions: History of the Quinceanera" http://www.birthdayexpress.com/partyideas/birthday-traditions-history-quinceanera/

Would you mind including the article on your page for me? I thought that it would fit in well with your information, and Morgan would be happy to hear that she's able to share her information with others! Let me know if you get the chance to update - and thanks again for the great website!

Have a great day,
Brenda Lowe brenda@mrslowe.com 

Editor Mimi:  A great site for understanding and celebrating a traditional Quinceanera. The Aztec historic connection and Christian influences on the celebration are discussed, plus practical and helpful resources. 


  


El 
Majahual 
Restaurant

Article/photos 
 Maria C. Ascarrunz
Posted 
April 16, 2015 

 

El Majahual, on Valencia Street between 22nd and 23rd Streets, is a tiny little restaurant specializing in Colombian and Salvadorean food, and is named after a small fishing village in El Salvador. The restaurant has been in this spot for 22 years. We have lived a block-and-a-half from it for ten years, and this was our first time visiting. And though both our families hail from South America and we’ve both visited, neither of us had ever had Colombian food. We have wasted many, many years.

The restaurant is small and casual, adorned in bright colors with Salvadorean and Colombian tchotchkes. You pay at the register, but the servers, who do triple-duty as cooks and co-owners, do take table-side orders. The husband and wife team originate from El Salvador (she) and Colombia (he).


Photo by Maria Ascarrunz

The menu is divided into Salvadorean and Colombian dishes, with a little Mexican thrown in as a nod to the neighborhood, I’m sure. There are empanadas, arepas, burritos, pupusas, as well as soups, stews, grilled meats and fish. As both the BF and I have tried some Salvadorean food (mostly pupusas), we decided to stick to a strictly Colombian dinner on our first visit. The BF ordered the Sobrebarriga A La Criolla, described as “grandma’s recipe”, and consisted of flank steak stewed with cassava and potatoes, rice, salad and ripe plantain. Wanting to try something very traditional, I ordered the Bandeja Paisa, a combination plate well-known in the northwest of the country, in a region called Paisa, part of the Colombian Andes.

Sobrebarriga means, literally, “on or over the belly” – or, flank steak!  The flank steak is typically cooked in a broth in a pressure cooker until it is tender, then napped in a sauce of tomatoes, onions, celery, cumin, and annatto, a condiment derived from the achiote bush, which gives the dish flavor (almost nutmeggy, but subtly so) as well as a distinctive yellow-ish color. The meat was tender and delicious, and the yucca (cassava) had taken on the flavors as well. The BF said “This tastes like South America,” and I agreed – so very homey! The fried bananas were sweet and meltingly soft, and a great compliment to the rest of the dish. I would definitely order this dish again, despite the fact that the salad came with bottled Wishbone Italian dressing! The BF said it went perfectly with the dish. It was, after all, like eating in your mother’s kitchen.


Photo by Maria Ascarrunz
My Bandeja Paisa included rice, whole pinto beans, a fried egg, crispy pork belly with skin on, a sausage, a grilled steak, a quarter of an avocado, green plantain cakes (patacones), and an arepa.

Patacones are the same as tostones – mashed green plantains formed into patties and deep fried.  The result is a starchy patty, which I usually find bland.  But here, they had full plantain flavor, and were a nice cross between crispy and chewy.  Arepa, a fried disk made of maize flour dough – is basically a fat tortilla.  Colombia is well known for its arepas, which usually come like a sandwich with various fillings, or like a tostada, with toppings, such as cheese, avocado, egg, chorizo, etc.  In this dish, it was unadorned and used as bread to sop up the beans.

My plate was daunting, overflowing as it was with so many meats and starches, but I managed to do quite a bit of damage to it. The pork was incredibly crispy and fatty, and full of porky flavor. In fact, every component of this dish had its own, distinct flavor and texture, and so it made sense that they’d been combined together on one plate. The sausage was rather like Spanish chorizo, with lovely paprika notes, and the grilled steak had almost a meaty liver taste to it (in the best possible way), a richness, which I enjoyed thoroughly. The avocado lent its smooth butteriness to the dish, and the egg made a rich sauce over all. Another wonderful dish.

 


Photo by Maria Ascarrunz

I hadn’t noticed that they sell beer, as it’s on a lettered sign by the register and not on the menu, so I ordered a soda, “Colombiana – La Nuestra” – whose slogan, “La que tomamos en casa,” (“The one we drink at home,”), made me curious to try it. It’s a kola nut soda, also known as a “Champagne Cola”. I’m not much of a soda drinker anymore, but it was slightly sweet, a bit fruity, and creamier tasting than an orange soda. When I looked at the ingredients, however, HFCS topped the list, so I’d probably not order it again. But I could see where it could be addictive, as it was just sweet enough to be refreshing but not cloying. Beer next time! There is also a handwritten sign listing their desserts, but we were too full.

I saw quite a few patrons ordering food to go and picking it up, always the mark of a local hometown favorite. We paid $43.00 before tip, which may not be considered cheap for this type of rustic food, but considering the quality (and quantity), we left feeling very satisfied and that we’d gotten our money’s worth.

Our second visit (we could hardly wait to go back), we ordered a little less food: We started out with a couple of empanadas Vallunas (named after a valley in Chile) – plump little fried empanadas that come piping hot, stuffed with a mixture of beef and potato. We were instructed to hold one in a napkin, bite off the tip, and then pour the bright green chile sauce (habanero, scallions, lime, garlic, and a lot of cilantro) into the empanada, adding sauce to each bite. The empanadas are crunchy on the outside, tender on the inside, wonderfully savory, and the sauce was addictive!


Photo by Maria Ascarrunz


                                                    Photo by Maria Ascarrunz

For his meal, the BF ordered two pupusas of queso and loroco – cheese, and loroco – the unopened buds of a flowering vine that has a rather herbaceous, pungent flavor, used often in Salvadorean and Guatamalan cooking. These were fat and came with the standard curtido – a pickled cabbage slaw – and some red hot sauce. We both agreed there were probably the best pupusas we’d ever had. It was the first time I could actually taste the loroco. The masa was tender without being doughy.


Photo by Maria Ascarrunz

I ordered the sudado de pollo (chicken stew), which turned out to be almost exactly like the Sobrebarriga dish the BF had had on our first visit, with the same, distinctive yellow coloring from the annatto. We both liked the flank steak better, but there was nothing wrong with this delicious, comforting version. Again, I ate almost everything on my plate.  Such a great neighborhood find, even after all these years. We left already planning what we’ll order the next time we go….

 


Photo by Maria Ascarrunz

1142 Valencia St   |  Btwn 22nd & 23rd St   |   (415) 821-7514   |  San Francisco, CA  94110

Sent by Dorinda Moreno   pueblosenmovimientonorte@gmail.com



BOOKS & Online PRINT MEDIA

BOOKS & Online PRINT MEDIA

DVD, ten years of Somos Primos, 1990-1999 available
Abebooks: Finding scarce books Mexican family research     
2015 NALIP Media Summit, Media Summit, June 25- 28, 2015   
María Teresa Márquez and CHICLE: The First Chicana/o Listserv Network
LATINA Style Inc. Announces Partnership with The New Agenda
More Than Just Peloteros: Sport & US Latino Communities. Edited by Jorge Iber
Somos en escrito – The Latino Literary Online Magazine
Antonia Castaneda, Su Vida y Su Obra, Her Life and Her Work
Border Contraband, History of Smuggling Across Rio Grande by George T. Diaz 



GOOD NEWS!!!

"SOMOS PRIMOS"
 DVD IS READY


Prior to  January 2000, Somos Primos was a newsletter quarterly for the Society of Hispanic Historical  & Ancestral  Research.  Those newletters have been digitized and are available on a DVD.  


YOU CAN NOW  0RDER TEN YEARS (1990-1999) OF PAST QUARTERLY ISSUES OF ''SOMOS PRIMOS" HERETOFORE ONLY AVAILABLE IN PRINT. 

ALL ISSUES ARE INCLUDED IN ONE DVD IN JPG FORMAT. INDEXES ARE AVAILABLE FOR THE FIRST FIVE YEARS (1990-1995) AND THE REMAINING COPIES EACH HAVE A TABLE OF CONTENTS.  THE DVD WITH ALL THE PAST ISSUES (1990-1999) IS AVAILABLE AT THE LOW PRICE OF $1O.OO INCLUDING TAX, PLUS $2.50 FOR SHIPPING. 

TO ORDER YOUR COPY SIMPLY SEND THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION AND MAIL WITH YOUR CHECK FOR $12.50. EXPECT YOUR DVD WITHIN TEN DAYS AFTER YOUR ORDER HAS BEEN RECEIVED.
NAME:                                                             ADDRESS:
CITY: STATE: ZTP:
NUMBER OF DVD'S DESIRED                     AMOUNT ENCLOSED:
MAKE CHECKS PAYABLE TO: SHHAR and PLEASE SEND IT TO: 
                                      SHHAR  
                                      P.O. BOX 4911
                                      ANAHEIM, CA 92803




Abebooks are a labor of love for Carlos and Nancy Yturralde
Finding scarce books valuable for family research Mexican researchers,  
now available for purchase.


Chihuahua Horizontes de su Historia y su Cultura, Tomos I & II
Álbum Fotográfico de Los Indios Apaches
Diccionario de Historia, Geografía y Biografía Chihuahuenses
El Nuevo Descubrimiento de San José del Parral
Los Bienes del Mayorazgo de los Cortes del Rey en 1729, La casa de San José del Parral y las haciendas de Rio
           Conchos, Chihuahua, Chihuahua 
Almacén de Tempestades
Minería y Sociedad en el centro minero de Santa Eulalia, Chihuahua 1709-1750
La sociedad de Zacatecas en los Albores del Régimen Colonial
Las dos almas de Pancho Villa
Diccionario de Historia, Geografía y Biografía Chihuahuenses
Querétaro en el siglo XVI 
Fuentes Documentales Primarias
La resistencia de las Californias a la Invasión norteamericana 1846-1848
Desarrollo de la Industria y La Comunidad Minera de Hidalgo del Parral durante la segunda mitad del siglo XVIII 1765-1810
Índice geo biográfico de más de 56 mil pobladores de la América hispánica 1493-1519
La Conquista de la Nueva Galicia
Composición demográfica de nombre de Dios, Durango. 
Siglo XVIITerritorios de Alternancia
Cartas de Indias
Chihuahua Almacen de Tempestades

The net proceeds from the sale of these books helps cover our non-project expenses. You may view our Annual Report on our website. If the book does not appear on Abebooks that means it has been sold. 
http://www.abebooks.com/?cm_mmc=ggl-_-US_AbeBooks_Brand-_-Top+Brand-_-
abebooks&gclid=CP-90qOoi8UCFdCTfgodREoALA
 

For more informaton, please contact 
nancyyturralde@gmail.com 




2015 National Association of Latino In Publications 
Media Summit, June 25- 28, 2015  

The 2015 NALIP Media Summit takes place Thursday, June 25, 2015 to Sunday, June 28, 2015 at the W Hollywood Hotel in Hollywood, California. CREATING TOMORROW TOGETHER celebrates the inclusion of Latinos as one within the general market and the continuous movement to the digital space. Be a part of the discussion, a part of our growing network, and a proactive member of the entertainment industry.



María Teresa Márquez and CHICLE: 
The First Chicana/o Listserv Network

These days we take e-mail and electronic lists for granted, but imagine a world where there is no e-mail or exchange of information like we have now?

That was the world for Humanities Librarian María Teresa Márquez at the University of New Mexico (UNM) Zimmerman Library and creator of CHICLE, the first Chicana/o electronic mailing list created in 1991, to focus on Latino literature and later on the social sciences. [1]

Other Chicano/Latino listservs include Roberto Vásquez’s Lared Latina of the Intermountain Southwest (Lared-L) [2] created in 1996, and Roberto Calderon’s Historia-L, created in March 2003. [3] These electronic lists were influential in expanding communication and opportunities among Chicanas/os. CHICLE, nevertheless,  deserves wider recognition as a pioneering effort whose importance has been overlooked.

Check out the rest at: http://library.osu.edu/blogs/mujerestalk/tag/lared-latina-of-the-intermountain-southwest/ 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Join LARED-L, the fastest growing Latino/Hispanic Listserv Network in the country. It's Free and Easy to join. Just fill out the simple form below, and become part of our Cyber Community:    (( La Voz del Pueblo))
http://listserv.cyberlatina.net/SCRIPTS/WA-CYBERL.EXE?SUBED1=lared-l&A=1 
Saludes, Felicidades, y  Bienvenido/a, Roberto Vásquez 




LATINA Style Voices

Starting today (March 31), LATINA Style friends and family have access to our new blog LATINA Style Voices, where the latest happenings and information pertaining to the professional Latina will be provided. Our blog will feature special categories on Health, Education, STEM, Autos, Diversity, Entrepreneurship and much more.  

This is just the beginning of LATINA Style Voices. We will bring new and exciting information to our blog including contributions from high-profile leaders and bloggers to share their thoughts on a regular basis. If you have stories of your own to share, tips, or simply words of wisdom for our Latinas, please let us know by emailing us at info@latinastyle.com . We would love to explore ideas with you. Your take on any topic or issue has the potential to make a difference in our community. 

So, whether you are looking for information, inspiration, or an expert point-of-view, visit our blog LATINA Style Voices regularly and take part in our ongoing dialogue - we are sure that it will provide added value for you, your career and your business. 

Check it out: LATINA Style Voices Blogog

LATINA Style Inc. Announces Partnership with The New Agenda


For Immediate Release
Contact: Gloria Romano-Barrera 
(703) 531-1424
gloria@latinastyle.com  

Washington, D.C., April 13, 2015 - LATINA Style Inc., the premier company addressing the needs of the Latina professional working women in the United States is proud to announce a new partnership with The New Agenda, a 501(c)(4) organization dedicated to improving the lives of women and girls by bringing about systemic change in the media, at the workplace, at school and at home. 

With programs such as the National Girlfriends Networking Day , a nationwide celebration of the power of building connections, the organization unites thousands of women around the country by attending interactive, networking events. The event includes a panel of renowned, diverse women leaders discussing how to plan a career path, and then taking questions via social media from nationwide participants. This partnership will allow both organizations to reach a broader audience and further promote National Girlfriends Networking Day around the country.

"We are pleased to add LATINA Style as a Media Sponsor for National Girlfriends Networking Day," states Amy Siskind, President, The New Agenda. "As an organization whose byline is 'a voice for all women,' The New Agenda is proud of the diversity of both our membership and the audiences at our events, year-round - including a large following by Latinas."

This new partnership with The New Agenda includes a shared news feed, cross promotion to the Latina community through social media, the website www.latinastyle.com, and more.

"We are thrilled to partner with The New Agenda," says Robert Bard, president and CEO of LATINA Style, Inc. "We look forward to strengthening and building relationships with organizations and individuals that are passionate about empowering women and girls, but that's only part of it for us - our ultimate goal is to inspire as many Latinas as possible to succeed."

About LATINA Style Inc. :  LATINA Style Inc., headquartered in Falls Church, VA., and with offices in Dallas, TX, is the publisher of LATINA Style Magazine, a lifestyle magazine for the professional Hispanic woman. The magazine has been published for 21 years and has a national circulation of 150,000 and a readership of nearly 600,000. The company is host of the LATINA Style Business Series, the LATINA Style 50 Report, the National LATINA Symposium and the LATINA Style Hero Initiative. To learn more about LATINA Style please visit www.latinastyle.com or call (703) 531-1424.

Follow LATINA Style: on Twitter @LATINAStyleMag and on Facebook LATINAStyleMagazine 

About The New Agenda : Founded in August 2008, the New Agenda's mission is to improve the lives of women and girls by bringing about systemic change in the media, at the workplace, at school and at home. For more information visit http://www.thenewagenda.net/events/ngn-day-2015/ To Register for the National Girlfriends Networking Day visit: http://www.ticketbase.com/events/ngnday2015

Follow NGN on Twitter @TheNewAgenda and on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/thenewagenda.




More Than Just Peloteros: Sport and U.S. Latino Communities. 
Edited by Jorge Iber


Just released/published by Texas Tech University Press is More Than Just Peloteros: Sport and U.S. Latino Communities. Editor, Jorge Iber. Jorge is a professor of History and Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Texas Tech University. This new anthology is an addition to the “Sport in the American West” series, published by Texas Tech University Press. More Than Just Peloteros features articles that focus on eras and events as varied as the Mexican American/Latino experience itself: horse racing in colonial San Antonio; boxing in New York City; baseball in the barrios of 1930s Chicago; high school basketball in the 1950s in Miami, Arizona, a copper mining town; and high school football in south Texas. Sports are an excellent way to entice students into the deeper understanding of American history and daily life. Our colleagues in other fields, such as Latino studies, sociology, journalism, & other areas, for example, will benefit from reading and sharing these path-breaking essays included in this new anthology, according to Iber. Contributors to this anthology are José Alamillo; Enver M. Casimir; Jesús F. de la Teja; Eduardo Garcia; Joel Huerta; Jorge Iber; Michael Innis-Jiménez; Richard Jensen; Christine Marin; William Harris Ressler; and Jason Sosa. –According to Jorge Iber, Sports history is in many ways a history of community. We root for our home teams; industrial league teams; labor unions’ teams; high school teams; professional teams and we invest much of our identities into these squads. Athletes and coaches and players always hearken back to our home towns, our communities. So, in a way, this anthology, is about you too….take a look at it….Here’s the bibliographic record for you archivists, librarians, book sellers, writers, students, readers and students of sports…….

More Than Just Peloteros: Sport and U.S. Latino Communities. Edited by Jorge Iber. (Sport in the American West series). Lubbock, Texas: Texas Tech University Press, 2014. 

ISBN 978-0-89672-907-0 (hardback).; ISBN 978-0-89672-908-7 (paperback). ..ISBN 978-0-89672-909- (E-book). ---Library of Congress. GV583.M68 2015. …

Texas Tech University Press. POB 41037. Lubbock, Texas 79409 -1037. Phone: 808/832-4042. E-mail address: ttup@ttu.edu. . website www.ttupress.org . 

Dr. Christine Marin, Professor Emeritus . 
Grant Consultant. Chicana/o Research Collection & Archives.
Department of Archives & Special Collections. 
Hayden Library. Arizona State University. 
PO Box 871006. Tempe, AZ. 85287-1006. (mail)
300 E. Orange Mall. Tempe, AZ. 85281. (delivered packages)
Christine.Marin@asu.edu 
http://www.asu.edu/lib/archives 
cid:image003.jpg@01CE2ED8.E52DCA00 
Sent by Roberto Calderon,  Roberto.Calderon@unt.edu 



Somos en escrito – The Latino Literary Online Magazine
Somos en escrito – The Latino Literary Online Magazine – has attracted again a wide-ranging and diverse collection of U.S. Latino literature these past couple months, from a short story and essay that capture the essence of the “Je Suis Charlie” response to a terrorist attack in Paris to a whimsical and charming memoir about a wannabe “Lobo”--¿Y que?

Fiction offerings include for mature readers a psychological thriller from an up and coming novelist, a short story of mournful loss and regret, an insider view into sadgirls’ universes, and a speculative journey to the days of Joaquin Murrieta. For young people’s enjoyment, a tale of shapeshifter twins takes us into Azteca Mexico in search of their mother.

Challenging views address key issues facing Chicano and Latino communities: migration as a human right, the impact of the Chicano Movement on Americanismo, maiz as the essential foundation of indigenous culture, and the U.S. experiences of Filipino Americans.

Two essays span the dark side of current affairs and the humorous recollections of a Los Lobos fanático. The former combines an essay and a short story set in a old homestead in Mexico to contrast with the atrocity suffered by workers at a satirical magazine in Paris. The latter recounts how wearing dark glasses at night and striking the “cholo” stance can make one feel—and be treated—like a rock star.

A “Lobo” Strikes a Cholo Stance: ¿Y Que?
Column, Essay, Music, Humor 

Migration is a human right Essay, Human Rights, Migration

I Regret I Could Not Attend Your Party Culture, Short story

The Chicano Movement: Radical Refashioning of Americanism Chicanismo, Chicano Movement, History, Politics

 I’m on my way, you monster Culture, Fiction, Folklore, Novel, Young People

 Joaquín Murrieta Rides Again! Book, Culture, Fiction, Historia, Mature, Speculative Fiction

 Mabuhay! Reflections of the Filipino American experience Anthology, Book, Extract, Filipino Americans, Our Other Voices

 "Maíz is who you are, who we are." Book, Cultura, Historia, Indigenous, Indigenous Language

A Kaleidoscopic View of Fragmented Human Nature
Book, Fiction, Mature, Novel
 

Je suis le artiste
Book, Essays, memoir, Short stories, Writing

WANTED: All Genres of Literature, Book Reviews, Illustrations, Photography,
Readers, Subscribers, and Followers.

Armando Rendón, Editor
Somos en escrito Magazine
http://www.somosenescrito.com    
http://somosenescrito.blogspot.com 
somossubmissions@gmail.com
 
510-219-9139




Three Decades of Engendering History: Selected Works of Antonia I. Castañeda
http://esperanzacenter.org/quepasa/2015-AntoniaCastaneda/SAEN20150323-Castaneda.pdf
 
Esperanza Peace & Justice Center & Trinity University's MAS Program
presented a Woman's History Month special event on March 28, 2015

https://www.facebook.com/events/452673391547425/#14c5c65a1391aacb_book 

The event was to celebrate the life and work of Chicana historian Antonia I. Castañeda and her new book, Three Decades of Engendering History: Selected Works of Antonia I. Castañeda. The evening will feature tributes from cultural arts workers, community activists and scholars who have labored with Antonia throughout her career. 

Presenters include: Marisela Barrera, María Berriozábal, Dudley Brooks, Roberto Calderón, Micaela Díaz-Sánchez, Deena J. González, Linda Heidenreich, Valentina Inéz Barrera-Ibarra, Lourdes Perez, Graciela I. Sánchez, Rita Urquijo-Ruiz, and Tomás Ybarra-Frausto!


Elaine Ayala's column, Chicana historian Castañeda broke ceilings.
Express News, March 23, 2015

From her cultural and historic preservation efforts such as her arrest with the Univision 8 in San Antonio to her tireless work pushing for Chicana history, Antonia Castañeda has served as a force to be reckoned with. We will forever be grateful to Antonia and hope you join us in this celebration.

Su Vida
Born in Crystal City, Texas, to farmworker parents and raised in the Yakima Valley in Washington state, Antonia was the first in her family to attend a university, going on to earn a Bachelor’s, a Master’s, and a Ph.D. Alongside professors Deena González and Emma Pérez, Antonia Castañeda is credited with giving birth to Chicana Studies and with founding MALCS, an organization of Chicana scholars who address academic and community-based issues. She has tirelessly advocated for an intersectional approach to race, class, gender, and sexuality in the study of American history and politics, as she has researched and written about indigenous and Chicana women’s history. Antonia’s work also extends to community based activism with groups such as Esperanza, the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, the Westside Preservation Alliance and the Latin@ Arts Coalition, among others.

Su Obra 
Three Decades of Engendering History collects ten of Antonia’s best articles, including "Engendering the History of Alta California, 1769-1848," the prize-winning “Women of Color and the Rewriting of Western History,” “Lullabies y Canciones de Cuna,” and “La Despedida.” The latter two represent her most recent work excavating, mapping, and bringing forth the post-WWII history of Tejanas. Also included are interviews with Antonia that contribute to the important narrative of her lived experience—the “theory in the flesh” and politics of necessity that fuel her commitment to transformative scholarship highlighting gender and Chicanas as a legitimate line of inquiry. Editors and contributors Roberto Calderón, Linda Heidenreich, Deena J. González, Luz María Gordillo will be present. (books will be available for purchase)

Throughout the evening, excerpts from the film Antonia: A Chicana Story will also be screened. This documentary reveals Antonia’s history and experiences from her childhood as a migrant farmworker to her coming of age as a Chicana activist, community organizer, feminist, teacher, mentor and scholar. Filmmakers Luz María Gordillo and Javier Pescador will be in attendance. .



Present-day smuggling across the U.S.-Mexico border is a professional, often violent, criminal activity. However, it is only the latest chapter in a history of illicit business dealings that stretches back to 1848, when attempts by Mexico and the United States to tax commerce across the Rio Grande upset local trade and caused popular resentment. Rather than acquiesce to what they regarded as arbitrary trade regulations, borderlanders continued to cross goods and accepted many forms of smuggling as just.  

In Border Contraband, George T. Díaz provides the first history of the common, yet little studied, practice of smuggling across the U.S.-Mexico border. In Part I, he examines the period between 1848 and 1910, when the United States’ and Mexico’s trade concerns focused on tariff collection and on borderlanders’ attempts to avoid paying tariffs by smuggling. 
Part II begins with the onset of the Mexican Revolution in 1910, when national customs and other security forces on the border shifted their emphasis to the interdiction of prohibited items (particularly guns and drugs) that threatened the state. Díaz’s pioneering research explains how greater restrictions have transformed smuggling from a low-level mundane activity, widely accepted and still routinely practiced, into a highly profitable professional criminal enterprise.

Contents/ Acknowledgments/ Introduction
Part I: Taxing Trade
1. Creating a Contrabandista Community, 1848–1881
2. Rails, Trade, and Traffickers, 1881–1910

Part II: Prohibiting Criminal Consumption
3. Smugglers in Dangerous Times: Revolution and War, 1910–1919
4. Narcotics and Prohibition, 1914–1945
5. Smugglers and Seditionists: States Confront Illicit Traders, 1920–1945

Epilogue: Good Deals and Drug Deals
Appendix: Songs as Sources
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Excerpts

Introduction
I
On April 25, 1890, U.S. consul Warner P. Sutton wrote his superiors in Washington about the prevalence of smuggling along the Rio Grande. The alarm went up after a seemingly innocent dinner with friends in Piedras Negras, Coahuila, when Sutton discovered that the majority of the items that made up his meal had been introduced illicitly. He was literally consuming contraband. Indeed, prices for necessities in Mexico compelled the household’s servant to cross into Texas and smuggle food daily under her clothes. Stunned, Sutton warned Washington that if Mexico enforced its full import duties, its border population would either have to leave, “smuggle, or take very short rations.” Like many borderlanders before and since, the woman who provided Sutton his supper chose to disregard the law rather than let it interfere with her needs and desires.

This book is about how governments regulated and prohibited trade on their borders and how border people subverted state and federal laws through smuggling, particularly along the Rio Grande, which divides Texas and northeastern Mexico. States’ creation and enforcement of borders directly led to smuggling by making a market for contraband goods. People became smugglers when they sought something that states wished to regulate or deny them. Whether borderlanders smuggled out of ignorance of the law, to save or make money, or to avoid the inconvenience of finding a customs post, states viewed unregulated trade across the border as illegal. However, many border people had a more nuanced view of illicit trade. Government interference in free trade caused local resentment, and rather than acquiesce to what they regarded as arbitrary trade regulations, borderlanders on both sides of the river developed a moral economy of illicit trade, a contrabandista community, which accepted some forms of smuggling as just.

When people today think of the U.S.-Mexico borderlands, they often imagine a dangerous and violent place. This image stems largely from the media and popular culture. Nightly news programs and series such as Border Wars regularly remind us that violent smugglers routinely violate national laws along the U.S.-Mexico divide. Constant exposure to these images ties an inseparable bind between smuggling and violence and creates the perception of the border as a criminal space. Yet smuggling, the root phenomenon behind these impressions, remains under-researched and poorly understood. As Consul Sutton’s story illustrates, much of the smuggling on the border was neither violent nor related to drugs. For much of the border’s history, contraband trade across the international line consisted of tariff evasion on consumer goods, not the smuggling of prohibited items. Rather than being romantic outlaws or violent offenders, contrabandistas acted more as opportunists who exploited state weakness to save money and as entrepreneurs who filled a niche created by national trade restrictions.

One of the principal aims of this book is to provide a social history of smugglers by humanizing them as consumers as well as drug traffickers. Additionally, this book seeks to historicize smuggling, an enduring borderlands issue. For all of the attention of historians to borders, none have studied smuggling along the U.S.-Mexico border in depth, though it is the most iconic thing that occurs there. Border Contraband sheds light on the rise of smuggling as a popular response to states’ border-building efforts and provides a context for understanding current debates about the drug war.

II

Smuggling is an elusive subject for historical scrutiny. Historians love documents, and illicit trade is by its very nature a clandestine activity difficult to research. It is therefore not surprising that some of the best work on smuggling comes from political scientists, anthropologists, and sociologists. Building on the work of James C. Scott in Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed, social scientists have made significant strides in understanding the multifaceted nature of contraband trade. For instance, in Illicit Flows and Criminal Things: States, Borders, and the Other Side of Globalization, Willem van Schendel and Itty Abraham rightfully assert that the

dominant imagery of nation-states fighting valiantly against global criminal networks is far too simplistic[.] . . . Many transnational movements of people, commodities, and ideas are illegal because they defy the norms and rules of formal political authority, but they are quite acceptable, “licit,” in the eyes of participants in these transactions and flows.

Indeed, what governments define as illegal and what people consider wrong can differ widely. In his book Illicit: How Smugglers, Traffickers, and Copycats are Hijacking the Global Economy Moisés Naím expands on the concept of the relativistic nature of illicit trade, arguing that “there is an enormous gray area between legal and illegal transactions, a gray area that illicit traders have turned to their advantage.” This gray area between illegal and licit is most felt in the borderlands. Although Naím does not focus on the border, his comment that “the more states seek to raise barriers against the flow of illicit goods . . . the more traffickers stand to profit from their trade” keenly applies to the spaces where different states meet. States may seek to create obstacles to illicit trade, but borders inadvertently up the ante by making unauthorized flows more dangerous, lucrative, and professional.

Howard Campbell examines present-day illicit flows across the U.S.-Mexico border directly. Using ethnographic techniques, Campbell’s Drug War Zone: Frontline Dispatches from the Streets of El Paso and Juárez provides an unparalleled look into the lives of those directly involved in the drug war. Oral histories allow Campbell to open a window to the “cultural world of drug trafficking,” which he refers to as a “drug war zone,” where the lives of those touched by the narcotics trade intersect and “transcend international boundaries, moral categories,” class, and ethnicity. I argue that this cultural world of drug trafficking exists as an extension of an older and broader world of border people’s common practice of smuggling. Drugs, although the most conspicuous items smuggled across the border today, are but a part of a wide milieu of illicit flows that border people, and even states, view with varying degrees of criminality.

Using varying methodologies, a handful of historians have reached back to trace the development of smuggling over time. Eric Tagliacozzo’s Secret Trades, Porous Borders: Smuggling and States Along a Southeast Asian Frontier, 1865–1915 does an excellent job examining how states’ boundary enforcement programs were linked intimately with border people’s boundary transgressions, but no similar work exists on the U.S.-Mexico divide. Despite smuggling’s ubiquitous connection to the U.S.-Mexico border, with the exception of notable works by James Sandos, Gabriela Recio, and Peter Andreas, very little scholarship considers its history there. Rachel St. John’s rightfully acclaimed Line in the Sand: A History of the Western U.S.-Mexico Border, although not focused on smuggling, is similar to Tagliacozzo’s work in that it examines how state efforts transformed a poorly defined boundary into a patrolled and fenced, flexible barrier that states could see. On illicit trade St. John writes, “Smugglers created an underground economy that allowed them to profit by evading state regulations.” I develop this concept further, arguing that customs enforcement directly led to commercial trafficking because greater policing made the circumvention of state authority profitable. Moreover, I argue that border people did not regard smugglers’ trades as something altogether underground, but in many cases as a licit practice.

Throughout history, entrepreneurs have sought to profit from dodging state law. Robert Chao Romero’s The Chinese in Mexico, 1882–1940 richly illustrates how merchants in the Pacific Rim capitalized on U.S. Chinese exclusion laws to create sophisticated transnational human trafficking rings and provides great detail on the many ruses that smugglers of migrants used to cross borders and evade authority. Border Contraband tackles a scholarly gap by considering the movement of goods in equal detail. Elaine Carey and Andrae Marak’s edited collection, Smugglers, Brothels, and Twine: Historical Perspectives on Contraband and Vice in North America’s Borderlands, to which Robert Romero and I both contribute chapters, offers a fascinating series of examinations about the many ways border people sought to exploit North America’s emerging boundaries and points to new avenues for scholars to follow. This book follows one of these avenues by directly examining the history of smuggling across the U.S.-Mexico border. Aside from providing a transnational model of a persisting and prevalent borderland phenomenon, my work provides a theoretical framework with which to understand it.

Smuggling occurs across both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border and it must be considered transnationally. Historians have made great strides in revealing states’ relationships with their borderlands, but it is important to point out that the U.S.-Mexico border is a place where two states meet. Historically, border communities crossed borders. As Kelly Lytle Hernández’s Migra! A History of the U.S. Border Patrol strikingly shows, sporadic collaboration between Mexico and the United States allowed the “boundary to function as a bridge” between state systems of migration control. Mexico, like the United States, had concerns about its national security at the border. Like U.S. efforts, however, the Mexican government’s best efforts to regulate its territory were frustrated by border people’s desire to trade freely.

Indeed, states’ peripheral people showed remarkable persistence in trading freely despite federal dictates. By the 1880s the lower Rio Grande borderlands had passed to the “bordered lands” phase of state control that Jeremy Adelman and Stephen Aron discuss in their highly influential article “From Borderlands to Borders: Empires, Nation-States, and the Peoples in Between in North American History.” Nevertheless, border people on both sides of the river continued to routinely subvert state authority through smuggling. The hardening of borders did not prevent smuggling as much as make illicit trade more lucrative. Models of state consolidation of borders in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries proposed by Elliott Young, Friedrich Katz, and Eric Tagliacozzo argue that state authorities ultimately prevailed in imposing order at their nation’s edge. While it is not debatable that states greatly increased the policing of their boundaries, smuggling endured and in many cases flourished due to Mexico’s and the United States’ efforts to enforce laws on their borders.

Examining the persistence of smuggling both advances and complicates the image of the U.S.-Mexico border as a “fugitive landscape,” or a place of marginal state control. Although smugglers’ success could be seen as an example of states’ failures, government attempts to regulate borders made smuggling a viable trade. Thus smuggling, specifically the profits that smuggling brought, demonstrates how border people at times used international boundaries to their own benefit. National laws pushed illicit activities to borders, and the creation and enforcement of an international boundary made many aspects of everyday border commerce illegal. Shopping for bargains on one side of the border was often rendered pointless unless transborder shoppers evaded national tariffs by smuggling their goods across, and this social reality made many acts of smuggling popularly accepted.

In his classic 1978 essay “The Problem of Identity in a Changing Culture: Popular Expressions of Culture Conflict along the Lower Rio Grande Border,” noted ethnographer and pioneering ethnomusicologist Américo Paredes wrote that border people engaged in smuggling as a “libertarian practice” against excessive customs laws. Paredes elaborated that border people “paid little attention to the requirements of the law” when crossing regulated goods and casually smuggled as part of their common practice. I expand on Paredes’s concepts by arguing that illicit trade was a nuanced process where smugglers negotiated their needs and desires with U.S. and Mexican laws. Those that chose to violate these laws, whether to save money on a few cans of tomatoes or to make money transporting large amounts of tequila across the Rio Grande into Texas, became smugglers in the eyes of the state but not necessarily their community.

For the purpose of this book I divide smuggling into two forms: low-level contraband trade for personal consumption (petty smuggling) and professional smuggling for profit (trafficking). It is important to point out that not everything smuggled was inherently illegal. Borderlanders routinely smuggled perfectly licit items such as food and clothing to avoid paying tariff duties. Other items such as narcotics and arms, however, were largely prohibited by states, and merely possessing them was illegal by U.S. and Mexican law. The interplay between border people’s need and desire to acquire goods regulated or prohibited by U.S. and Mexican law and states’ efforts to enforce sovereignty and law on their borderlands shaped a moral economy of smuggling on the international divide. To borrow from E. P. Thompson and Karl Jacoby, I argue that rather than accept state laws at face value, border people negotiated state laws with their own conceptions of what was and was not acceptable transnational trade. Like Jacoby, I write a “bottom up” history of a secret trade. I argue that local views on smuggling often contrasted sharply with that of states. Whereas the Mexican and U.S. governments considered smugglers as criminals and threats, border people regarded many of these same individuals as simple consumers, merchants, or folk heroes. I often use the metaphor of speeding to illustrate the moral economy of smuggling. Individuals driving forty-five miles per hour on a stretch of road with forty miles per hour posted as the limit break the law but are generally accepted by society. Drivers traveling sixty miles per hour in a school zone while parents are picking up their children violate both laws and social mores. Smuggling is like that. For instance, border people generally accepted the smuggling of rationed sugar or wool for personal consumption during the First World War but not the trafficking of opium through their community. Smuggling, like speeding, had its limits of social acceptance.

State law saw smuggling in black and white terms, but the social reality of life on the ground came in various shades of gray. Deborah Kang, Rachel St. John, and Samuel Truett in particular have had success revealing the hidden history of informal relations between state agents and the community they policed. For example, Truett provides a story of two amicable U.S. and Mexican federal agents in 1890 who agreed to forego state-mandated tariffs on cattle that “Crossed the Imaginary Line” between Arizona and Sonora. Finding when and what customs agents of both the United States and Mexico conceded to, and why, helps reveal the inner workings of the moral economy of illicit trade on the border.

Unraveling the history of smuggling across the Rio Grande offers a host of challenges. Smugglers themselves sought to avoid detection, and we mostly know of them for the occasions on which they were caught. The best smugglers, however, were never apprehended. Given the fragmented nature of sources on illicit trade, I have decided to forgo what could only be conjectural statistical analysis of smuggling. Still, U.S. and Mexican government attempts to police their borderlands did leave a window into smugglers’ secret trades. Oral histories also inform my work, particularly ethnic Mexican folk ballads, or corridos, which recount smugglers’ exploits. Whereas court cases, customs records, and newspapers were primarily controlled by elites and the state, oral histories provide insight into popular perceptions and offer a fascinating counternarrative to that of those in power. By examining when locals reported smugglers, when juries decided to find suspects guilty or innocent, and why border people celebrated certain smugglers in song, we can see how borderlanders expressed their own views of acceptable and unacceptable trade as part of a moral economy of smuggling.

Rather than focus on exceptional cases of large contraband seizures or violent confrontations with state law enforcement, this book examines trafficking and violence within a larger process of common smuggling. Unauthorized activity across the U.S.-Mexico border was typical, not atypical. Aside from being a study of smuggling, this book is also a social history of border people, particularly in regards to how they conducted business and consumption across international lines, how they resisted state efforts to impose restrictions on their free trade, how they formed their own values about breaking laws, and how they exploited state laws for self-gain. Few of the people or groups of people examined in this book would have called themselves smugglers or even conceived of themselves in such a way at all. I use the term “smuggler” when describing someone who attempted to cross regulated or prohibited goods from one side of the border to the other. Those who smuggled professionally or in commercial amounts I refer to as “traffickers.” The Spanish word for smuggler is contrabandista. For the purposes of this book, I use contrabandista to describe the community of petty smugglers and traffickers. The interplay between states, petty smugglers, and traffickers forms the contrabandista community whose story follows.

III

Part I examines the period between 1848 and 1910 when the United States’ and Mexico’s trade concerns focused on tariff collection. In the late nineteenth century Mexico and the United States relied heavily on tariffs for their national revenue. Tariffs not only protected domestic industries, tariff proceeds served as the principal source of income for the U.S. government prior to the institution of the federal income tax in 1913. Similarly, import duties provided the majority of Mexico’s revenue until internal taxes overtook them in the first decade of the twentieth century. With federal revenue dependent on tariff collection, both governments levied duties on the commercial and noncommercial crossing of goods and livestock. Border people on both sides of the river in turn resented what they considered the arbitrary taxation of what was once local commerce and formed a moral economy that accepted some forms of illicit trade.

Part II examines the period between 1910 and 1945 when national customs and other security forces in the region shifted their emphasis from tariff collection to the interdiction of prohibited items that threatened the state. Beginning roughly with the onset of the Mexican Revolution in 1910 and lasting until the end of the Second World War in 1945, a succession of national and international crises and new drug and alcohol prohibitions altered the way states guarded against the illegal movement of goods across their borders. While the years preceding the revolution had also been contentious, new national security concerns after 1911 coupled with Mexico’s and the United States’ move away from tariff revenues as their primary source of income made prohibiting the entry of national threats--particularly arms and controlled substances--states’ primary objective on the border. With the ethical and structural basis for modern trafficking in place by the end of the Second World War, 1945 serves as a fitting place to end an initial history of smuggling on the U.S.-Mexico border. The moral economy’s endurance and place within the twenty-first-century drug war is considered in the book’s epilogue.

IV

Laredo and Nuevo Laredo provide an excellent locale in which to examine the formation of borderlands and borders through the practice of smuggling. Unlike many of the border cities between Brownsville and San Diego, Laredo predates the formation of the U.S.-Mexico divide. Over time, state laws and borders came down upon these communities, upsetting local practices and creating new ones. Founded in 1755, Laredo evolved from what Adelman and Aron describe as a borderland to a bordered land. The advantageous location near a ford of the Rio Grande made the two Laredos a hub of commerce and international trade. With the arrival of the railroad in the 1880s the twin communities grew immensely in population and importance, and by 1893 los dos Laredos had each become the greatest inland ports of their respective countries, earning them their titles as “gateway” cities.

Los dos Laredos based their existence on international trade, yet much of this commerce was illicit. Indeed, the sheer volume of commercial traffic made customs inspection cursory. On February 23, 1895, Frank B. Earnest, U.S. customs collector for Laredo, complained that “petty smuggling is constantly carried on . . . and it is almost impossible to prevent.” These cases happened every day along the border. Laredo and Nuevo Laredo can be called contrabandista communities. Members of the contrabandista community regarded petty smuggling as a common right. What borderlands historiography lacks, and what my study provides, is an in-depth examination of the common violation of state laws on the U.S.-Mexico divide. Border people routinely violated Mexican and U.S. law by smuggling, but with certain exceptions this practice did not seriously threaten either government. That contrabandistas continued to smuggle in spite of the state not only shows the limits of state power on the border, but also demonstrates border people’s ability to bring the state into accommodation with local values. Although both the United States and Mexico significantly improved their border enforcement efforts by the mid-1940s, borderlanders on both sides of the river continued to subvert state authority through smuggling. Despite what federal laws dictated, this moral economy of illicit trade persisted through war, revolution, and the best efforts of the U.S. and Mexican governments.

Author: George T. Díaz is Assistant Professor of History at Sam Houston State University. 

Reviews

“Far from Washington, DC, and Mexico City, borderlanders smuggled licit and illicit products. While bureaucrats attempted to control the smugglers, they were celebrated in popular culture, and some rose to be pillars of their communities. In a well-researched, accessible, and engaging study, George Díaz documents the ebb and flow of an array of commodities and the lives of those who subverted federal laws, whether for profit or survival, on both sides of the border.”
—Elaine Carey, St. John's University, author of Women Drug Traffickers: Mules, Bosses, and Organized Crime

“Border Contraband finds that borderlanders in the Laredo–Nuevo Laredo area accepted everyday illegal smuggling when the practice benefited bargain-conscious consumers. At the same time, however, community values discountenanced the smuggling of alcohol and guns, for such trafficking attracted organized crime. To document this understudied phenomenon, George Díaz draws on solid primary sources deposited in some of the richest archives in Mexico and the United States. Kudos to this first work by an up-and-coming young historian.”
—Arnoldo De León, Angelo State University

“Border Contraband: A History of Smuggling across the Rio Grande provides one the first full-length historical monographs that historicizes the changing practices and perceptions of everyday smuggling between Mexico and the United States over the course of a century. In this fascinating analysis of ‘common smuggling’ between Texas and Northeastern Mexico, historian George T. Díaz illustrates how these two states attempted to control and regulate ‘illicit trade’ between these border locales, and how everyday people subverted state and federal efforts to impinge upon what many considered to be part and parcel of a broader ‘moral economy.’ Those looking to contextualize the genealogy of smuggling along the U.S.-Mexico border would be wise to consider pondering these questions with a reading of Border Contraband.”
—José Angel Hernández, Associate Professor of History, University of Houston

“Here’s the book I've been waiting for: a well-researched history of the clandestine side of U.S.-Mexico trade relations. Today’s heated debates about an out-of-control border too often suffer from historical amnesia. Díaz has given us a much-needed historical corrective and reality check, reminding us that the border has never actually been under control.”
—Peter Andreas, author of Smuggler Nation: How Illicit Trade Made America


URL: http://utpress.utexas.edu/index.php/books/diaz-border-contraband
Border Contraband by George T. Diaz l Book Cover l Jan. 2015 l UT Press
Hardcover   6 x 9 | 255 pp.  ISBN: 978-0-292-76106-3

Sent by Roberto Calderon, Ph.D.  
Roberto.Calderon@unt.edu
 
Historia Chicana
Mexican American Studies
University of North Texas
Denton


Latino soldiers
 Cebu, Phillipines, WW II

AMERICAN PATRIOTS

Website on contributions of Latinos in the U.S. military launched 
       by Ron Gonzalez, Orange County Register, October 16, 2013
Long Beach VA Hospital Art Show, by Kyle Navy Seal by Leroy Martinez
Johnny Quezada USN (Ret), Dir for Special Programs & Military Affairs
Forgiveness by Roy A. Archuleta

Comments, Gus Chavez on  “Patriots From The Barrio” by Dave Gutierrez.



Website focusing on the contributions of Latinos  in the U.S. military has been launched.
by Ron Gonzalez, Orange County Register, October 16, 2013

Dr. Al Mijares, O.C. Superintendent of Schools, is being presented with one of four books published by Lation Advocates for Education, Inc. and co-authored by  Superior Court Judge Fredrick P. Aguirre, teacher Linda Martinez, engineer Rogelio C. Rodriguez.  The four books contain biographical files 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.    http://aplh.webs.com 
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 .
Since the Revolutionary War to the present, Hispanics have been a part of the United States military heritage that makes this country so strong. Through nine wars and conflicts, Hispanics have served their country with pride and distinction.

Latino Advocates for Education, Inc. in collaboration with the Orange County Department of Education commemorate the undaunted courage and sacrifice of these service men and women that exemplify the highest traditions of the United States Armed Forces.

In the air, on land, and at sea and in all fronts and services, the patriotism of Hispanic service men and women has been documented through diligent research and personal stories. For over 17 years, Latino Advocates for Education, Inc. has conducted this independent research which includes a detailed compilation of national casualty, personnel, and award recipient statistics, as well as profiles of over 2000 local Hispanic veterans. The statistics and personal biographies presented herein provide an educational and historical insight to the participation of Hispanic service personnel in the defense of our country.

Latino Advocates for Education, Inc.
We do not glorify war or promote militaristic solutions to our nation's international affairs. We do not advocate that all Latino youth join our military forces. We are, however, justifiably proud of our veterans and of our patriotic heritage. Moreover, our Latino patriots have not been recognized in our children’s school books, in documentary films, in feature films, on television or in the print media.

For example, during the American Revolution, General Bernardo de Galvez of New Orleans led a 5,000 man army and navy against the British. His forces consisted of Spaniards, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans and other Latinos. General Galvez captured the strategic British forts of Baton Rouge, Mobile and Pensacola, thus keeping the vital Gulf of Mexico and Mississippi River from being controlled by England.

In the Civil War, more than 10,000 Latinos loyally served in both Union and Confederate forces. Our country's highest medal for valor, the Congressional Medal of Honor, was awarded to Philip Bazaar and John Ortega. Moreover, the first admiral of our Navy, Admiral David G. Farragut, who was commissioned by President Lincoln, was Latino.

During the Spanish-American War, Latinos proudly served under Lt. Col. Teddy Roosevelt. Captain Maximiliano Luna of New Mexico helped Roosevelt organize and lead the famous "Rough Riders".

Thousands of Latino "doughboys" fought in World War I. David Barkley, a Mexican American from Laredo, Texas was awarded the Medal of Honor. Bert Acosta, a famous aviator from San Diego, California taught scores of Canadian and American pilots to fly.

During World War II we estimate that over 500,000 Latinos proudly served our country. They fought in every major battle from Pearl Harbor to North Africa, from Bataan to Anzio, from Corregidor to Normandy, from Guadalcanal to Remagen, from Okinawa to the Battle of the Bulge. Research of World War II archival data by Rogelio Rodriguez of our group, shows that 12 Latinos were awarded the Medal of Honor, 126 the Distinguished Service Cross, 19 the Navy Cross, 45 the Legion of Merit, 1,409 the Silver Star, 2,807 the Bronze Star, 12,058 the Purple Heart, 29 Belgium Awards, 4 French Awards, 74 the Distinguished Flying Cross, 773 the Air Medal, 768 the Combat Infantry Badge, 174 the Combat Medic Badge and 47 the Soldiers Medal. According to partial statistics from the armed forces, 9,831 Latinos gave their lives in defense of our country including 7,127 from the Army, 355 Marines, 710 from the Navy, 12 from the Coast Guard and 78 Merchant Marines. Finally, 1,532 were Missing in Action and 2,561 were Prisoners of War. We are continuing to conduct research to determine the final total number of Latino casualties from the Army, Army Air Corps, Marines, Navy and Coast Guard during World War II.

During World War II, Latinos were also noteworthy for being "first in and last out". The first American casualty at Pearl Harbor was Ensign Manuel Gonzalez, a Navy pilot from the USS Enterprise. In addition, RdM Pete Limon of the USS Swan survived that "day of infamy" at Pearl Harbor. Marine Cpl Alfonso Moreno valiantly fought with his unit in Guam but was captured on December 9, 1941 and was a Prisoner of War for 1,404 days until October 12, 1945. Similarly, Carlos R. Montoya in Bataan and William R. Sanchez in Corregidor held out with their troops for several months until they were captured and held as Prisoners of War for over three years. In June, 1944 Marine PFC Guy Gabaldon captured, single-handedly, over 1,000 Japanese soldiers during the Battle of Saipan. The 1960 feature film, Hell to Eternity, starring Jeffrey Hunter, depicted the heroic acts of Gabaldon, but the film never acknowledged the hero as being Mexican American.

During the Korean War, we estimate that over 180,000 Latinos served. Of the 36,574 casualties, 2,721 were Latinos. Significantly, 30% of the casualties from Orange County, California were Mexican Americans when they comprised 5% of the county’s residents. Therefore they were dying at six times their numbers. Of the 2,611 Californians who were killed in action, 518 were Mexican Americans, that is, 20%, which was four times their numbers in our state. Of the 1,779 Texans who gave their lives, 371 were Mexican Americans, which was four times their numbers in Texas. Eight Latinos were awarded the Medal of Honor for their heroism. Air Force Col. Manuel Fernandez was one of the war's most decorated jet fighter pilot "aces" with 14.5 MIG "kills".

In the Vietnam War, 15 Latinos received the Medal of Honor, including Special Forces Sgt. Roy Benavidez who suffered more than 30 severe wounds by repeatedly returning through heavy enemy fire to assist and carry 8 wounded men into his helicopter. Ensign Everett Alvarez, Navy jet pilot, was shot down and held as a Prisoner of War for over 9 years. Of the 5,572 Californians who were killed in action, 823 were Latinos, that is, 15% at a time when Latinos represented 7% of the state. Of the 3,405 Texans who died, 784 were Latinos which represented 23%, which was twice their population. In New Mexico, Latinos accounted for 44% of the deaths while they made up 27% of the citizens of that state.
During the Persian Gulf War, thousands of Latinos served. The first casualty from Orange County was Air Force Captain Arthur Galvan who was piloting an AC- 130 Spectre gunship which was shot down while attacking an Iraqi missile battery.

On July 8, 2004, President George W. Bush declared: "Some 85,000 Latinos have served in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. More than 100 have given their lives. Over 400 have been injured in combat. Our nation will never forget their service and their sacrifice to our security and to our freedom.

As of March 20, 2009, the Department of Defense reported 4,143 males and 102 females were killed in Operation Iraqi Freedom and 641 males and 14 female lost their lives in Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan). According to the Congressional Research Service, of those killed in Iraq, 450 were Latino and 52 killed in Afghanistan were Latino. That is 10.6 per cent of the casualties in Iraq were Latino and 7.9 per cent in Afghanistan were Latino. The statistics for African American casualties, according to the study, was 407 deaths in Iraq (9.6 per cent) and 52 deaths in Afghanistan (7.9 per cent). The first American killed from Orange County was Marine Cpl Jose Angel Garibay.

It is therefore fitting that we document the patriotism of our Mexican American men and women and recognize them for their courage and sacrifice.

From 1998 to 2003 our organization hosted an annual Veterans Day conference at Santa Ana College to honor our Latino veterans with color guard units, marching bands, skydivers, F-18 jet flyovers and display of military vehicles and veteran’s artifacts. From 2000 to 2011 we hosted the event at California State University, Fullerton.

In 2003 we authored A Tribute to Mexican American Prisoners of War which described the heroism and valor of 43 Latino POWs from World War II to Kosovo.


May 1944, GI servicemen drive in an unidentified street of a nearly destroyed city in Italy  
Sent by Juan Marinez marinezj@msu.edu 

In 2005, we composed our second book Undaunted Courage – Mexican American Patriots of World War II which profiled over 425 hundred World War II veterans who defended our country and 77 “Rosie Riveters” who toiled in the factories. Even though they faced open discrimination on the home front such as segregated public schools they unhesitatingly answered the call of duty and valiantly fought against tyranny and oppression abroad. Special recognition was accorded to those super patriotic families who had 3 or more brothers in World War II. We discovered more than 65 families who had 3 or more brothers serving at the same time during the war. In fact, we have 5 families with 6 brothers and one family with 8 brothers who served.

In 2006 we wrote our third book Strength and Honor: Mexican Americans in the Vietnam War which profiled over 139 Vietnam War veterans.  In 2007 we saluted our Korean War veterans in our fourth book Freedom is Not Free: Mexican Americans in the Korean War in which we profiled 225 veterans and also 50 additional Latino veterans from World War II.

In 2008 we paid tribute to all of our veterans and our guest of honor was Army Staff Sgt. Christopher Miranda Braman, a Pentagon staff member who became a national hero on September 11, 2001 when he re-entered the Pentagon several times at the risk of his own life to save others as the Pentagon was engulfed in flames and smoke. President Bush awarded Sgt. Braman the Purple Heart.

In 2009 we honored our Iraq War and Afghanistan War veterans and their families. We compiled all of our previous books and additional documentation in a CD entitled Mexican American Patriots-World War 1to Iraq and Afghanistan War. The keynote speaker was Lt. General Ricardo S. Sanchez (Ret.) who commanded nearly 180,000 personnel from 36 different countries during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

In 2010 we honored the 52 Gold Star families in Orange County whose sons and daughter gave their lives in defense of our nation in our current wars. U.S. Marine Corps Col. John Telles (Ret.), a Vietnam War veterans and Presidential helicopter pilot of Marine One for Presidents Nixon and Ford was the keynote speaker.

In 2011 we produced a DVD documentary film entitled American Patriots – Latinos in World War II which profiled 7 famous Americans who happened to be Latino. They included baseball legend Ted Williams, boxing Hall of Famer Manuel Ortiz, international dancing star Jose Limon, philanthropist Maria Dolores Hernandez, television pioneer Desi Arnaz, Marine Corps hero Guy Gabaldon and human rights leader Cesar Chavez.

We thank each of the veterans and their families for providing the photographs and information.  We salute each veteran and their family and thank them for their sacrifice and devotion to our flag and our country.




 Long Beach VA Hospital art show

 I hope to enter this image at the Long Beach VA Hospital art show.  If not, then sharing with my VA friends and family Chris Kyle Navy Seal

Each year about January the Long Beach VA Hospital has an art show for Veterans.  Each year I enter and usually come in first place in oil painting.  Only Veterans can be accepted if the art is qualified.  I have art work at the hospital from previous years.  I am so lucky to do art for fun.  My web is www.leroymartinez.com

 leroymartinez@charter.net



http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001DjlZveUMAOcBe0ZD-S8ZmOYOWirI2QAZNEXP6TN-TDVRuKopz0qxbcRQMpRK8dayIxKNzWVqVoA5ve7P7mIZ30-PoPbyKfCkNseJm4A_yp9k9Ak1myl97eNXrn-uioq7M_-dzKU9OcIcK9qA5EtaloshFuHGA6jtSVyeStv6d1mDFpywyw-Q-lKltpmye8edbBqrPFXjBF8gxF9tymGVHcU8jK0vhOMqLF-gFVXBZKEB_KYaOXqprsejois5l0cGrBvsW1zq7dUNftUhYyV7nkabscJMaZi7FUWLkJTn8g51jpH-Ajn6XwEvkBYyRqiDzoRbyomkdYo=&c=YV0pE2HYBeYBuBaUvSfdGVpa7XiGHZvqW5qb2yuIknt7JSUkDQcNSA==&ch=3_No0j6emNAIIX7ZP-OAuFOkPnU7jilza1hLHTYo9MCeJdyhNT-HWg==
Welcomes LCDR Johnny Quezada USN (Ret), as the New Director for Special Programs and Military Affairs



With over 30 years of experience in the administrative, financial, executive level management, and military services, Quezada will oversee the National LATINA Symposium and the LATINA Style HERO Initiative, two programs hosted by LATINA Style aimed to honor Latinas serving in the Armed Forces and help military veterans and transitional active duty members reintegrate and assimilate into Corporate America.

For more information on the programs visit www.latinastyle.com  



ForgivenessRoy A Archuleta  

A great Veteran and a great friend from Oceanside, CA, sometime back sent me a Cold War Veterans hat and two medals the Army never gave me. I often wear my Veterans hat if I go into town, and several people would come up to me and thank me for the service to our nation. Most of the time if someone thanked me for my service to America,  would ask them if they read Spanish, with most of the responses being NO, as I handed them my Forgiveness poem.  One lovely lady with a beautiful smile responded, "un pocito". After reading the poem, she had tears and gave me a big hug which I did not expect, with a remark, "You have made my day. thank you!" 

Every one can give a little something as we  participate in the great, great circle of life...always be nice, Roy

Thanks & Regards, Roy A Archuleta  
archroy1953@gmail.com
 

 

 

Forgiveness is the economy of the heart, 
forgiveness saves the expense of anger,
the cost of hatred, and the waste of the
good spirit.
To forgive is to set a prisoner free from
bondage and soon after you discover that
the prisoner was you!
Forgiveness is a gift you give to yourself,
forgiveness is one great virtue not found,
except in oneself and a virtue of the brave.
forgiveness has no price, and is an ever
lasting healing for eternal life as we travel
on the journey of the great, great circle of
life, as we experience the bad misfortunes
and the beauty of life to be cherished in 
our hearts and minds, being young or old.
Like love, it has more value then expensive
jewelery  or gold.  search your soul and
discover the greatest virtue in life.... 
 Forgiveness!!!   Elroyo


Comments by Gus Chavez on  “Patriots From The Barrio” 
by Dave Gutierrez  

guschavez2000@yahoo.com
  

Chicanos and Latinos facing the challenges of racism in the U.S.

Recent as well as past racist behavior waged against immigrants, Chicanos and Latinos are well documented and raise many questions as to why in 2015 this is still taking place across the national landscape. College fraternities and sororities acting out and ridiculing our language and culture, along with police profiling of Latinos, deporting families with children who are U.S. citizens, erosion of voting rights and legislation targeting the Latino community is at an all time high. Question - how long has this been taking place and were these individuals influenced by the John Boxes and Roy Garis of 1926 and beyond? 
The book “Patriots From The Barrio” by Dave Gutierrez opens up the lives of a number of Latino WWII veterans fighting against the Nazis while their families endured racism and segregation at home. 

The background of our many struggles may have started decades ago and set the foundation for historical and present racist behavior against our Chicano and Latino communities. The legislation proposed by former Congressman John C. Box of Texas is one example of racism endured by our community. The situation against us intensified with the financial crash of 1929. 

Even though lingering feelings of racism continue today throughout the nation, much has changed and continue to change since the introduction of the failed Box Bill. 

“In 1926 Democrat Representative John C. Box of Texas introduced House Resolution Bill 6741 to include Mexico into the quota act, it would be known as the “Box Bill.” 

He wanted to limit the amount of Mexicans pouring into the country. A report in support of the bill was written by Dr. Roy L. Garis, an economics professor at the University of Vanderbilt. 

In the report Garis states, 
“The Mexicans minds run to nothing higher than animal functions - eat, sleep, and sexual debauchery. In every huddle of Mexican shacks one meets the same idleness, hordes of hungry dogs, and filthy children with faces plastered with flies, disease, lice, human filth, stench, promiscuous fornication, bastardy, lounging, apathetic peons, and lazy squaws, beans, and dried chili, liquor, general squalor, and envy and hatred of the gringo. These people sleep by day and prowl by night like coyotes, stealing anything they can get their hands on, no matter how useless to them it may be. Nothing left outside is safe unless padlocked or chained down. Yet there are Americans clamoring for more of the human swine to be brought over from Mexico. The bill was never passed.”

“Statements like those of Dr. Garis, referring to Mexicans as human swine, only fueled public dissent towards Mexicans and all immigrants that were working while America was struggling to find work. News articles were written about the Mexican Problems in America, adding yet more fear and dissent at Mexicans.”

Quotes from pages 8-9 in the excellent book “Patriots From The Barrio” by Dave Gutierrez.  Sent by A.M. Martinez  hispanonewmexico@gmail.com 





CHICANO VIETNAM PEACE COMMEMORATIVE COMMITTEE  CVPCC
Estimados Amigos and Dear Friends:

The CVPCC is a new group formed to be part of  people's commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War.  We will sue with educational events and materials to ring out the truth and legacy of the war and how grass roots based peace movement played a key role in the making of peace.

The Department of Defense has $60 million for a 50th anniversary 10 commemoration.  It was a long war.  However more needs to be done for veterans. More also needs to e done to remind us of the immoral, unjust and often secret policy makig and prosecution of the war by our government.  This is why a peoples movement is growing called the Vietnam Peace Commemoration.  A national conference will take place to help carry the message to the nation, May 1-2 in Washington, D.C..

The ChicanoVietnam Peace Commemoration Committee will help organize for the national conference and carry out the educational work focused on our youth and communities after.  We are raising funds to support the work of members going to the May 1-2 conference and for reporting back to in events and online.  We urge community leaders, activists and political representatives to support and attend the conference and join our group.

Your monetary support of $10, $25, $100 or more well help establish CVPCC as a community peace orgaization and bring out the truth, legacy and lessons of the war.  

Contact: Rosalio Munoz, 323-229-1994 or email David Trujillo.  david4par@yahoo.com    
The Chicano@Vietnam Peace Commemorative Committee (CVPCC) 1107 Fair Oaks  #298, So. Pasadena, CA 91030

Chair: Rosalio Munoz Vice-Chair, Lydia Lopez, Secretary David Trujillo, Treasurer Al Juarez
Conveners: Chole Alatorre, Pablo Alvarado, Ray Andrade, Cindy Aragon, Gloria Arellanes, Carlos Callejo, Barbara Carrasco, Richard Castro, Vickie Castro, Oscar Castillo, Gilbert Cedillo, Mita Cuaron, Alicia Escalante, Virgina Espino, Fr. Ricard Estrada, Harry Gamboa, Rev Francisco Garcia, Mario Garcai, Mike Garcia, Antonio Gonzalez, Victor Gonzalez, Lizette Guerra, Felix Gutierrez, Lorrain Gutierrez, Diane Hernandez, Sergio Hernandez, Dennis Lesinski, Jorge Marsical, Reynado Macias, Ricardo Munoz, Pete Navarro, Lou Negrete, Rev. Marty Olivas, Marty Olivas Jr., Joe Razo, Alex Reza, Luis J. Rodriuez, Joe Rodriguez, Raul Romero, Beto Ruiz, Karla Salazar, Ricard Santillian, Katerina Del Valle Thompson, Guillermo Torres, Irene Tovar, Jesus Trevino, Ruben Treviso, Frank VAlderrama, Gil Varela, Martha Vasquez, Helena Maria Viramontes, Maria Elena Yepes Geraldine Zapata, Ricardo Zelada (Labor Donated)


EARLY LATINO AMERICAN PATRIOTS

Battle of San Diego Bay, California highlights Spain's early footprint
Galvez/Spain Our Forgotten Ally in the American Revolutionary War by by Judge Edward F. Butler, Sr.
June 12-14, 2015:  Sons of the American Revolution (SAR)’s Annual Conference 
Spain to turn over to U.S. documents linked to American independence:


Second Annual George Washington Patriot Prayer Breakfast 
May 9,2015 10:30 a.m. 
VFW POst 8541
 2222 Austin HWY, San Antonio, TX

Presenting a Special Live Production of the American Revolutionary War 
"Miracles and Prayers"  Relating to the life of George Washington and our Independence

You are Invited to Participate You and your friends are asked to participate in this Patriotic Prayer Breakfast and encourage to provide a short prayer (not more than 3 minutes).   
The prayer can be for any topic or person, any request or giving thanks
There will be no preaching or religious inductions or solicitations and this event is strictly non-denominational.

Breakfast will consist of Breakfast Tacos, Coffee and Juice, $6. person RSVP by May 4 to Corinne Staacke jstacke@satx.rr.com 

SPONSORS:
Daughters of the American Revolution, 
San Antonio De Bexar Chapter
Sons of the American Revolution, San Antonio Chapter 
Sons of the American Revolution, Wm Hightower Chapter
Colonial Dames of America, Chapter XXXVI 
Daughters of the War of 1812, David Crockett Chapter
Texas Connection to the American Revolution Assoc., 
The Granaderos de Galvez, 
San Antonio Chapter, Jamestowne Society, 
Magna Charta Dames and Barons




Battle of San Diego Bay highlights Spain's early footprint
Celebration marks 212th anniversary of quick skirmish in San Diego Bay, California

by Mike Freeman, April 19, 2015, Union Tribune, San Diego

Members of the Royal Spanish Court, a Los Angeles group that re-enacts Spanish history in California, attended the 212th anniversary of the Battle of San Diego Bay at U.S. Naval Base Point Loma on Sunday.

Members of the Royal Spanish Court, a Los Angeles group that re-enacts Spanish history in California, attended the 212th anniversary of the Battle of San Diego Bay at U.S. Naval Base Point Loma on Sunday. — Mike Freeman

Two centuries ago, Spain controlled California, and its influence is best seen today in the historic missions that stretch like a necklace up the state’s coast.

But the Spanish footprint locally goes deeper. At Naval Base Point Loma on Sunday, history buffs, U.S. Navy officials and Spanish dignitaries commemorated the 212th anniversary of The Battle of San Diego Bay – an obscure clash between an upstart American merchant ship and tiny fort of the declining Spanish empire.

It wasn’t much of a battle. Nobody died.

“I would call it a peaceful battle,” said Javier Vallaure, Consul General for Spain in Los Angeles. “Isn’t that wonderful?”

But it was the only ship-to-shore fight between America and Spain on the Pacific Coast. The site has been designated as a California Registered Historic Landmark.

The Battle of San Diego Bay these days is less about cannon fire and more a reminder of Spanish landmarks around the waterfront. There’s Spanish Landing, which linked ships to what’s now Rosecrans Street, among the oldest economic routes in the state. It was first used by the Spanish in 1769.

The peninsula in San Diego Bay known as Ballast Point comes from Fort Guijarros, a small Spanish garrison on Point Loma that guarded the bay. Guijarros translates to “ballast,” said Iris Engstrand, a history professor at the University of San Diego.

And there’s Smuggler’s Cove. It was the smuggling of sea otter pelts that sparked the Battle of San Diego Bay in 1803.

A couple years earlier, word spread in the fledgling United States of abundant sea otters on the Pacific Coast. The prized fur was commanding sky-high prices, luring American merchant ships to the West Coast.

One of those ships was the Lelia Byrd, which came seeking to buy otter pelts. But the Spanish commander of San Diego, Don Manuel Rodriguez, had forbid such trade.

“The Leila Byrd was trying to escape under the cover of darkness with some highly coveted otter pelts, and the Spanish embargo on foreign trade didn’t seem to agree with that,” said Capt. Howard Warner III, commanding officer of Naval Base Point Loma. “So they exchanged a few cannon shots between the six pounders on shore (at Fort Guijarros) and the three pounders on the Lelia Byrd.”

San Diego wasn’t an economic powerhouse at the time. “It was just a stop on the way up the coast for otter pelts, or on the way down for the Spanish to resupply” ships headed to Mexico or South America, said Matthew Schiff, marketing director at the San Diego History Center.

Perhaps that’s why a handful of cannon shots were enough. Soon a hat was waved and both sides ceased firing. The Lelia Byrd went on, sailing to the Hawaiian Islands and eventually China.

It didn’t take long for over-hunting to derail the sea otter fur trade, and a few years later the Mexican independence movement began, ending Spanish control over California in 1821.


The Battle of San Diego Bay, however, is a reminder of Spain’s early exploration of the Pacific, which was referred to as “Lagos Espanola,” or Spanish Lake, said Angeles Leira of the House of Spain, a cultural history organization.

“Fortunately there were no injuries, no casualties and no significant damage” in the battle, said Warner, the Point Loma base commander. “And here we are today, very close allies with the country of Spain.”

                                     ###

Thank you to Robert Smith for a sending the information and the following comments: 

The Sons of the American Revolution were color guardsmen, Ernest McCullough, Robert Smith and Philip Hinshaw. Unfortunately, traffic congestion on Rosecrans Street caused Tom and Terri Kubow to arrive after the presentation of the colors. Ray and Gail Raser were present as were MaryAnne McCullough, Mary Hinshaw. Channel 10 had a brief item about the event on the 11:00 p.m. news last night, but the color guard was not shown. 

SAR also had a display table in the Smuggler’s Cove recreation area where paella was served and a flamenco dancing presentation occurred. Ray Raser, Robert Smith, Ernie McCullough and Philip Hinshaw manned the table. A few people stopped to view the information, including a man currently working with Ray Raser to submit a SAR family application for himself and his son.

My thank you is extended to everyone that participated in the event. 

Robert Smith 
pleikul96970@yahoo.com
  

For more information on the Battle of the Battle of San Diego Bay, go to:  http://www.sandiegoyesterday.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Battle-of-San-Diego-Bay.pdf



Galvez




GÁLVEZ / SPAIN -- 

OUR FORGOTTEN ALLY 
IN THE AMERICAN 
REVOLUTIONARY WAR: 

A CONCISE SUMMARY 
OF 
SPAIN'S ASSISTANCE, 
by 
Judge Edward F. Butler, Sr.

Ed Butler with Prince Felipe
 Ed Butler and wife, Robin,  
meet Crown Prince Felipe

I became interested in Spain’s involvement in the American Revolutionary War when in 2001, I was  appointed the Sons of the American Revolution (SAR) Ambassador to México and Latin America.  Both the SAR and the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) have recognized Spain’s assistance for many years, and many members of both societies are descendants of Spanish soldiers who participated in the conflict.

It soon became apparent to me that Spain and Gálvez had both been short changed in recognition for their efforts in our cause for freedom.  In the next few years I researched Spain’s involvement and wrote several articles which were published in the National Genealogical Society’s Magazine and in the SAR Magazine.  I wanted the public to know that Spaniards living in what is now Texas participated in the cause by herding long horn cattle from the San Antonio area to feed General Bernardo de Gálvez’ troops in Louisiana.

On Columbus Day each October, US citizens honor Christopher Columbus, but the Italians have hijacked the holiday.  Discovery of the New World would not have been possible at that time without the financial support of Ferdinand and Isabella, joint monarchs of Spain.  They were a great couple, who defeated the Moors and drove them from Spain.  During their reign they united Spain and centralized power in the crown.  They insured that the peoples of the New World became Christians.  Through their wisdom Spain became the first world power, and a vast, wealthy empire. Their vast military dominated the world for the next 150 years.  I have a slight prejudice in favor of Ferdinand and Isabella, as they are my 23rd great grandparents.

Since my research has proved that Spain was just as important an alley as France, I started examining the reasons that could have precipitated the oversight of Spain’s support.

I suspect that most Americans believed that Spain started the Spanish American War by sinking the USS Maine in Havana harbor.  Recently, evidence has come forth that the explosion on the Maine was accidental, but there has never been an apology issued to Spain, nor any attempt made to adjust the results of that war.

Some may resent Spain’s position of neutrality in the First and Second World Wars.  Some historians look down on Ferdinand and Isabella because of the Inquisition.  The insidious “Black Legend” criticized Spain for the Inquisition, yet this was a function of the Catholic Church, and not the Crown.

Also the Black Legend contended that Spain was crueler to American natives than other colonial powers.  To the contrary, Spain was the only colonial power to pass laws for the protection of Native Americans.  In 1512, the Laws of Burgos forbad the mistreating of indigenous people and it also limited the powers of  landowners. In 1542, Spain passed a  new law to further protect the natives.  Even though there were Spaniards in America who mistreated the natives, these two laws reflected the intent of the Spanish colonial government of the time to protect the rights of the native population.

No matter the reason for this historical slight, hopefully after reading this book, readers will understand the extent of Spain’s assistance and give credit where credit is due.

After my first article about Spain’s involvement in the American Revolutionary War, I received a letter of thanks from His Royal Majesty Juan Carlos I de Borbón, King of Spain.  A copy of the letter from the king is attached as Appendix A.  Subsequent letters from the royal family are attached as Appendix B, C, and D.

In May 2010, my wife Robin and I led a group of SAR members and their wives, many of whom were members of DAR on a tour of Spain.

We were granted a private audience with Crown Prince Felipe  The SAR and DAR chapters of Spain; and a large group of the Order of the Granaderos y Damas de Gálvez joined us.  At that time I presented Crown Prince Felipe with the SAR International Medal.

Following the formal ceremonies, Crown Prince Felipe called me aside.  He said:

“I want you to write a book about Spain in the American Revolutionary War.  Then, I want you to write a screen play and make a movie.  I would like to see Antonio Banderas play the part of Gálvez”.

I told the prince that I could write the book, but I had no experience with writing a screen play, and that it would be up to Hollywood to make a movie and they would select the stars.


Ed Butler
SARPG0910@aol.com 
www.galvezbook.com 


REVIEWS:

Never has a more important book been written that confirms what has been silent in our American History books. Our students identify closely with Mexico and now through Judge Butler’s scholarly work, they can, as Americans, be proud of their ancestors important role in the birth of our beloved nation. Every student of American history can now know “the rest of the story”. Thank you Judge Butler for your passion and commitment to our history and for making all of us with Spanish sir names proud.
~ Dr. Maria Hernandez Ferrier, President
Texas A&M University-San Antonio

Wonderful book! You have done a great, great service here. Thank you!
~ Lila Guzman, Ph.D., is the award-winning author of Lorenzo and the Pirate (Blooming Tree Press), the 4th novel in the Lorenzo series about Spanish participation in the American Revolution.

With this book, Judge Ed Butler tells “the rest of the story” that most people never knew about the American Revolution.
~Judge Robert H. Thonhoff, author, The Texas Connection With the American Revolution.

The research and explanation provided in this book should leave no doubt in anyone’s mind as to the substantial aid, and the vast extent of that aid, provided by Spain to the American colonists before and during the American Revolution. A must read.
~Joseph D. Perez, Governor General, Order of the Granaderos y Damas de Galvez.

There are many fine books of recent publication out on General Bernardo de Gálvez, but, Gálvez/ Spain Our Forgotten Ally in the American Revolutionary War is a tidy, quick-read, quick-reference book, handy to have on hand to convince any sincere truth seeker, that in fact, the Spanish did play an important, very major role in winning the American Revolution.

~Mimi Lozano, educator and activist for Hispanic rights who co-founded the Society of Hispanic Historical and Ancestral Research, and is the editor and publisher of Somos Primos, an online monthly publication dedicated to Hispanic heritage. She was named the 2006 Woman of the Year by the Costa Mesa, California Assembly.

This book is the first book written on the involvement of Spain in the American Revolution that ties in all the intricate ingredients necessary to understand the full scope of the War. It is superbly written and documented and will no doubt find its way beside other notable authors such as Chavez, Loya, Jackson and Chipman to mention a few. If there were one book that should be listed as required reading for history majors, Galvez/ Spain – Our Forgotten Ally In The American Revolutionary Way: A Concise Summary Of Spain’s Assistance should be that book.
~Jack V. Cowan, Founder and President of The Texas Connection To the American Revolution





Sons of the American Revolution Annual Conference on the American Revolution 
June 12-14, 2015


Mount Vernon is proud to serve as the 2015 conference host and co-sponsor for the Sons of the American Revolution (SAR)’s Annual Conference on the American Revolution. Other partner organizations include the Friends of Hermione – Lafayette in America.   This conference will highlight the well-known alliance between the United States and France as well as lesser-known relationships with the Netherlands, Spain, and other Europeans states and individuals.

Location: Rubenstein Leadership Hall, Fred W. Smith National Library
3600 Mount Vernon Memorial Highway
Mount Vernon, Virginia 22121

Cost: $250

http://www.mountvernon.org/library/events-programs-calendar/the-marquis-de-
lafayette-and-the-european-
friends-of-the-american-revolution/
 

Sent by Teresa Valcarce  tvalcarc@aft.org 




Spain to turn over to U.S. documents linked to American independence:


Spain's ambassador to the United States, Ramon Gil Casares, next week will turn over to a U.S. library the 13-volume work prepared between 1976 and 1985 by the Spanish Foreign Ministry on documents in Spanish archives linked to American independence.

The Spanish Embassy announced on Thursday that "this publication will allow researchers at the Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington, at Mount Vernon, to have access to this body of documents held at the General Archive of the Indies in Seville, the National Historical Archive in Madrid and the General Archive of Simancas in Valladolid, among others."

The documents delve into "Spain's contribution in the war of the Thirteen Colonies against Great Britain" which resulted in U.S. independence, said the diplomatic legation in a communique.

The work, the announcement said, is "an important reference collection of 13 volumes that identifies all the known documents related to the American Revolution that are held in the Spanish archives."

The presentation of the work comes in keeping with "the cooperation ... of the Spanish Embassy with this institution as part of the events undertaken to promote better understanding of the historical relations between our two countries through the figure of Bernardo de Galvez," the communique adds.

As part of the exchange, this June, Professor of American History Sylvia Hilton, with Madrid's Complutense University, will participate in the International Seminar organized by the George Washington Library regarding the diplomatic aspects of the American Revolution.

The Fred W. Smith Library in Virginia promotes the study of the first U.S. president, George Washington, and the times in which he lived. EFE

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2015/04/16/spain-to-turn-over-to-us-documents-
linked-to-american-independence
 
Sent by Joe Perez,
 jperez329@satx.rr.com 



 

Spanish SURNAMES

Jose Antonio Menchaca Campaign by Rosie Carbo
El origen de los apellidos




Jose Antonio Menchaca Campaign
by Rosie Carbo
rosic@aol.com


Jose Antonio Menchaca
1859-1860
“Courtesy of Texas State Library and Archives Commission.”


         What does Jose Antonio Menchaca have in common with Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie? Like the two heroes of the battle of The Alamo, Menchaca is also a war hero. This is well documented according to the Texas State Historical Handbook.

          Menchaca fought for Texas Independence from Mexico at the Battle of San Jacinto. He also led a cavalry of Tejanos-Texan-born citizens of Mexican descent-against Indian attacks north and west of San Antonio.

          Jose Antonio Menchaca was born on January 17, 1800 in San Antonio, Texas. He died in 1879 in the Alamo city, which is in Bexar County. By the time Texans revolted and gained Independence from Mexico in 1836, Menchaca’s loyalty was well known.  

          Although a town, school and an Austin road are named in his honor, Menchaca’s surname is consistently misspelled. So for the past few years, retired district Judge Robert “Bob” Perkins has been leading an effort to correct the spelling of Menchaca.

          Perkins, a longtime resident of Austin and amateur historian, started a website called Justice for Menchaca to raise awareness of the spelling, which is incorrectly spelled “Manchaca” on an Austin road, school and the town itself.

          At www.justiceformenchaca.com  supporters include comments concerning the misspelled Spanish surname. There’s also a petition drive to help persuade officials to correct their past spelling mistakes. The petition currently lacks the 1,000 signatures necessary to present to officials but has attracted statewide attention.

          “Jose Antonio Menchaca fought for Texas Independence. I think the least we can do for one of our Texas patriots is spell his name correctly,” said Perkins, who also started a nonprofit organization to raise funds to correct the name of Manchaca Rd, Manchaca school and the town of Manchaca, Texas. 

          When Perkins launched his campaign, he didn’t anticipate encountering gargantuan opposition to correcting the spelling of Menchaca. But after being interviewed by the Austin American Statesman newspaper about his efforts, there was a firestorm of resistance. And detractors persist even today.

          Moreover, anyone who lives in Texas quickly learns that non Spanish-speaking Texans like to maintain the status quo, even if it’s a myth, legend or downright incorrect. Many Texans insist on mispronouncing Spanish names. So misspelling a Spanish surname is seemingly inconsequential.

          “People have a right to say it (Menchaca) the way they want to say it,” Perkins said. But if the spelling is corrected, they may finally pronounce Menchaca phonetically correct instead of “Manshack.”

          That would be surprising, given the fact that mispronouncing words in Texas is as acceptable as misspelling. For example, the Texas town of “Mexia” is always mispronounced “Mahaya” instead of correctly pronouncing it “Mejia,” the Spanish surname. Enunciating the letter “x” as in Mexico would be more logical. 

          Even worse, the county in which Jose Antonio Menchaca was born is now pronounced Bear! Newcomers may be coerced into that pronunciation but what about the spelling? Is it Bear? Or is it bare? That’s what one Yankee journalist once asked.

          Actually, Bexar County, which is a name derived from San Antonio de Bexar, the city’s original name, is Spanish. So it too is a victim of habitual mispronunciation, albeit retaining Bexas, the original Spanish word.

          What’s at work in Texas, with the cooperation of television and radio media, is an effort to perpetuate mispronunciation of Spanish words. The usual excuse is that English is the law of the land and words must be “Anglo Saxon” compliant.

          Take the town of Salado, mispronounced “Salaydo” daily.  A popular street that cuts across San Antonio is habitually pronounced “Blanko” instead of “Blanco.” Amarillo will always be pronounced Amarilo as in Brillo pads. And the lengthy list of Spanish words Angloized goes on and on.

          Although Manchaca Road in Austin is part of the Texas Department of Transportation state highway system, corrections by city officials are allowed when the signs are deteriorated enough to need replacing.  Although spelling corrections are rare, it could be done in this history-rich case.

          “It’s the city of Austin we are dealing with on this issue. They say we need to raise the money to pay to correct the street signs, and I think their position is the correct one,” said Perkins, who was born in Laredo, Texas and graduated from the University of Texas law school in 1973.

          The two reasons he agrees with Austin is that for one, the residents of the Texas town misspelled the name wrong in the first place. The second reason is that the government misspelled the surname when it named a local spring for Jose Antonio Menchaca. That’s really where the whole problem began.

          Before Perkins embraced the issue of Menchaca’s surname being misspelled, little was known about the descendants. But once the story broke, Perkins was inundated with requests for more information from distant relatives as far away as New York, Michigan and Hawaii.

          Now the list of supporters number in the hundreds as friends and relatives learn via the Justice for Menchaca website and Facebook that one of their distant Texas ancestors was a Tejano patriot who fought along Juan Seguin for Texas Independence.

          In fact, through his nonprofit and its 501C status, Perkins has received thousands of dollars that will help correct the problem. With fund raising efforts off to a great start, Perkins has begun putting aside donations in hopes of beginning the arduous task of buying signs and paying labor costs to correct Manchaca school, road and the name of the tiny Texas town.     

          A book titled “Recollections of a Tejano Life: Antonio Menchaca in Texas History,”edited by Jesus F. de la Teja and Timothy Matovina, with the collaboration of Justin Poche, published in 2013 by the University of Texas Press, may have helped a cause that is as near to Perkins’ heart as Texas itself.

          “This guy (Jose Antonio Menchaca) put his life on the line for Texas. We owe it to him to spell his name right,” Perkins said.

 

ABOUT:  Judge Bob Perkins was born in Laredo, Texas and was raised in Mirando City, Sinton, Carrizo Springs, and Eagle Pass, Texas. He learned Spanish before English and was the first bilingual, bicultural judge elected in Travis County. He graduated high school in Eagle Pass and then came to the University of Texas. He got his Bachelor of Arts degree in Government in 1970 and graduated from U.T. Law School and became a lawyer in 1973. He was elected Justice of the Peace of Precinct 4 in Travis County in 1974, then was appointed and elected Judge of County Court at Law No. 2 in 1980. He became a District Judge of the 331st District Court of Travis County, where he served from 1982 to the end of 2010. He was last opposed in local races in 1980. He has heard many high profile cases and was elected by his colleagues as the first Presiding Criminal Judge of Travis County. As such, he presided over the 13 criminal courts of the county. While serving as a JP Judge Perkins reformed writs and petition forms to use plain English to make legal proceedings more understandable to the public. Judge Perkins was the first District Judge in Travis County to require that the DA consult with victims before making plea bargain offers. The legislature did not require this until years later.

His 36 years as an elected judge place him second only to Judge Mace B. Thurman Jr. who served as a judge from 1941 to 1990. Judge Perkins has helped pass legislation in the field of criminal justice, has spoken at many venues on varied legal topics, and has authored an outline used by lawyers concerning Texas criminal jury charges.

His parents, Bill and Carol Perkins were both educators and large influences in his life. Because his father was an American History teacher, he grew up with history books all around him, resulting in his fascination with history, government, and politics. He ran as a Democrat for the Court of Criminal Appeals (a statewide office) in 1996 and won the Democratic nomination but suffered his only election loss in November of that year when Republicans won every office in Texas. He has been an active member of the Mexican American Democrats and Tejano Democrats since 1977.

His mother, Carol Perkins, was raised in Mexico so Bob learned Spanish from her. His mother’s work in bilingual education has been recognized nationwide. Bob’s love of singing both in English and Spanish comes from his mother.
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On Thu, Apr 23, 2015 at 12:34 PM, Bob Perkins <judgebobperkins@gmail.com> wrote: 

It's the city of Austin we are dealing with, on this issue. They say we need to raise the money to pay to correct the street signs and I think their position is the correct one for this reason: The road is misspelled b/c the town itself is misspelled and this is the road to that misspelled place. That is not Austin's fault , but rather the people of "Manchaca" for spelling it wrong in the first place. Let's say San Antonio was misspelled San Antone--our road there would then be called the Old San Antone Road---you name the road by its destination however they spell it. So this is really a 3 step process: First to get Austin to spell the name right b/c there is no reason why the name SHOULD BE MISSPELLED, and Austin should not be an accomplice in committing this error. Second to get the USGS to spell his name right on the spring named for him and the last step is to get the town itself (actually it is only a post office designation not an incorporated city )to be spelled right---now as to this last step I don't live in that zip code named for him so it is not proper for me to ask the Postal authorities to change the name of the post office, but I will testify in favor of this whenever anyone else who DOES LIVE THERE brings it up. BP 

Anyone who would like to donate money 
to the fund-raising effort to correct Menchaca's name may send a check to:
Justice for Menchaca
1104 Nueces
Austin, Texas 78701
For more information email Perkins at judgebobperkins@gmail.com 






El origen de los apellidos

El apellido es el nombre antroponímico de la familia con que se distingue a las personas. 
(véase antroponimia)
 
Introducción 
En la mayoría de los países de idioma español / habla castellana, cada persona suele tener dos apellidos derivados de la familia de su padre y madre (apellidos paternos y maternos, respectivamente). En Argentina, tradicionalmente, se utilizaba sólo el apellido paterno, no el materno, pero un proyecto de ley impulsado en 2008 habría previsto homologar esta situación a la del resto de países hispanohablantes.

Por tanto, la identificación o nombre de una persona en la tradición hispánica está compuesto de: nombre de pila (o simplemente nombre, pudiendo ser más de uno) - apellido paterno y apellido materno, ordenados por intercalación. Es decir, el primer apellido de una persona es el primer apellido de su padre, el segundo apellido de una persona es el primer apellido de su madre, el tercer apellido es el segundo apellido de su padre, el cuarto apellido es el segundo de su madre, etc. De esta forma una persona tiene tantos apellidos como quiera y corresponden a los de sus antepasados. Si bien en los países se permite generalmente sólo el registro de dos apellidos.

En el Idioma portugués se usa el mismo sistema, pero los apellidos se invierten (influencia que estuvo arraigada en Canarias varios siglos), mientras que en muchos países del mundo sólo se hereda el apellido paterno.

El uso de los apellidos es muy distinto entre las culturas del mundo. En particular los habitantes de Tíbet y Java a menudo no utilizan apellido.

El apellido de una mujer cambia tradicionalmente tras contraer matrimonio en algunas culturas, aunque hay pocos países que obliguen a realizar dicho cambio.

En Rusia y en Bulgaria, el nombre completo de una persona consta del nombre de pila, patronímico y apellido. La mayor parte de los apellidos rusos tienen como origen patronímicos, es decir, el nombre del padre formado usualmente añadiendo el sufijo -ov (a) o -ev (a), donde la "a" se utiliza para el género femenino. Los patronímicos actuales, sin embargo, tienen el sufijo -ovich o -evich para el género masculino y el sufijo -ovna o -evna para el femenino. Por ejemplo, si un ruso llamado Iván Petróvich Popov tuviera un hijo llamado Iván y una hija llamada Irina, sus nombres completos serían Iván Ivánovich Popov e Irina Ivánovna Popova.

En Islandia, el apellido consiste simplemente en el patronímico con el sufijo -son (hijo) o -dóttir (hija). Por ejemplo, los hijos de Guðmund Jónsson serían Stefán Guðmundsson (hijo) y Vígdis Guðmundsdóttir (hija), mientras que los de Stefán serían Þór Stefánsson (hijo) y Guðrún Stefánsdóttir (hija), tal cual es el caso de la cantante Björk Guðmundsdóttir.

Registro y modificación de los apellidos 
El registro de los apellidos se realiza al inscribir a una persona en el Registro Civil. Las regulaciones de cada país definen los límites permitidos en el registro.

Por ejemplo, la legislación española actual limita el número de nombres simples en el registro pero no el número de apellidos. Si bien previo a la reforma de 1999 sólo se permitían dos apellidos (el paterno y el materno), el Reglamento del Registro Civil sólo considera la posibilidad de registrar dos apellidos. Además, en España, desde el 5 de noviembre de 1999, se puede elegir el orden de los apellidos tanto en el momento de inscribir a una persona al nacer, condicionando el resto de inscripciones de hijos de los mismos padres, como tras la mayoría de edad. Además, las parejas de personas del mismo sexo que, como consecuencia de la Matrimonio entre personas del mismo sexo en España / ley 13/2005 de 30 de junio, decidan adoptar han de elegir el orden de los apellidos de su primer hijo, que se mantendrá en los siguientes (como en los demás casos).

En Chile, a partir del 1 de enero de 2005, de acuerdo a la nueva ley sobre apellidos, también se puede elegir el orden los apellidos. Este cambio debe realizarse previo acuerdo de ambos padres, de esta forma el apellido materno puede anteceder al apellido paterno.

La ley generalmente permite la modificación de los apellidos a los mayores de edad y en el caso de adopciones. Adicionalmente, la legislación española permite la unión de dos apellidos para formar un apellido compuesto. Esta práctica es común cuando el segundo apellido (el que proviene de la madre) no es corriente y no se desea perder. Al unir ambos apellidos en un único apellido compuesto (generalmente con un guión) se asegura que no se perderá al intercalarse con otros apellidos en generaciones posteriores.

Origen de los apellidos hispánicos 
La mayoría de los apellidos, según el origen, se pueden dividir en:

Apellidos patronímicos
Apellidos toponímicos
Apellidos derivados de oficios
Apellidos descriptivos
Apellidos castellanizados


Apellidos patronímicos 
Los apellidos patronímicos están muy difundidos y son aquéllos que han sido originados por un nombre de pila / nombre propio. En la antigua Corona de Castilla y en países que fueron sus colonias, se utiliza principalmente la desinencia "-ez". Por ejemplo, del nombre de pila Lope deriva López. En países de habla portuguesa se emplea una terminación con el mismo origen: "-es". Se trata de una desinencia de origen gótico que originalmente se habría transcrito "-ath".{{cita requerida}} Así, Fernández en su forma más primitiva habría sido Fritunanthath, siendo Fritunanth el origen gótico del nombre Fernando.

Un ejemplo de apellidos patronímicos se puede ver con los condes de Anexo:Monarcas de Castilla
Gonzalo Fernández (hijo de Fernando).
Fernán González (hijo de Gonzalo).

Con similar significado tenemos el sufijo -son (‘hijo’) utilizado en apellidos escandinavia / nórdicos e Reino Unido / ingleses (Harrison, Morrison, Edison), "-ovich / -evich" y "-ov (a)/ -ev (a)" de los apellidos idioma ruso / rusos y otras culturas eslavo / eslavas; además de los prefijos Ibn- o Bin- de los árabes, Ben- de los judíos, Mac- y Mc-, de los escoceses e irlandeses, u O- de los irlandeses. (Véase también la formación de nombres islandeses).

Sin embargo, algunos apellidos patronímicos no se transformaron y simplemente existen como el nombre que los originó, y que, en algunos casos, ha caído en desuso (como pueden ser, entre otros, Alonso, Bernabé, Bernal, García, Juan, Vicente o Simón). Otros apellidos patronímicos se forman por sintagma preposicional: Del Frade o Del Frate (‘hijo del fraile’), Del Greco (‘hijo del griego’), De los Reyes, etc.

Un apellido no patronímico por excelencia es "Expósito" o "Espósito", que a menudo se daba antiguamente a los infantes abandonados de padres desconocidos.

Algunos apellidos patronímicos son:

Álvarez (apellido) / Álvarez (Álvar, Álvaro)
Alves (apellido) / Alves
Antolínez (Antolín)
Antúnez (apellido) / Antúnez (Antón, Antonio)
Benítez (apellido) / Benítez (Benito)
Bermúdez (apellido) / Bermúdez (Bermudo)
Bernales (apellido) / Bernal (Bernal)
Díaz (apellido) / Díaz, Díez, Diéguez (Diego)
Domínguez (apellido) / Domínguez (Domingo)
Enríquez (apellido) / Enríquez (Enrico, Enrique)
Estévez (apellido) / Estévez (Estevo, Esteban)
Faúndez (apellido) / Faúndez (Facundo)
Fernández (apellido) / Fernández, Hernández (Fernando, Hernán)
Flórez (apellido) / Florez (Floro)
Froilaz (Froilán)
Galíndez (apellido) / Galíndez (Galindo)
Gálvez (apellido) / Gálvez (Galva)
Garcés (apellido) / Garcés, Garcez (García)
Gil (apellido) / Gil (derivado de Egidio)
Giménez (apellido) / Giménez, Jiménez, Ximénez, Ximenes (Ximeno)
Godínez (apellido) / Godínez (Godino)
Gómez (apellido) / Gómez (Gome, Guillermo)
González (apellido) / González (Gonzalo)
Güemes (apellido) / Güemes < Guémez (Gome)
Gutiérrez (apellido) / Gutiérrez (Gutierre)
Henríquez (apellido) / Henríquez (Henrique)
Hernández (apellido) / Hernández (Hernán)
Ibáñez (apellido) / Ibáñez (Juan)
Íñiguez (apellido) / Íñiguez (Íñigo)
Jiménez (apellido) / Jiménez (Jimeno)
Juárez (apellido) / Juárez , Suárez, Xuárez
Juánez (Juan)
Laínez (Laín)
López (apellido) / López (Lope)
Márquez (apellido) / Márquez (Marco)
Martínez (apellido) / Martínez (Martín)
Meléndez (apellido) / Meléndez, Menéndez (Melendo, Menendo)
Méndez (apellido) / Méndez (Mendo)
Mínguez (apellido) / Mínguez (Mingo o Domingo)
Muñoz (apellido) / Muñoz (Muño)
Nunes (apellido) / Nunes (Nuno)
Núñez (apellido) / Núñez (Nuño)
Ordóñez (apellido) / Ordóñez (Ordoño < Fortún, Fortunio)
Ortiz (apellido) / Ortiz (Ortún < Fortún)
Peláez (apellido) / Peláez (Pelayo)
Pérez (apellido) / Pérez, Peretz, Peres (Pere, Pero, Pedro)
Regúlez (apellido) / Regúlez (Régulo)
Ramírez (apellido) / Ramírez (Ramiro)
Rodríguez (apellido) / Rodríguez (Rodrigo < Hroderitz)
Ruiz (apellido) / Ruiz (Roi o Roy, Ruy, hipocorísticos de Rodrigo)
Sánchez (apellido) / Sánchez, Sáez, Sáenz, Sainz (Sancho)
Silva (apellido) / Silva (Silfredo)
Suárez (apellido) / Suárez, Juárez, Xuárez (Suero)
Téllez (apellido) / Téllez (Tello)
Vázquez (apellido) / Vázquez, Vásquez (Vasco)
Velázquez (apellido) / Velázquez (Velasco)
Vélez (apellido) / Vélez
Yagüe (apellido) / Yagüe, Yágüez (Yagüe o Yago < Santiago)
Yñigo (Íñigo)
Ysabel (Isabel)


Apellidos toponímicos 
Estos apellidos son los más difundidos en el mundo hispano{{cita requerida}}. Derivan del nombre del lugar donde vivía, procedía o poseía tierras la persona o familia asociados al apellido. Muchos se encuentran precedidos de la preposición "de", "del", "de la" o simplemente son gentilicios.

Los apellidos toponímicos son muy numerosos en español y forman casi el 80% de los apellidos navarros y vascos, en particular aquéllos que siguen a un sobrenombre (por ejemplo, ‘Otxoa de Zabalegi’, o sea, ‘Otxoa (nombre propio medieval el lobo de Zabalegi’).

Algunos apellidos toponímicos son:

álamo / Alameda
Alarcia (apellido)
Altamirano
Anglès (Gerona) / Anglès
Aragón / Aragonés
Aranda
Arriaga (pedregal)
Arroyo
rúa / Arrúa
Asturias
Artiga (tierra arada)
avellana / Avellaneda
Ávila
Avilés
Aya
Bailén
Barahona (apellido) / Barahona / Baraona
Barcelona / Barceló
Bilbao
La Bisbal del Ampurdán / Bisbal 
Calle
Cárdenas
Carpio (Valladolid)
Carranza
Castañón
Castañeda
Catalán (apellido) / Catalán
Cervantes
Cornejo
Cózar (Ciudad Real)
Cuéllar (Segovia)
Cuenca (España) / Cuenca
Dávila (resultado de la contracción De Ávila)
Frontera (apellido) / Frontera
Fuentes
Galicia / Gallego
Linares (apellido) / Linares
Apellido Llaguno / Llaguno
Madrid
Mansilla Mayor / Mansilla
Marín, marino
Marroquí
Miranda (apellido) / Miranda
Molina / Molino (apellido) / Molina
Monclús (apellido) / Monclús
Montes
Montilla (apellido) / Montilla
Morata (apellido) / Morata
Nápoles (de la ciudad italiana)
Navarra / Navarro
Ocaña (apellido) / Ocaña
Olloqui
Orellana
Palmar (apellido) / Palmar
Orihuela
Pineda
Prado
Robledano
Riancho
Ribadavia, Rivadavia
Rivas
Sarabia
Sangüesa, Sanhueza, Sambuesa, Zanhuesa
Salazar
Saldaña
Santander (Cantabria) / Santander
Santisteban
Serrano
Sevilla
Silveira
Soria, Soriano
Soto (apellido) / Soto
Tarragona / Tarragó
Tarragona
Tàrrega / Tàrrech
Toledo, Toledano
Tormo
Torquemada
Torrente
Torres
Tortajada
Valderas o Val de Eras / Balderas (León)
Valdovinos
Valenzuela
Valpuesta
Valverde
Vargas
Viera
villa (apellido) / Villa
Villalba
Villanueva
Villena
Viñas (apellido) / Viñas
Vitoria
Zamora (España) / Zamorano.


También se aplica a los accidentes geográficos, o cosas de la naturaleza, de todo lo que el hombre ve y conoce sobre la faz de la Tierra:

Cerro
Colina
Cuevas
Hoyos
Lago / Lagos
Laguna
Montemayor
Montaña
Montes
Nieves

También los nombres de la flora: árboles (Castaño, Olmo, Encina, Palma, Robles,Granado/Granados); de flores, muy frecuentemente adoptados por los judío converso / judíos conversos y los moriscos, (Clavel, Flores, Rosal) o en otros idiomas Stengel (‘tallo’, en alemán); de edificaciones o partes de éstas (Castillo, Columna, Palacios, Paredes, Atalaya); de animales (Toro, Vaca, Cabeza de Vaca, Águila, Aguilar, Aguilera, Cordero); 
de partes de una ciudad (Calle, Fuentes, Plaza, Puente);
de los colores (Blanco, Pardo, Rojo, Verde).



Apellidos de oficios o profesiones 
Son aquéllos que derivan del oficio o profesión que ejercía la persona o familia asociada al apellido. Algunos apellidos de oficios o profesiones son:

Alcalde, Alcaide
Alférez
Ballester, Ballestero, Ballesteros
Batanero
Barbero
Botero
Caballero
Camarero
Caminero
Cantero
Carpintero
Carnicero
Carreiro
Carretero
Castillero
Cerecero
Cillero
Correa
Cubero
escriba / Escrivá
herrero / Ferrer, Ferrero, Ferrufino, Herrera, Herrero
Guerrero
hidalgo (noble) / Hidalgo
Jurado
Labrador
Manzanero
Marinero
Merino (nombre del juez o autoridad de una merindad)
Melero (mercado de la miel)
Molinero
Morterero
Notario
Ovejero
Panadero
Pastor
Sabater (cat. Zapatero)
Sacristán
Saetero
Sastre, Sartori
Sillero
Soldado
Teixidó (Evolución de Teixidor en catalán o Tejedor en castellano)
Tejedor
Tornero
Vaquero
Verdugo
zapato / Zapatero


Apellidos de apodos o de descripciones 
Son aquéllos que derivan de una descripción o algún apodo de la persona o familia asociada al apellido. Algunos apellidos de apodos o descripción física son:

Aguado
Alegre
Barriga
Bello
Bermejo (rojo)
Blanco
Bravo
Bueno
Cabello
Cabeza
Cabezón
Calvo
Cano
Castaños
Cortés
Crespo
Delgado
Descalzo
Gallo
Gordo
Grande
Hermoso
Hurtado
Leal
Lozano
Manso
Malo
Matamoros
Moreno
Pequeño
Pinto
Prieto
Rojo
Rubio
Seco


La influencia de la Inquisición 
Algunos apellidos compuestos como San Basilio, San Juan, San Martín, Santamaría, Santana, Santángelo, Santiago o en general aquellos que comienzan con San, Santa o Santo o Santos nacieron entre otros casos, en épocas de la Inquisición / Santa Inquisición española, cuando los sefardíes, moriscos, gitanos y otras etnias tuvieron que huir y cambiar de apellidos usando estos compuestos. Un caso particular es el de Santos, de origen judío español, que debido a la persecusión de la Iglesia Católica, obligó o forzó a quienes llevaban este apellido a emigrar a Italia y este apellido se italianizó Santi (Santi es un apellido italiano en plural que traducido al castellano significa Santos, he aquí la concordancia). Esto ocurrió en el siglo XVI. También existe un ejemplo de un apellido español italianizado que es Borja y que cambió para Borgia, que es la famosa familia radicada en Italia y se conocen a Rodrigo Borgia y Lucrecia Borgia. Asimismo, Borja es un apellido de raíz hebrea.

Apellidos castellanizados 
Los apellidos castellanizados son aquéllos que no tienen un origen hispano, pero que con la influencia del idioma castellano / castellano fueron transformándose con una grafía o gramaticalmente a lo más parecido en la fonética española; lo más común es debido a la presencia de algún individuo de un linaje extranjero radicado en España o sus antiguas colonias. También son castellanizados algunos apellidos de procedencia indígena, siendo común que algunos apellidos fueran adaptados a otros ya existentes debido a que tienen una fonética similar.

Algunos apellidos castellanizados son:

Acuña: del portugués Cunha
Chuquisengo (apellido) / Chuquisengo: de origen peruano 
Farías: de origen portugués (Fariao)
Gallardo (apellido) / Gallardo: procede del idioma francés / francés Gaillard o Gallard
Guiñón: procede del francés (Guignon)
Hasbún: apellido de origen árabe
Gaete: del árabe Gafete
Guiñazú: del francés
Jara: del árabe "lleno de vegetación"
Jufré: del normando Geodfrey
Medina: voz árabe
Moctezuma: emperador Azteca
Trisera: del portugués Teixeira


Enlaces externos 
http://www.miparentela.com/mapas/detalles/ Distribución geográfica de los apellidos
http://www.apellido.com/ Buscador de Apellido.com.
http://www.geocities.com/heraldicabc/ El Abc de la heráldica y de los apellidos.
http://noticias.juridicas.com/base_datos/Privado/lrc.t5.html Ley de 8 de junio de 1957, sobre el Registro Civil. Ley española de Registro Civil.
http://noticias.juridicas.com/base_datos/Privado/rrc.t5.html Reglamento del Registro Civil. Reglamento bajo el que se rigen las inscripciones y modificaciones en el registro español.
http://noticias.juridicas.com/base_datos/Privado/l40-1999.html Ley 40/1999, de 5 de noviembre, sobre nombre y apellidos y orden de los mismos. Ley que modifica la ley española de registro civil permitiendo alteraciones de los apellidos.
http://wiki.gleducar.org.ar/wiki/Lista_de_Apellidos Lista de Apellidos en Wiki Gleducar.
http://www.heraldico.com/listapellidos/ Lista de apellidos con escudo heráldico e historia.
http://www.ine.es/daco/daco42/nombyapel/nombyapel.htm?L0 Nombres y apellidos más frecuentes de los residentes en España. Enlace al INE.
http://www.genealogiahispana.com/apellidos/ Índice de apellidos en el Directorio de Genealogía Hispana.
http://www.heraldicapellido.com/ Gran índice de apellidos con la bibliografía que los estudia.
http://genealogia.tk/directorio/apellidos.html Genealogía.tk/apellidos.html Directorio de genealogía organizado por categorías.
http://www.topgenealogia.com/apellidos/ Apellidos Directorio de Apellidos Organizado por Orden Alfabético.
http://www.pergaminovirtual.com.ar/apellidos/_a.php Pergaminovirtual: Apellidos
http://genealogia.atspace.com/ Árbol en Línea, genealogía de la inmigración europea en la zona centro de Santa Fe, Argentina.
http://club.telepolis.com/apoloyhermes/ Genealogía y heráldica Genealogía de Montalbán de Córdoba, España.
http://misapellidos.com/ misapellidos.com Buscador de apellidos
http://www.heraldaria.com/apellidos.php Los apellidos


Gracias a
Benicio Samuel Sánchez García
Genealogista e Historiador Familiar

Email: samuelsanchez@genealogia.org.mx
Website: http://www.Genealogia.org.mx  y http://www.GenealogiaDeMexico.com
Celular Monterrey :  044  811 191 6334  
Otras Ciudades de Mexico : 045 81 1 191 6334
USA 01152+1+81+1191 6334)


DNA

Family History and DNA Link New Mexicans to Mexico by Nicolás Cabrera 
             NMSU Student Series, by Nicolás Cabrera, Part 1 and Part 2 
DNA Roots from the Mexican States of Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas



NMSU Student Series
Nicolás Cabrera

Family History and DNA Link New Mexicans to Mexico, 
Part 1  Ernestino Tafoya by Nicolás Cabrera
April 2, 2015

Frontera NorteSur Editor’s Note: This is the first in an in-depth series about family history and genetic links between New Mexicans and Mexico. Nicolás Cabrera, a graduate student studying Spanish, worked on this piece as part of our continuing series of stories written by NMSU students.

It’s a typical Friday morning for Ernestino Tafoya as he gazes intently at a microfilm machine in the Haynes Family History Library in Albuquerque. He scrolls through an old church register from the 1800s, frame by frame, as he extracts vital information the record has concealed for decades. The priest’s handwriting is hard to read but he verifies the baptismal entry, which is written in Spanish and contains archaic abbreviations and terms. He has done this meticulous work for over 25 years and has extracted well over 20,000 names that chronicle the family history of the average Neomexicano, or New Mexican, since the arrival of the Spanish-Mexican settlers in 1598.

These paper records link New Mexicans across the centuries to Native American and European relatives in Mexico and Spain and tell their history, which is also interwoven by blood and DNA. Like many New Mexicans, Tafoya has deep roots in the state and his passion for family history was born out of a desire to learn more about them and his identity. In so doing, he has become an expert in genealogy records and family history for northern New Mexico.

“I was born in San Miguel County in San Miguel del Vado and raised in San José. I wondered where the people from San José had come from because they couldn’t have been there forever. So, that’s why I got started,” said Tafoya.

“Basically the people from San José and that area had come from Santa Fe and a lot of them were a part of the Diego de Vargas people including the Tafoyas. They had come from Michoacán (Mexico) and one of the soldiers that came with de Vargas was my ancestor, Antonio, who stayed in Santa Fe. Two other brothers named Cristóbal and Juan settled in the Santa Cruz area,” he said.

Extractors like Tafoya work hard since they do everything twice: first by extracting the information and then checking it for accuracy. Many become proficient at paleography, the study of writing systems and historic documents, as they sort out illegible handwriting, abbreviations, locales, ecclesiastical terminology, and other enigmas written in church and civil records in Spanish. Afterwards the information is made available to genealogists and family historians in print or online databases.

Tafoya has two colleagues with whom he works regularly at the family history library. Fred Aguirre is a retired engineer originally from Las Cruces who now resides in Albuquerque. He is an expert in the genealogy of southern New Mexico, which supersedes interstate and international borders to include El Paso, Texas and Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico. He got interested in genealogy for many of the same reasons that Tafoya did.

“I was curious about my great-grandparents who I didn’t know. A cousin had done some genealogy, but it wasn’t very clear and I didn’t have a lot of the background information to support it,” said Aguirre.

“Basically I started there and then there were some books on the Santa Fe Trail which prompted me to research a little more because one of my ancestors, Epifanio Aguirre, used to travel from Chihuahua to Missouri to do trading with merchants. Then he married a merchant’s daughter and I got interested in the Santa Fe Trail as a result of that,” he said.

Aguirre says that the story of southern New Mexico, including El Paso and Juárez, is linked to that of northern New Mexico. They are connected through history and blood as people moved up and down the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, the historic 1,600 mile (2,560 km) route that linked Santa Fe to Mexico City.

Ángel de Cervantes from Las Vegas, New Mexico agrees with Aguirre. He has been the executive director of the New Mexico DNA Project since its inception in October 2004 and is an expert in New Mexican DNA.

This unique project takes traditional genealogy a step beyond paper trails and family trees by linking families together through genetics and DNA samples. Many times the results offer clues and solve family mysteries that paper trails cannot. Like Tafoya and Aguirre, Cervantes developed an interest in genealogy and DNA as he began to piece together his family’s own history.

“I got into genealogy when I was 13 years old. I had a cousin who used to do extractions and I started looking at actual documents in my college years at UNM. I started doing the actual paper research probably in 1998 and 1999,” said Cervantes.

“I continued to do research on my own and then I got into DNA in the beginning of 2004. I got the spark by a graduate student from New York University who was doing his dissertation on the ancestry of New Mexico and southern Colorado Hispanics. I submitted my DNA results to him and that’s what got me interested. He said he would release the results when he came back and never did. That’s what got me started to do something independently that had more transparency with people who wanted to do DNA tests for ancestry and for genealogy,” he added.

Although their areas of expertise are different, these three genealogists have decades of personal and professional research experience that come together to tell the story of New Mexico from distinct points of view. One problem they run into is that many people who are interested in New Mexican genealogy and family history focus primarily on the northern part of the state. Consequently, the historic and genetic links to southern New Mexico and northern Mexico are often overlooked.

This is explained in part because many Hispanic families in New Mexico and southern Colorado can trace their lineage back generations, traversing through the Mexican period, to a time when this land was part of New Spain. Time and distance has made many modern-day inhabitants in the region feel disconnected from Mexico, even though the historic boundaries of New Mexico stretched from somewhere south of modern-day Pueblo, Colorado to the present-day twin cities of Ciudad Juárez and El Paso.

Aguirre said, “There doesn’t seem to be an interest from the people in the north since most of their families seem to be settled here from many years ago. They don’t seem to have an interest in the south, Mexico, or Juárez.”

Tafoya agrees. He said, “That’s true and I think that’s a mistake because when you go back to the Spanish archives and the de Vargas people, there are some who are down there that came up. So, if they can’t find them in northern New Mexico some people feel that’s the end. That might not be. They might be in the El Paso area because when the de Vargas people came up, some stayed over there. Some brothers and sisters came while others stayed down there. And they traveled to see each other or on the way to Chihuahua to trade.”

Later, when Mexico achieved independence from Spain, El Paso del Norte (now Ciudad Juárez) was siphoned off of New Mexico and became part of Chihuahua as the modern Mexican states of Chihuahua, Durango, and parts of Sonora were carved out of Nueva Vizcaya. New Mexico was designated territory status with Santa Fe remaining as its capital, but it lost El Paso del Norte as its southern most settlement.

Despite the changes in the political divisions, the fact remains that the Mexicans who live in Sonora and Chihuahua today are the closest genetic relatives to New Mexicans. Nonetheless, there is a detachment with Mexico that persists which is partly a result of a long and complicated history written by geography and conquest.

Cervantes, who is also a former state archivist, says that the north sees a conscious separation with the south, although this is a mistake both on paper and in blood. One of the reasons the separation exists is because of distance. He argues that the historic New Mexican settlements ranging from Socorro to southern Colorado have a distinct identity that has been shaped by a buffer zone, traditionally called La Jornada del Muerto, that extends south from Socorro to the Mesilla Valley.

Another reason, and perhaps more importantly, is the modern political construct of New Mexico being a U.S. state rather than a Mexican one. Tafoya reflected on this as he recalled what it was like enrolled in school in northern New Mexico.

“I think that had to do with school system. When we went to school we were referred to as Spanish rather than Mexican. But if you ask a New Mexican in Spanish what he is, he’ll say Mexican. If you say it in English, it’s Spanish. I think it’s the school system that changed that.”

He added, “The same with our names. My name is Ernestino and that became Ernest and I’m called Ernie. My sister was Emilia and she became Emily. And that happened in the school system.”

Despite geographical and political constructs that have fostered a Spanish identity instead of a Mexican one in parts of New Mexico, according to Cervantes the genetic story of the New Mexicans is one that reverberates to northern Mexico. He says New Mexicans genetically have more in common from their DNA with the peoples from the Mexican states of Chihuahua and Sonora.

“The Spanish gene pool of Nuevo México and the Spanish gene pool of Nueva Vizcaya, which is modern day Chihuahua and Sonora, is pretty much the same. And the Native American populations of Sonora and Chihuahua and the native populations of Nuevo México were pretty much the same,” said Cervantes.

“If they’re mixing with the same people, we’re the same people. I really want to make it clear that the Neomexicano Hispano and the northern Mexicano Hispano are the same people genetically, both by their Native American roots and their European roots,” he said.

In his research, Tafoya has come across evidence that supports Cervantes. Tafoya said, “We all have Indian, I believe. I don’t know of any New Mexican line that I’ve researched that doesn’t have some Indian somewhere. We mixed with the Indians and also the newcomers.”

In its database, the New Mexico DNA Project has matches for both mitochondrial DNA, which is from the mother, and Y-chromosomes, which is from the father. These matches are found in New Mexico, Mexico, Spain, and other parts of the world. They are stored in a secure database and new matches occur as more people test. Men can test for both their maternal and paternal DNA information while women can only test for their mother’s. To overcome this obstacle, women need a male relative to test, such as a father, brother, uncle, nephew or cousin to obtain complete and accurate results.

According to Cervantes, matches from hundreds of samples in the database prove that New Mexican Hispanics are closest genetically to the peoples of Sonora and Chihuahua. These links between New Mexico and Mexico have been overlooked as people attempt to make a connection to Spain, thereby bypassing Mexico. Cervantes described how this occurred in his family.

“My grandmother, who is a Neomexicana, always said we were Spanish,” he said. “My abuelito, my grandfather, always said we were Spanish. I think it has trickled down through the generations.”

Tafoya agrees that many people elevate Spain and foster an identity of being Spanish while looking down on Mexico and ignoring their Mexican roots.

“It’s really not uncommon for people to feel that way. I don’t know if they don’t want to accept the Indian or they feel that Spain is more cultured. But there is that feeling and I have to assume that they make less of Mexico than Spain,” he said.

However, in the southern part of the state a Spanish/Mexican debate did not really exist, according to Aguirre. “In the south I don’t remember anybody saying that they were Spanish or Spaniard because of the recent migration from Mexico,” he said.

Wherever the paper trail may lead family history research, both beginning and expert researchers have countless genealogical resources at their disposal. Together, through books and blood, Aguirre, Cervantes, and Tafoya continue to help New Mexicans and others trace their ancestry to find their roots and have a better understanding of family history.

— Nicolás Cabrera

Frontera NorteSur: on-line, U.S.-Mexico border news
Center for Latin American and Border Studies
New Mexico State University
Las Cruces, New Mexico

For a free electronic subscription  email: fnsnews@nmsu.edu
Sent by Dorinda Moreno  pueblosenmovimientonorte@gmail.com 


April 9, 2015

NMSU Student Series

Family History and DNA Link New Mexicans to Mexico, Part 2
New Mexicans families have genetic connections with families in northern Mexican states 

This is the second article about family history and genetics that link New Mexicans and Mexico. Nicolás Cabrera, a graduate student studying Spanish, filed this report as part of our series written by NMSU students.

Through the centuries, very good ecclesiastical and civil records have been kept and preserved in New Mexico that document the history of Neomexicanos, or New Mexicans. The surviving records, when coupled with DNA and genetic testing, tell a captivating story that reverberates back to Mexico and Spain through the centuries.

Ernestinto Tafoya, Fred Aguirre, and Ángel de Cervantes are three experts in New Mexico family history who have years of experience and knowledge uncovering the true origins of New Mexicans. They help both novices and seasoned genealogists trace their roots in different ways as new family branches are uncovered and genealogical brick walls crumble. Sometimes the families they help try to make direct connections to Spain and overlook Mexico, thereby missing opportunities to expand their research further.

Aguirre, who is originally from southern New Mexico, said, “One of the things that I noticed since I moved to Albuquerque is that some of the people in the north, like in Taos, associate more with the Spaniards as opposed to Mexicans. And for whatever those reasons are, they don’t seem to connect with the south as much. One of the things that I found different between the north and the south is that they’ve been here for a long time, too.”

However, the effort to connect to Spain is not unique to New Mexico and has happened in Mexico as well. Aguirre shared how during the Mexican Revolution a distant relative identified as Spanish during an encounter with Pancho Villa.

“An example that comes to mind was a newspaper article of an Aguirre. This was the 1900s and it was a great article. I can’t remember the position he had, but he was located in Juárez and it had something to do with the trade between El Paso and Juárez. They were telling his story in the newspaper where he was traveling to visit his father in Durango and that was during the Pancho Villa period,” he said.

Aguirre continued by saying, “He was stopped by Villa’s soldiers and he was taken to meet Villa who asked him about the Aguirres because he knew his dad. And the Aguirre said that his family came from Spain even though they had been in Juárez four or five generations. But he skipped over all that and went to Spain and said that the name was from there.”

Despite a sentiment of some New Mexicans identifying as Spanish, the evidence on paper and in blood says otherwise. The three genealogy experts agree that many of the families that have deep roots in New Mexico still have extended families living today in Chihuahua, Durango, Sonora, Zacatecas, and other parts of Mexico. They said that surnames such as Armijo, Baca, Cortés, Durán y Chávez, García de Noriega, Lucero de Godoy, Padilla, and Ulibarrí, among others, are not unique to New Mexico and can be found throughout Mexico, particularly in the north.

“A lot of the same families that were in New Mexico stayed in Mexico and you will see these names in cathedral records in Chihuahua. A lot of times you will see the exact same names you would see in Santa Fe for the same time period. We’re talking the 1700s,” said Cervantes.

It is also well documented that some New Mexicans stayed in the Juárez area after fleeing the Pueblo Revolt, or the Masacre de San Lorenzo as it is known in Spanish, in 1680 while others sought refuge farther south in New Spain. After the U.S. takeover of New Mexico in the 1840s, hundreds of New Mexican families who wanted to continue being Mexican also left the United States to live in the Mexican Republic. Consequently, many Spanish surnames that are in New Mexico can also be found in the records of Chihuahua, Durango, and Zacatecas.

“There are two sources that are very good pertaining to southern New Mexico and the El Paso area,” said Tafoya. “That would be the Durango project of marriage investigations. They have a lot of marriage information about the El Paso area and also “Roots” which is also marriage investigations. There are more for northern New Mexico but there are a few for southern New Mexico.”

Evidence of New Mexicans identifying as Mexican can be easily found in church records that demonstrate how the average person in New Mexico in the 1800s did think of themselves as Mexican. Priests starting in the 1820s through the 1840s wrote “Ciudadano Mexicano” or “Mexicano” in the marriage registers and marriage investigations in parishes such as Bernalillo, Pojoaque, Santa Cruz de la Cañada, Santa Fe, Tomé, Valencia, and numerous others across the region.

In the book, “New Mexico Prenuptial Investigations From the Archivos Históricos del Arzobispado de Durango, 1800-1893” compiled by Rick Hendricks and John B. Colligan, there are several entries where the term Mexican can be found. One example early in the Mexican period is dated April 5, 1824 where Father Manuel de Jesús Rada from Santa Cruz de la Cañada, just north of Santa Fe, forwarded to the Bishop of Durango an amonestación, or pre-nuptial marriage investigation, regarding Manuel Antonio Vigil and María Francisca Mestas.

In the investigation, Vigil said he was 27 and stated that he was a Mexican, while Mestas declared herself as the legitimate daughter of José Mariano Mestas and María Dolores Varela, both of whom stated that they were Mexicans. After a review by Bishop Juan Francisco de Castañiza in Durango, he granted their dispensation and the couple married later that year.

While identities can be fluid, DNA cannot be because it is passed from one generation to the next in an unbroken chain that tells the untold stories of families and their origins. Both traditional paper trails and DNA testing help people uncover the mysteries of their roots and discover their heritage.  Neither one is exclusive to the other and both should be done to have a more complete picture of a person’s ancestry.

According to Cervantes, “When you see the [Native American and Spanish] mestizaje, the mixture is pretty much the same. And I see matches. For example, I have seen New Mexican Jáquez matching Mexican Jáquez. I have seen New Mexico Gallegos matching Mexico Gallegos. So, the gene pool is the same.”

Cervantes actively recruits people to test their DNA and to expand the project’s database, thereby getting a clearer picture of New Mexico’s heritage. Meanwhile volunteers such as Tafoya and Aguirre, both of whom have tested their DNA, continue working to extract records and help people extend their family trees, one generation at a time.

Tafoya has done an incredible amount of work extracting names from baptismal, marriage, and records books. The priests who served New Mexico, many of whom were educated in Durango, Mexico City, and Spain, kept good records and those that gave survived are genealogical gems that tell the story of New Mexicans through the centuries.

“I did Santa Fe from 1850 to 1899 and it was 12,000 baptisms just in that. It took three books to do it because it was just too many. I did San Miguel del Vado pretty much the same dates and that took three books too,” said Tafoya.

“I also did Santa Fe marriages,” he continued. “They had been done by Gilbert Padilla up to 1879 and I completed to the early 1900s. I’m working on Peñasco baptisms now starting in 1867 and it’s a lot so that’s going to take more than one book I’m sure. I’ve helped with Socorro, Gallup, and many others. I can’t remember all of them now.”

There are several reasons why these extractions are very important. Some researchers and family historians have trouble reading microfilm or cannot access the library. Another is paleography – many beginning researchers have difficulties reading old handwriting.

According to Aguirre, another challenge old records pose are the abbreviations that priests used to save time, ink, and paper. For example, some very common Spanish names such as María were written as Mª, Francisco was condensed to Fco, and Juan was shortened to Jn. These abbreviations can be tricky for researchers who are not familiar with them. Another reason why these extractions are important is because many New Mexicans no longer have the necessary Spanish-language skills in reading and writing to conduct research in these historic documents.

“Some researchers do not speak Spanish or can’t read it. They might understand it but they can’t read it. And there’s a lot of words that are just plain foreign to them,” said Tafoya.

“If you mention diligencias matrimoniales, they don’t know what you’re talking about, or amonestaciones. They don’t know what you’re saying. So, if you extract them and translate them into English it helps a whole lot of people who don’t speak Spanish,” he added.

Amonestaciones were the pre-nuptial marriage investigations done by the clergy on couples who wished to marry. Many times they offer valuable details that a simple marriage entry in the register typically lacks, such as place of birth, age, caste, and the names of parents and deceased spouses.

Not all New Mexico records are available online and many of them are accessible only in libraries on microfilm or in books. Also, if family history research takes a particular line back into Mexico, some of the records are only available there in archives. Records from the State of Zacatecas, for example, were only microfilmed from the early 1700s forward, despite being an important primary source area for the de Vargas and Páez Hurtado recruitment efforts of the 1690s.

According to Aguirre, Cervantes, and Tafoya, the three most important sources for New Mexican families and genealogy research beyond New Mexico are Mexico City, Zacatecas, and Chihuahua. The civil and ecclesiastical records from these areas offer important leads for researchers, especially when the New Mexican trails run dry. New Mexican genealogy and family history are told in both types of records, but most importantly in the church ones.

“That’s my favorite place to research because baptisms, for instance, mention the grandparents,” said Tafoya.

“The marriage investigations sometimes have little family trees giving you a lot of information. It’s a must for New Mexican people, I believe. When I can’t find a couple, I like to use a census to locate them and I’ll then I’ll go to the church records to find them,” he said.

Aguirre added that death records, kept by both civil and ecclesiastical authorities, are also important genealogical tools.

“I use death records because a lot of these men had several wives and I don’t always understand why or the sequence of events of what happened. So I go to the death records and I start to develop a timeline as to when things happened and when they got married again,” said Aguirre.

“Initially I saw them with one wife who had much more kids than she ever could have. So I would put together a timeline on their wives and fill in gaps, especially in my family tree where there were women that died at childbirth,” he added.

People who are interested in getting their DNA tested to complement their family trees can find a variety of tests online. However, according to Cervantes the New Mexico DNA Project exclusively uses FamilyTree DNA, which stores results in a secure database for possible matches. The basic tests start at $64 each for 12-markers and the price rises for additional markers. The results are typically available 6-8 weeks after sending in the sample. It is very easy to take the samples – testers gently scrape the insides of their mouths and mail the cotton swabs to the lab. Since men have both X and Y-chromosomes, they can test for both their maternal and paternal ancestry while women can only test their maternal side. Women will need a male relative such as a father, brother, nephew, uncle, or cousin to test in order to get full paternal results. 

Some of the matches in the New Mexico DNA Project are local, while others can be from around the world. Many New Mexicans are surprised when they get their results back and find out they have more in common genetically with Mexicans than Spaniards.

“New Mexican families that have lived here for generations, especially those who consider northern New Mexico and southern Colorado as their traditional homeland, have more in common genetically with the people of the northern Mexican states than they do with the people of Spain,” said Cervantes.

It is now Friday afternoon and Ernestino Tafoya has just logged in another five hours of work. He slowly rewinds the microfilm, skims through the records he just extracted, and talks to Fred Aguirre who just finished helping someone locate records in Tortugas, a small village near Las Cruces. In the next room, Ángel de Cervantes is discussing results with the latest person who tested their DNA. Surprisingly, those results came out Sephardic and not Celt Iberian like the tester had originally expected.

Through countless hours of hard work by volunteers like Aguirre, Cervantes, Tafoya, and many others, family history and genealogy research is accessible now more than ever. Extractions published in books, online research tools like familysearch.org, and DNA tests available from the New Mexico DNA Project can help not only New Mexicans, but anyone interested in their ancestry find out more about where they come from.

— Nicolás Cabrera

New Mexico DNA Project: familytreedna.com/public/NewMexicoDNA

Kent Paterson, FNS Editor
Frontera NorteSur: on-line, U.S.-Mexico border news
Center for Latin American and Border Studies
New Mexico State University
Las Cruces, New Mexico

For a free electronic subscription
email: fnsnews@nmsu.edu


An ongoing Citizen Science Genetic Genealogy Study Project for people with roots from the Mexican States of Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas

2015 MtDNA Annual Report
by Crispin. Rendon@gmail. com

http://home.earthlink.net/~crisrendon/MtDNA2015.pdf
 

This is a long term project. It could go on for decades. Annual reports are updates, carrying forward previous results and merging them with new data. We seek to learn what we can from mtDNA genetic genealogy test results. This year we examine what our results tell us in both space an time. We start with a global view some hundreds of years ago then look at Mexico today and finally combine our genetic genealogy research with our tradition genealogy research. Let us start by examining my mtDNA from a global perspective at a time period before Columbus sailed the ocean blue.

This is why I normally do not recommend mtDNA testing. My test results tell me very little about who I am. Here is something I learned from my test results. My MtDNA results tell me on what continent one of your 28th great-grandparents lived. We all have 1,073,741,824 28th great grandparents, of all of them my mtDNA came from only one of them. If your roots are from Mexico and your test result is A, B, C or D than your mtDNA ancestor was Native American living in what is now Mexico. If your test result is L than your mtDNA ancestor was Sub Saharan Africa and if your result is H, I, J, K, R, T, U, V, W or X than your ancestor was living is Spain. My test result is K so I know that one, of my over one billion (yes one billion not one million), 28th great-grandparents was living in Spain. I told you that I learned very little from my test result? Does one mtDNA result define me in the global scheme of things. It defines a very small part of my genetic genealogy. How can I learn about the mtDNA of my many other ancestors. A current look at the genetic genealogy of Mexico can help.

I joined the Mexico DNA Project because my roots are from Mexico. Thanks to the efforts of project administrators Gary Felix and Robert Tarin the project has mtDNA test results of 959 people with Mexican Roots. That is a good sized random sample of Mexican mtDNA. 

I took the test result data from the web page and made my own tally (see table with details on next page). Today's mtDNA distribution in Mexcio, what I call the mtDNA distribution of La Raza Mexican is, 77% Native America, 18% Spanish, 4% African and 1% Asian. Pooling data together creates a big picture that hints as to the mtDNA of the ancestors that I cannot test. 

The big discovery is that most people who have Mexican roots have Native American mtDNA.

You can learn more about the project and see test result on this site:
https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/genealogyof-mexico-dna-project/about 

Sent Juan Marinez

FAMILY HISTORY RESEARCH

What Day of the Week were your Born?
Free Historical Book Collection Online Hits 200,000th Milestone 
Evidence: In a Nutshell  by Karen Clifford, A.G. 
Using Historical Maps to Learn About Your Ancestors


Would you like to know what day of the week you were born. This will answer it. 

We have been on this earth many, many weeks and days. How many days old are you? This will give you a jolt!   

Click  here: How many days old are you 

Sent by Yomar Villarreal Cleary      ycleary@charter.net 

 




Free Historical Book Collection Online Hits 200,000th Milestone 


SALT LAKE CITY, UT, April 13, 2015—Imagine a free virtual online library of rare historical books from all over the world to help you discover rich, unknown details about the lives of your ancestors. What if the historical book collections held by significant public libraries and venerable societies were the sources of these contributed books? You’d have a dynamic, priceless online repository of some of the greatest hidden historical treasures in the world. A growing host of partnering libraries, other organizations, and volunteers have announced today that they’ve reached the milestone of publishing 200,000 historical volumes online for free at books.FamilySearch.org. The growing online collection, which began in 2007, is invaluable to genealogists and family historians in finding their ancestors. 

FamilySearch has mobile digitization pods at partnering libraries and organizations across the United States, including Fort Wayne, Indiana; Syracuse, New York; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Independence, Missouri; Houston, Texas; Gainsville, Florida; and Salt Lake City, Utah. Digitization is also being done at FamilySearch centers in Pocatello, Idaho; Mesa, Arizona; Oakland, Orange, and Sacramento, California; and West Valley and Ogden, Utah. Most of the digitized publications consist of compiled family histories and local and county histories. The collection also includes telephone and postal directories and other resources. 

A major player in this vast project is the Allen County Public Library , in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Allen County’s genealogical library is the second largest genealogical library in the world, containing one million physical items and 2.5 million searchable items in their free online databases. FamilySearch has three sets of volunteers filming at the library’s Genealogy Center. Over the past five years of the project, some 14,000 volumes have been filmed and digitized (an estimated two million pages). Allen County has an estimated 12,000 additional volumes that are immediately available for digitization—perhaps another five years of work. 

Curt Witcher, the Genealogy Center manager at the Allen County Public Library, credits FamilySearch. “They’ve done a lot of the heavy lifting” in getting the project to this point, he observed. “Think of the collection that every library in the world now has accessible through this project. And there is no loss, no theft, no mutilation of materials.” 


Sue Kaufman 
The Houston Public Library (HPL) is regularly ranked among the top 10 genealogical libraries. It joined the initiative in 2008. Sporting an extensive Gulf Coast family history and genealogical collection as well as an extensive international collection, HPL’s Clayton Library Center for Genealogical Research and the Houston Metropolitan Research Center have contributed so far nearly 8,700 volumes to the project. Sue Kaufman, manager of the Clayton Center, is quick to say what a pleasure it is to watch library-goers expand their research by being able simply to enter information about a name, date, and place to quickly search personal histories and stories from the digitized collection online. 

The project has made books available to anyone with an Internet connection. And even though the historical books are becoming available online, foot traffic to the library has not decreased while the use of the online family history content has increased. 

As with most of the digitization pods for this initiative, the digitization work at the Clayton Center is performed by full-time FamilySearch volunteers, although some locations are supported by local volunteers. Kaufman says, “I am humbled and honored to be part of this project. It is amazing what the FamilySearch volunteers do, closing their homes for 12 or 18 months to work 40 hours a week in a space that must seem the size of a closet. It is selfless. We couldn’t have done it ourselves.” 

At the Historical Society of Pennsylvania (HSP), a unique, special collections library in the heart of Philadelphia, digitization efforts have been equally successful. According to Page Talbott, HSP President and CEO, they are planning to digitize 3,100 volumes of the society’s 12,000-volume family history collection. Over 110,000 pages (about 800 volumes) have been completed to date. Talbot characterizes the digitization initiative with FamilySearch as “fabulous” and sees vast potential for future projects. 

HSP was established in 1824 and has 21 million manuscripts and 600,000 bound volumes. In addition to the family history collection, it holds collections of vital records, directories, business histories, and prison records. HSP collects histories of all states from the east coast to the Mississippi River, including ethnic and immigrant histories, and has collected historical newspapers in 57 languages. 

To search the digitized records, go to books.familysearch.org, enter your ancestor’s name in the search box, and click Search. 

Libraries or organizations interested in participating in the book digitization initiative can contact Dennis Meldrum, project manager at FamilySearch, at meldrumdl@familysearch.org. 

FamilySearch Press Release April 13, 2015 






EVIDENCE: IN A NUTSHELL     

by Karen Clifford, A.G. Fact-the event as it actually occurred. Proof-the effect of evidence. 
We prove the fact with evidence.

Evidence-provides proof or relates to a matter in question. We use evidence to prove facts. Evidence in genealogy includes objects, photographs, records, documents, testimonies of witnesses, the opinions of experts, the existence of known facts, even circumstances.

Primary Evidence-highest possible degree of proof.

Secondary Evidence-all evidence which is inferior in its origin to primary evidence. (Classifying evidence as primary or secondary does not tell us anything about its ultimate value.) Sometimes secondary evidence may be of greater worth than primary evidence as in the case of the creator carefully collecting information from many sources. (Sample: published abstracts, indexes, lists, family histories, etc.)

Direct Evidence-best evidence available. Proof of facts resulting from the timely testimony of an eyewitness or a first-hand witness of an event. In general, the evidence provided on relationships over time is better than evidence provided on dates. (Sample: Aunt telling about her brother's family.)

Indirect Evidence-also known as "circumstantial evidence" relates to the specific circumstances from which the existence of certain facts is inferred. (Sample: 1850 census relationships.)

Collateral Evidence-evidence found in a source that has nothing to do with that record itself and the purpose for which the record was created. (Sample: finding a wife's father on a land record.)

Hearsay Evidence-evidence based not on the witness's personal knowledge but on information given to him by another source. In genealogy we must use hearsay evidence as it is all we have. (Sample: documents are hearsay evidence.)

Hearsay Evidence Rule-hearsay evidence is not reliable because of the witness's lack of personal knowledge. It is unacceptable for legal proof unless an exception to the rule applies such as:

1) Ancient document exception: documentation over 30 years old coming from a natural and reasonable official custody. Only the original copy of a deed or will can be an ancient document, not the recorded copy. (Sample: a photocopy ot an original will or Bible record.)

2) Public records exception: records made by trusted public officials. (Sample: Recorded copies of land records.)

3) Certified copy exception: document certified by proper authority to verify its origin and content (usualK photoduplicated copies). (Sample: Certified death certificate.)

4) Dying declaration exception: statements made by persons when on his deathbed are given special credence.

CSGA Newsletter, Vol. 13, No. 5 (June 1995) 117

 


 



Using Historical Maps to Learn About Your Ancestors

Many family history research problems can be solved with the use of maps, atlases, and gazetteers. Historical maps can help you find and picture where your relatives were born, resided, attended school, shopped, voted, traveled over land or water, courted, married, raised families, and were laid to rest. Maps can help you locate your ancestors' neighbors and family members, pinpoint county courthouses or town halls where records may be located, provide insight into migration patterns, and can even be used in conjunction with other genealogical records to distinguish between two individuals of the same name. Just think about all of the genealogical clues you might be missing!

Kimberly Powell
Genealogy Expert
newsletters@nws.about.com


View and Search Historical Landowner Maps & Atlases Online
Historic land ownership maps and county atlases show who owned land in a given area at a given time. Also displayed are towns, churches, cemeteries, schools, railroads, businesses, and natural land features. What's really cool is that you can access many digitized historic land ownership maps and landowner atlases online. NOWShare> Click here: Historic Land Ownership Maps & Atlases Online

Understanding and Using Map Scales
To fully understand and use historical maps, it is important to understand the map's scale. Learn what the scale numbers mean and how to use this information to accurately identify the real-world size of land plats, objects, etc. on a map. NOWShare >  Click here: Understanding and Using Map Scales

Step by Step Easy Land Platting
One of the best ways to study local history in general, and your family in particular, is to create a map of your ancestor's land and its relationship to the surrounding community. Making a plat from a land description may sound complicated, but it is actually very simple once you learn how.
NOWShare  > Click here: Step by Step Easy Land Platting

10 Don't-Miss Historical Map Collections Online
Whether you're looking for a historic map to overlay in Google Earth, or hoping to find your ancestor's town of origin, these online historical map collections offer don't miss resources for any genealogist. Find topographic, panoramic, survey and other historical maps, many available for free online viewing and downloading.
NOWShare > Click here: 10 Don't Miss Historical Map Collections Online


DIY Historical Map Overlays in Google Earth
Whether you download a historical map from an online digitized collection, purchase a historical map on CD, or scan one yourself at home, it is really easy to overlay the map on Google Earth and see your ancestor's property as it exists today.
NOWShare > Click here: DIY Historical Map Overlays in Google Earth

Exploring Sanborn & Other Fire Insurance Maps Online
Dating back to the mid-1800's, fire insurance maps were originally created to assist fire insurance agents in assessing potential fire risk, and setting insurance premiums. Thus, they document a wealth of detail such as the size and shape of buildings, locations of windows and doors, and construction materials, as well as street names, and property boundaries. 
While big cities were a large target for fire insurance plans, small towns were mapped more frequently than you might expect. In many cases, historical fire insurance maps document structures and even towns that no longer exist.  
NOWShare > Click here: Exploring Sanborn & Other Fire Insurance Maps Online




ORANGE COUNTY, CA

May 9:  SHHAR. "Indigenous Background of Westerns and Northern Mexico"
May 1-3: 16th Annual Cinco de Mayo Festival, Santa Ana Parks
May 9: Mother's Day Tardeda, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.  
May 16: 25th  Adelante Young Women's Educational & Leadership Conference
May 26: 15th Annual Awards & Scholarship Luncheon, NHBWA
Beany's Drive-through in Long Beach CA


http://www.shhar.net/shhar-header.gif    


The Society of Hispanic Historical and Ancestral Research (SHHAR) invites the public to their monthly meeting May 9, 2015 where the featured speaker will be John Schmal
.

John will present The Indigenous Background of Western and Northern Mexico", a discussion of the indigenous groups of Nueva Galicia, Nueva Vizcaya and Nueva Santander (all of Northern Mexico).  John Schmal is a  SHHAR board member, author of several books and an experienced genealogist.  Schmal has done extensive research on the indigenous people of Mexico and will have much to share with those attending the meeting!

The free program, sponsored by the Society of Hispanic Historical and Ancestral Research (SHHAR), will be held at the Orange Family History Center, 674 S. Yorba Street, Orange, CA.

Genealogical research assistance will be available from 9 -10 a.m.,
 and John Schmal  will speak from 10 -11:30 a.m.

For additional information, contact  Letty Rodela at lettyr@sbcglobal.net .  

 

 

April 11 SHHAR Meeting: Historical Sites in Orange County  


Left to right:  SHHAR President Letty Rodella, thanking Dr. Justin Sikora, historic research specialist with the Orange County Parks  and Melanie Gross, President of the Santa Ana Canyon Historical Council at a presentation of the Hispanic Pioneers and their Legacy in Orange County




Hi All, at the Tamale Festival, help us in fund raising for this very important and rich Early California History. 

We are trying to save The Trujillo Adobe and it's beautiful history of La Placita de Los Trujillos or Spanish Town Heritage Foundation of Riverside as it is now called.
I will be waiting for you in the Family Connection Booth with Lenny Trujillo and Anthony Ray.  Lots of new pictures and history, Family trees, give us your story before it is lost.  If you know anyone that can not make it and would like to donate, please let us know. We are a non- profit, donations are tax deductable.
Come and meet us, talk to us, we would love to talk to you. ~ Helen Trujillo Workman Mora




Premier Women's Council presents a 
Mother’s Day Tardeada
Featuring “The Cuates”

Saturday, May 9, 2015
11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Garden Grove Elks Lodge #1952
11551 Trask Avenue
Garden Grove, CA 92843

Donaji Folklorico Dancers - 11:00 -11:45

Mexican Buffet Lunch

Join us as we pay special tribute to all mothers, Special Honorees Eleanor Reyes, Elsie Mendez, Lizbeth Diaz and scholarship recipients. Enjoy delicious Mexican food, great dancing music and Folklorico dancers.   90% of proceeds go towards scholarships and public charity projects.

TICKETS Presale: Adults: $35           Children (3-12): $20
Mothers are FREE with a paid Adult ticket

Call (714) 914-5272 for tickets, advertisements, and sponsorships
Or e-mail Susie Flores at ocmujer@sbcglobal.net for information
.





The 25th Annual Adelante Young Women’s Educational & Leadership Conference

 

MANA & SANTA ANA COLLEGE

Welcomes SAHS Students

May 16, 2015

CONFERENCE THEME: 
"LAUGH OUT LOUD!" 

This day is made for laughing!

WHAT: This is a Saturday to enjoy! Transportation, workshops, continental breakfast, lunch, Prizes and Surprises! All you need to do is SIGN UP & SHOW UP TO HAVE FUN! FREE!

WHERE: Santa Ana College – 17th & Bristol

WHEN: Saturday, May 16, 2015 – 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM

WHAT Else? You will spend the day participating in educationally-entertaining workshops, designed especially for SAUSD high school young ladies.     "YES, you may bring a friend!"

Please contact: Nellie: nelliek@roadrunner.com for Registration Information and high school sites.

Registration Deadine: May 6, 2015.  25th Annual Adelante Conference

This one-day conference provides a day of education, leadership development and support for young ladies ages 14 through 18. Workshops are led by members of MANA, a 34 year Orange County based community service organization: Tax I.D. #68-0552012

 

MANA, Mexican American Women’s National Association
1614 W. 9th Street
Santa Ana, CA 92703
Nellie Caudillo Kaniski, Executive Director
nelliek@roadrunner.com - Kaniski_nellie@sac.edu

MANA gratefully accepts donation: 
Checks made out to MANA, may be mailed to: 
 Santa Ana College, Attn: Nellie Kaniski,
1530 W. 17th Street, Santa Ana, CA 92706.

 


Girl-Gift Contributions for students’ Goody-Bags:
Items, including reading materials, school items, toiletries, jewelry, Tees, gift cards, etc., are welcome. Items may be dropped off at a designated place or can be picked up. Please contact Nellie: nelliek@roadrunner.com.





    National Hispanic Business Women's Association


Thank your for your attention and support. We look forward to seeing you on May 26th.
Sincerely,  NHBWA Board of Directors
714-836-4042
May 26th NHBWA Luncheon
patty@nationalhbwa.com



A 2 min. video https://vimeo.com/110260174  of Beany's Drive-through in Long Beach CA. You have to be in your 50s or  older to appreciate. . .  
Tom Saenz and Al Vela both agree that the singer is Fats Domino 

 

LOS ANGELES, CA

“The House of Aragón”  Chapter 5: Michael Aragón again goes off to war
Color My World Written by Pauline Adamek 
Shoes for Margarita by Mike Acosta
March 25, 2015, National Medal  of  Honor Day Obregon CMH
Memorial, La Placita, Los Angeles
Fort Moore Pioneer Memorial


 


Introduction to Chapter Five 
of 
“The House of Aragón”  

Michael Aragón 
Again 
Goes off to War

by
 Michael Brakefort-Grant

 

Michael Aragón again goes off to war, this time to Korea. His personal ambitions and the Family are placed aside while he fights for his country against Communism. His new fight will includes his friend, now Captain Wellington. Aragón is about to have his life take yet more turns. Pain, sorrow, and losses will follow him wherever he goes. 

If you have an I-Pad you can read the book in its fullness at . . .
http://www.amazon.it/The-House-Aragon-English-Edition-ebook/dp/B008PK2E3S

If you do not have an I-Pad, you can read the chapters at the Somos Primos homepage, 
we will be adding them. Go to http://somosprimos.com/michaelperez/michaelperez.htm 

Michael Brakefort-Grant is a Pen name for Michael S. Perez 
perezsmichael@hotmail.com
 




Color My World Written by Pauline Adamek 
photographed by Monica Orozco
Ventura Blvd magazine, Holiday 2013

A recently overturned LA ban on hand-painted murals is preserving a beautifcation effort aimed at one of the most blighted areas of the Valley.
color-my-world-article

It’s also opening doors for a new wave of young artists focused on improving neighborhoods and boosting careers

Kristy Sandoval with “Mi Vida, Mi Cultura”
Next Kristy painted a portrait of black activist Assata Shakur a few doors down on the side of owner Greg Faucett’s barbershop and beauty salon, Stylesville. Greg had seen the mural going up on Myke’s Café and got inspired to enhance his business of 56 years.

“I told her, ‘I don’t care what you paint, so long as the subject is black,’” explains the African-American barber. Kristy did some research and decided her subject would be the ‘70s Black Panther activist. The afro-adorned head and slender shoulders of freedom fighter Assata Shakur dominates one side of the mural, with her clarion call, “A womyn’s place is in the struggle,” and “It is our duty to fight for our freedom… We have nothing to lose but our chains,” written large and festooned with colorful corn lilies.

Explains the 31-year-old muralist, “Assata stood up for what she believed in and is an inspiration as a strong woman of color who didn’t back down. What makes this mural special to me is that it was painted by an all-woman crew.” Marvels Greg, “I didn’t expect it to be so powerful.”

While creating the pro-feminist mural, Kristy embarked on a new partnership with other women artists in the area. Adopting the moniker H.O.O.D Sisters (“It stands for ‘Honoring Ourselves, our Origins and our Dreams,’” Kristy explains), this collective of eight or so female muralists, plus their volunteer crew of more than 20, meets once a month to discuss available walls, plan designs and other community matters.

“It was an evolution—I wasn’t born a muralist right away!” laughs Levi Ponce. “My dad’s a sign painter for a living; he’s been doing it for 50 years. Growing up, I would go to work with him, ever since I was potty-trained, actually. My Mom said, ‘I got him Monday through Friday—you got him on the weekends!’ He would have me do basic stuff like ‘Paint this post white.’”

Levi helped his father for years, and by the time he was in high school he had progressed to more advanced illustration. “My dad wasn’t paying me much—I think I got $5 a day, which is less than $1 an hour! We worked long days.”

Levi says he “got smart” and started doing some of his father’s smaller gigs. “He wouldn’t take a $50 job, so I would take the client.” By the age of 15, Levi had his own clients. “That got me through college,” he recalls.

Levi studied animation at California State University Northridge, earning a BA degree. Now 26, by day he works as a digital and visual effects artist for New Deal Studios. The muralist returned to sign painting after post-college film work dried up. Then came his genius idea for self-promotion.

Levi Ponce, who works by day job as a special effects artist for a production company.
“I thought, ‘What better way to advertise yourself than to paint a big mural?’” Applying his bold style on a large scale, he painted actor Danny Trejo in 2011. “From day one, the experience was unforgettable. It immediately changed from potential profit to ‘I need to do this again!’”
Many of the murals Levi designs and paints are self-funded. He makes it work by getting local business and property owners to provide a blank canvas and then transforms it into a community project by enlisting local kids as volunteers.

Levi has even made friends with local graffiti crews—typically, taggers are a muralist’s arch-enemies—including one group led by an artist known as Mute. Levi’s works range from an ethnic take on classical works, such as those by Michelangelo, da Vinci and Vermeer (“The Girl with the Hoop Earring” at 14001 Van Nuys Boulevard), to authentic representations of his Latin culture and tributes to local figures such as actors James Olmos and Cheech Marin.

As for the challenges of working on a scale that’s larger than life, Levi laughs, “It’s all about mathematical calculations and ratios. To me it’s no different than painting something the size of a postcard; I just make it bigger.”

“La Lady Liberty” was painted in 2013 using brushes and acrylic paint. The 70’-wide-by-22’-high mural of a Latin-looking, noble profile, a spiky crown atop her swirling hair, is a massive collaboration with a team of local graffiti artists and muralists, plus a host of volunteers—all name-checked in one corner of the grand-scaled artwork. The mural continues around the corner of Bradley Street with Kristy’s “Decolonized,” which she painted with help from her posse.

She says, “This image is representative of the newly educated generation that is making things happen in Pacoima, more specifically the female energy of the community.” The figure is shown releasing birds and monarch butterflies, “symbolizing the freedom of migration amongst animals, as it should also be for humans as well.” The artist further explains her symbolism: “The tattoo on her arm is Coyolxauhqui, the Aztec moon goddess, and the flowers are California poppies.”

Levi recently partnered with an organization called 11:11 Creative Collective. “They find the walls, get contracts signed, and then I come in and do the artwork. We’ve got four walls lined up right now,” he beams, including one in Canoga Park.

Meanwhile, Kristy is also getting some career traction. “Since the ban was overturned, I’ve gotten three paid jobs—all from people who have seen my murals here in Pacoima.” She also just commenced work as a teaching artist for her artist-in-residency with Urban Arts Partnership at the Arts Theater Entertainment School at Cesar Chavez Learning Academies, integrating art into a ninth-grade math and English class.

The muralists are thrilled the ban on murals on privately owned buildings in LA has been lifted. It not only makes them “street legal,” but at least for Levi, the ruling is helping him accomplish yet another goal: “We’re the entertainment capital of the world—we have the world’s best artists here. I want us all to bring public art back to LA.”

Photo by Monica Orozco for Ventura Blvd Magazine.
Sent by Sister Mary Sevilla  




Shoes for Margarita by Mike Acosta

Margarita was a bright little girl who enjoyed the sixth grade in school.  Later on she would win a scholarship to Yale university but that's different story waiting in the queue of memories. In the present  story she liked school but didn't like sixth grade girls making fun of the sandals she'd been wearing every day.  Each morning before going to school margarita would follow the same ritual. she would  wipe the  dust and dirt off her sandals
with an old  damp cloth.( I know it's hard to believe but shoe polish was considered a luxury to her family). One thing she couldn't wipe off were the tiny frayed fibers sprouting along the edge of each sandal strap; these she would snip off at night with a pair of fine scissors an aunt had left behind. This practice to mask the weathered look of her sandals continued until the end of the school year.

Margarita's father died  in a car accident less than a year ago. Her mother worked at odd jobs cooking, cleaning houses and washing clothes for neighbors. Amazing how the mother squeezed out enough money from the little income she earned to rent a two bedroom public housing apartment and keep her three children well fed.

Before sending students home for the weekend on a Friday afternoon, the sixth grade teacher announced which students won medals for being the best student in different  classroom categories; the teacher also said the medals would be awarded at the graduation  ceremony in the auditorium next Friday morning, the last day of school.  margarita won the award for best math student. When she got home from school that afternoon, she told her mother about winning the math award; her mother hugged her, saying, "mama's proud
of mi hijita."

For the rest of the day margarita searched thru hand me downs for a dress she could wear to the ceremony. nothing caught her eye. Something led her to the hall closet where she found an old cardboard box tied with string. What could be in the box? A young girl's curiosity moved her to cut the string and pull back the flaps of the box.  To her amazement she found a neatly folded pretty blue dress; pinned to the dress was a  note  from her father,
"Margarita felicitaciones y que dios te bendiga, wear this dress in happiness, tu papa." As she lifted the dress to hug it, conflicting emotions began to swirl in her; they were emotional feelings that came from encountering so many moving moments on the same day: she won a math award, found a pretty blue dress, and discovered   the memory of her father's last
blessing to her. It was as though the sorrow and happiness of the past and present  had suddenly knotted together  in her little heart.  These feelings remained for a while until it hit her - the shabby pair of sandals were all she had to wear with this pretty dress. Should she ask her mother for a new pair of shoes?  That night margarita knelt by her bedside quietly praying to be forgiven for having such a selfish thought.

On the following morning she went to the kitchen and greeted her mother who was preparing margarita's favorite  Saturday breakfast-burrito de huevo estilo enchilada. She confessed about opening the box last night and finding a blue dress from her father. Her mother apologized for forgetting about this special dress.  She explained that he bought it and planned on presenting it to margarita as a sixth grade graduation present.  Margarita
took a deep breath and gathered herself as only a ten year old girl can and asked her mother in a soft voice, "mama can you buy me a new pair of shoes to wear with papa's dress at the school ceremony next Friday?"  A second or two of silence passed. Margarita's mother could barely hold back tears as she embraced her daughter as if they were one; she knew how difficult it must have been for her little girl who never asked for anything to make this
request. "Si mi hijita, I will buy the most beautiful shoes we can find with the little extra money mama has saved. "

That same day margarita and her mother boarded a tranvia to go shopping for shoes in the City of The Angels. This was margarita's first trip downtown. So we can excuse her if she spent so much time stretching her neck upwards to stare at the sky-tall art deco styled downtown buildings that reminded her of gray castles in fairytale books. A separate story could be written of the joyful adventures mother and daughter enjoyed chatting with each other, discovering new things and watching people from different walks of life. But I think it was going from store to store looking for Margarita's shoes that gave the two the most fun. And after finding the right shoes, the two boarded a tranvia back home.

As so often happens when one looks forward to a special event, the last week of school seemed to drag on forever.  Finally graduation morning arrived at the packed school auditorium. The sixth grade teacher stood in the middle of the auditorium stage. Next to her on top of a small table was an array of shiny new medals each tied to a blue neck ribbon dotted with lots of little white stars. She called each awarded student to individually come and receive one of these  medals.   Margarita's name was called.  she walked on to the stage looking elegant in her papa's blue dress. Sitting in the first row, her mother proudly watched as a medal was placed on her little angel.  Before walking off stage, Margarita turned briefly  towards her mother and smiled.  Everyone then saw how beautiful Margarita looked wearing a medal strung on a necklace of blue and white silk. Even the six grade girls who'd made fun of Margarita's sandals  were struck by her appearance on stage, especially by the beauty of the new pair of red ballet flats she wore.

Viva la raza
Mike Acosta  
mikea@WINFIRST.COM
  

Editor Mimi:  Mike also sent this comment which he had previously received:

 
To Mike Acosta:
Thank you for sharing such a wonderful heartfelt story about Margarita and her sandals. I really enjoyed reading it. It reminded me of my childhood and how I had to make my one pair of cheap shoes last for a year since my parents would only buy me one pair just before school started. And they sternly told me they were to last all year. I therefore always looked forward to summer, so I could go barefoot so as not to be embarrassed by the loose soles flapping around in the air. 

You did not tell the reader if it was a true story or one you wrote from your from your imagination. Either way it is a great story. So thank you very much for sharing it.

benalvillar@OUTLOOK.COM




Medal of Honor Day  2015
March 25, 2015
National Medal of Honor Day: Obregon CMH
Memorial, La Placita, Los Angeles
The event was a Spectacular Event with support from the Vet Hunters, Armenian Brigade, LAPD, Los Angeles Fire Department, LAPD Helicopter, actors Danny De La Paz, Richard Yniguez (Both in Boulevard Nights)and Emilio Rivera (Sons of Anarchy). The program was scheduled for 1 hour and fifteen minutes. We went over by five to ten minutes. Not bad with so many elements. The LAPD Fly-over was scheduled at exactly at the end of 13 year old, Angel NG singing the National Anthem, which they did.
There was a prior Grand Entrance with the Hispanic Medal of Honor Society’s 3 Medals of Honor and Medal of Honor Nominee, CSM Ramon Rodriguez. The highest decorated Vietnam Veteran. The Society also provided the American Flag which flew over the USS Missouri when the Japanese surrendered. LAFD displayed with two fire trucks and ladders above the event.

They were escorted by the Vet Hunters MMC, the Armenian Brigade and LAPD in a “Rolling Thunder” Motorcycle Motorcade around the famous Olvera Street.  
Many photos were taken by Michael Sedano, who comments: Speaking of sharing, Congratulations, Frank and the committee, on a superb event at the Obregon Memorial for National Medal of Honor Day.   They will be available to view onlne.  Please contact Alfredo Lugo Wrote, produced, and directed the event at alfredo.lugo@verizon.net .

Medal of Honor Day  2015




Fort Moore -- final photo
Los Angeles County Arts Commission
Fort Moore Pioneer Memorial is easy to miss, located just above the N. Hill St. overlooking the 101 Freeway – but it is an important part of Los Angeles’ history. This is the hill where Angelenos of the past celebrated Los Angeles's first Fourth of July, buried their dead, built their finest homes and newest schools, and desperately dug for gold.  

Fort Moore is the only public art in Los Angeles portraying a historic event that occurred at the actual site of the work!
This is why I plan to allocate funding in the coming weeks that will pay for restoration of this historic site – including, hopefully, the reactivation of the waterfall!

The monument depicts a scene of soldiers raising a flag as their commander watches on horseback. Three smaller scenes show a farmer, a train and a family standing in front of a water and power plant. It includes the side of a hill, with a 45-foot “terra cotta bas-relief” type of sculpted monument above it. The steps alongside the frieze take you to the flat top of the hill, which once stretched from Temple Street all the way to Cesar Chavez Avenue!

Battles with local Californios in Los Angeles during the Mexican-American war (1846-48) were numerous, sometimes brutal, and often tinged with racism.  The harsh martial law of the U.S. ignited a popular uprising among Californios and Mexicans led by General José María Flores beginning on September 22, 1846. Known as the Siege of Los Angeles, Californios assembled a force to retake Los Angeles. Fifty marines were able to resist an initial attack on the government house in town and regrouped on Fort Hill, where they strengthened the fortification with sandbags and mounted their cannon. 

As time passed, the Californio forces opposing the U.S. takeover grew to just over 600 men, with several Californio citizens voicing opposition. General Flores offered an ultimatum: leave within 24 hours or face attack. Captain Gillespie agreed to withdraw from Los Angeles, under safe passage, on September 30, 1846. After regrouping and resupplying forces in San Diego, on January 10, 1847, Los Angeles was recaptured by the combined 700 man forces of John C. Fremont, Stockton and Kearny, after the Battle of Rio San Gabriel (modern-day parts of Montebello/Whittier/Pico Rivera) and the Battle of La Mesa (modern-day Vernon). With the signing of the Treaty of Cahuenga (modern-day North Hollywood) on January 13, 1847, war in Alta California ended.

2
Anaheim Public Library

Most of the labor on the fort was done by the U.S. First Dragoons, and the Mormon Battalion – the lone religious military unit in American history. It was these religious pioneers, along with more experienced army veterans, who stood along the hill on July 4, 1847 to assert their right to live amidst the Californios. A proclamation announced the fort “Fort Moore” named after Benjamin D. Moore, a beloved soldier who died in the Battle of San Pasqual. The Declaration of Independence was read in English and Spanish, and the flag—the pole of which is now metal, but remains in the same place—was raised.

By the time the fort was abandoned in 1853, residents had already built homes and white protestant settlers, whose dead were unwelcome in the local Catholic cemeteries, established an unofficial cemetery there. The city took over in 1869, with headstones already dilapidated and many plots unmarked, and banned future burials in 1879.

L.A.’s second high school was built in 1891. In 1897, J. S. Bruner, was in his home across from the high school when he heard three Latino men digging the dirt of the nearby cemetery. They were looking for gold, supposedly hidden by American forces in 1847.

Fort Moore Hill eventually got in the way of rapidly expanding downtown from the equally expanding east side. In 1901, the massive Broadway tunnel opened under Fort Moore Hill, and wealthy hill pioneers migrated westward. In 1902, a Mexican woman from Sonora Town (what today is Chinatown) created a map that she said would lead folks to gold on Fort Moore that had been buried long before Americans took over.

By 1933, the city ridded the area of old homes to expand Spring Street and planned for added removal of Fort Moore Hill to replace it with a downtown civic center and to donate the dirt to the new Union Station using funds and workers from the Public Works Administration. At the same time, a geophysical mining engineer by the name of G. Warren Shufelt claimed gold tablets which would expose the “origin of the human race” lie inside the hill.
 
Metro Transportation Library and Archive
Tablets weren’t found — but bodies were. Over the next 20 years of the hill’s decline, pioneers from the long forgotten “cemetery on the hill” were uncovered and reburied in nearby graveyards (most at Evergreen Cemetery in Boyle Heights).


Security Pacific National Bank Collection, Los Angeles Public Library


The 101 was built in 1949, LAUSD moved their headquarters to land where the old high school stood, and part of the history of Fort Moore was honored in 1957 when the Fort Moore Pioneer Memorial was unveiled on the side of Hill Street. The monument, designed by Kazumi Adachi and Dike Nagan, was paid for by multiple movement organizations which explains its water and power plant depiction. Many agree, even today, that the highlight of the memorial was the eighty foot waterfall which supposedly looked as though the Hollywood Freeway ran right underneath!

The fountain was turned off during the drought of 1977. In 2006, LAUSD headquarters left the hill so that the Ramon C. Cortines School of the Visual and Performing Arts at 450 North Grand Avenue could move in. During construction, 80 more bodies, many still in their caskets, were uncovered to the surprise of everyone who was told the cemetery had been completely transported. Archeologists arrived to begin the baffling effort to name the deceased


Herald Examiner Collection, Los Angeles Public Library

Los Angeles Examiner Collection, USC Digital Library

The first picture in this story is what you would see today if you drove past it. I hope to make some key restorations to this monument and return it to it’s former glory. Stay tuned for an update!

~ by Supervisor Gloria Molina 

Minimal editing by Mimi



Dear Friends of Fort Moore,
 
I wanted to report to you, as promised, on the progress of the Restoration of Fort Moore Pioneer Memorial in Los Angeles. Guy Dickson, Mormon Battalion Association board member, Paul Hoffman, Adjunct General, Fort Moore Garrison organization and I attended a meeting on March 31, called by the LA County Arts Council to review the plans for the restoration of Fort Moore and get “community” buy-in. The invitation said we would discuss the future use of the monument.
 
The three of us represented all of you and your organizations. The LDS Church was also represented by the North America West Public Affairs Director and Area Seventy over Public Affairs. All community groups located within the “Fort Moore sphere of influence” were also there along with every county and city department that will have some kind of jurisdiction or working relationship with the Arts Council and/or oversees the monument in some way (sheriff, police, etc.)
 
Every group told of their connection to the monument. Many groups including ours had many questions as to how the monument, once restored, will be used, maintained and protected. My questions included access as there is basically no substantial parking at the site.
 
. . . . The Council did report how the monument is now part of a larger plan that includes it as a “destination” site with other historic areas of this part of Los Angeles connected by future bike and walking paths – Olvera Street, China Town, Union Station, etc. This designation is supposed to increase interest in and “drive” visitors to the site. Without parking, this may not happen.
 
We made some connections with organizations at the meeting that may prove helpful as we move forward with hopes to increase access and hold more events and tours there. We will follow up with these and report back to you on our progress.
 
The actual restoration should begin by summer (which is a delay from the announced spring start) and be completed (hopefully) by spring of 2016. It is most likely we cannot hold our yearly 4th of July re-enactment there this year. I volunteered to produce a re-dedication event on July 3, 2016, IF they are finished on time.
 
Thank you for your support of Fort Moore Pioneer Memorial. Your names and organizations were presented as our “Friends of Fort Moore” list at the meeting. Most seemed very impressed at the widespread support for the monument. The Council now realizes what great interest there is outside of Los Angeles, for the history.
I will report when we see the restoration begin and when there are any new announcements.
 
Most Gratefully,
 
Marilyn Mills
(909) 702-2774
marilyndpa@aol.com



C
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CALIFORNIA
LULAC California new website and May 15-17 Convention Information
California LULAC, A History of Patriots with Civil Rights by Margie Aguirre

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
Felix Gutierrez Death Certificate, Lorri Ruiz Frain
Three Generations and the Monrovia Plunge: Grandfather Francisco J. Gutierrez, Father
      Felix J. Gutierrez, and Son Felix F. Gutierrez  by Susie Ling, 18 Sept, 2011
Neighborhood House in Logan Heights: Americanization through Baseball 
The History of Neighborhood House in Logan Heights: Girls Play Ball!
Dirigentes Locales Reciben Reconocimiento  Cesar Chavez Por Olga Rojas

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
City of Berkeley to honor Rafael Jesús González, Lifetime Achievement Award
Hispanic Winemakers: Another cultural phenomenon
Latino Winemakers in California
Return of a Spanish Legacy and Treasure: Cruce Spanish Colonial Horses 
"Preserving our Past for our Future generations by  Robin Collins
Ranches in the San Joaquin Valley  By Norman Atkins
San Francisco, the brickyard



LULAC California new website & May 15-17 Convention Information

Dear LULAC Members and Friends of LULAC:

 I am pleased to inform you that the new website is now live! Please view your new website at www.californialulac.com

As we develop portals and other important tabs, the site will be updated with a new top story each week and other information on our programs and activities.  We will also be making membership accessible through a downloaded application process and be adding the legislative and education committee information.

This is the registration information for the California State LULAC Convention which will be held in Monterey, CA May 15-17, 2015. Everyone is welcome to attend, and there will be some tours of Cannery Row and Carmel so this is a good opportunity to see the area and learn more about LULAC. Hope to see you there and let others know about this convention. Hope to see you all there!

Yvonne Gonzalez Duncan-Director
Orange County LULAC District 1
714-423-9150-cell




CALIFORNIA LULAC
A HISTORY OF PATRIOTS WITH CIVIL RIGHTS
By Margie Aguirre, Former Chair of California LULAC Heritage Committee
mareflections@aol.com
 

An article about California LULAC comprised of excerpts of a research project report in book form of 363 pages written by Margie de la Torre Aguirre © 2009 all rights reserved titled: LULAC PROJECT: PATRIOTS WITH CIVIL RIGHTS, Early History of the League of United Latin American Citizens in California (1929–1957) and Gonzalo Méndez et al. vs. Westminster School District of Orange County et al.

The struggle to end discrimination and segregation of people of Mexican/Latin descent in America played a part in the development of LULAC in California. Latinos in California in the first half of the twentieth century responded to challenges encountered by adhering to the premise within the aims and purposes of LULAC that the means for a betterment of life for themselves and their posterity is through education and ultimately American patriotism: citizenship and civic participation encompassing active involvement in the social, political, cultural and ethnically diverse American way of life. As a result, the League of United Latin American Citizens spread from its original founding in Texas to other states, and councils in California were formed. Jacob I. Rodriguez formed the first LULAC council in Sacramento, California in 1933, others followed LULAC is bound to continue its legacy as a civil rights champion for American Latinos because as the late Hector G. Godinez once commented “the fight for civil rights is one with no beginning and no end.” In reference to the role of LULAC in the school desegregation landmark lawsuit, Gonzalo Méndez et al. vs. Westminster School District of Orange County et al, Mr. Hector Godinez also made this comment on September 6, 1996, “Our work and success on the Mendez (et al) case was what formed the Santa Ana LULAC Council.” (Interview: Hector G. Godinez, 1996, patriot with civil rights, WWII veteran, early member of LULAC Council No. 147, regional organizer for LULAC in California, past National LULAC Vice-President and past National LULAC President).

The embodiment of the ideals and spirit of LULAC developed as a construct of associations and connections built on trust transpired through a course of action that although in some cases exigent, took years to occur. Embryonic when first formed, organized groups developed into chartered councils. The legitimacy of a national institution such as LULAC is built upon the legacy of the efforts of its membership and its accomplishments. California LULAC councils formed because certain patriots with civil rights became actively involved in issues  that affected them and their families. Political action for the purpose of ensuring civil rights in all aspects and in all circumstances is dependent upon legal protection. This course of action, contingent on the laws of America, is the foundation for groups or organizations made of councils of individuals who converge to protect themselves and their people from violation of their American civil rights. The members of LULAC accepted the truth expressed in the belief, we must remain forever vigilant of our freedom, a people free of maltreatment and negative restrictions as George Washington an American revolutionist and activist, and his predecessors in the American cause believed. The principle of organized groups explicitly stated is that with a greater support in numbers of people joined for one cause of social justice more can be accomplished; thus a people freely united can better defend themselves from antagonistic offenders of civil rights. American Latinos abide by this principle of liberty protected by the secured jurisdictional authority of American governmental laws; the history of LULAC demonstrates this point.

With respect to the class action lawsuit pertaining to desegregation in the schools that  California LULAC founders helped to organize in 1944, it has been claimed that the plaintiffs of the desegregation case, Gonzalo Méndez et al. vs. Westminster School District of Orange County et al. were simply Mexican, Mexican American, American citizens, Hispanic, Latino or Chicano parents and not activists who had help from their respective activist group. The question that arises is when did these parents or simply individuals become actively involved and thus become activists for all who organize are activists. From research the connections of people and their activity are made visible. Research suggests they knew, heard, and or followed the example of predecessors who had knowledge, skill, and experience for the empowerment of people of Mexican/Latin descent. Predecessors were involved in the civil rights movement prior to the highly acknowledged civil rights period of the 1960’s and its incipient Chicano movement. Included in these earlier efforts are members of LULAC on the national and regional level. 

A significant marking point of civic participation of California LULAC founders in the formation of the Orange County school case is briefly summarized here in the following. At the Westminster Elementary School Board Meeting of September 19, 1944, patriot with civil rights, Mr. Cruz Barrios, a founder of LULAC in Orange County, California, asks the board “that the schools be united.” His words and his presence and the words and presence of another patriot with civil rights and founder of LULAC in Orange County, Manuel Veiga Jr. are recalled by fellow patriot with civil rights Gonzalo Méndez as recorded in his sworn testimony of July 9, 1945 before Judge Paul McCormick. Mendez testified that Manuel Veiga Jr. stated (at this same meeting of Westminster Elementary School Board of Trustees of September, 1944) that “the Mexican people. . . are not as dumb as lots of people thought they were.” (See for Gonzalo Méndez testimony under oath, July 9, 1945 as reproduced from transcripts of Méndez v Westminster, 1946 personally obtained by author at National Archives and Records Administration, (Pacific Region), Laguna Niguel, California). The facts attest that American Latino patriots with civil rights and founders of LULAC in Orange County, no matter under what formal or informal ethnic group name they fell under, Cruz G. Barrios and Manuel Veiga Jr. and Hector R. Tarango of “Latin American Voters League” as Méndez testifies or of the “Latin American Voters Counsel  as they are referred to in the Minutes of the Westminster Elementary School Board of Trustees of September, 1944 or Latin American Organization, LAO in other research, Hass, (1985) (Matt Garcia, 2001) were there co-leading the cause before the school board in the beginning of the formation of the class action lawsuit. In his interview in December, 2002 Mr. Hector R. Tarango  additionally explained that civil rights attorney David C. Marcus affiliated with the Mexican consulate advised them to do what was necessary because before legal action is taken administrative remedy must be sought. The Minutes of the Westminster Elementary School Board of Trustees, September 19, 1944 as taken by the secretary, Louis Conrady, have a misspelling of  Tarango and he is incorrectly named “Diago.” Without Tarango's explanation, no account of his actual participation was made. Hector Tarango was a patriot of civil rights and a founder of California LULAC who stated several times in interviews 2002, 2003 and 2004: "We formally of the Latin American Voters League and founders of Santa Ana LULAC Council No. 147 organized the class action lawsuit after we, Manuel Veiga Jr. myself and Cruz Barrios, and another person consulted David Marcus in Los Angeles. Mendez volunteered to be a representative plaintiff."

LULAC, a national civil rights organization, was established in 1929 in Corpus Christi,Texas (Ben Garza, first president) and then spread to other southwestern states, including New Mexico, Arizona and  Colorado and California and later to others. The LULAC motto is All for one, and one for all. Research revealed that LULAC councils of patriots with civil rights  expanded into California in 1933 via the work of a member of San Antonio, Texas LULAC Council No. 2 named Jacob I. Rodriguez who moved to Sacramento, California in December 1932. In 1933, Rodriguez is conducting LULAC work as noted in the LULAC NEWS of that  year. Jacob I. Rodriguez writes an article while living in Sacramento, dated February 1933, titled,“The Spirit of LULAC” and declares the spirit of LULAC is the spirit of democracy. He further advocates, fall in line behind the glorious banner of LULAC that organization of real Americans. After a few years of residing in California, Mr. Jacob Rodriguez returns to San Antonio, Texas
where he continued to serve LULAC as a dedicated founder and life-long member.

Following the formation of Sacramento Council (No. 61) other pioneer California LULAC councils were formed. Patriots with civil rights organized a LULAC council in Los Angeles in 1937 (number unknown) under M.R. Gameros, the California Organizer for LULAC who is elected as its first council president. Gameros had assistance in organizing this council by special organizers Henry A. Guion and Theodore A. Chacon. Accounts in LULAC NEWS of other existing councils in Los Angeles are the following: in 1939, Los Angeles LULAC Men’s Council No. 75 and Los Angeles LULAC Council No. 77. Los Angeles LULAC Council No. 77 is also indicated as existing in 1940 (President Ernest R. Orfila). In the early 1940’s, Los Angeles LULAC Council No. 125 is noted in 1943, and is reorganizing in 1945 and is then listed in 1946 as Los Angeles LULAC Council No. 130 (President William Trujillo). As recorded in 1947, Los Angeles LULAC Council No. 125 is noted as represented by both Ernesto Cruz and Marco Ignacio M. Infante. In 1947, Los Angeles LULAC Council No. 154 was organized and led by John O. Gonzales- -determined by interview and correspondence collection of Alex Maldonado. In 1950, a Los Angeles LULAC council is noted in LULAC NEWS as represented by Jess D. Soto. In Alhambra, in 1945, Alhambra LULAC Council No. 137 is noted as represented by William H. Wheat, the Regional Organizer for California and George W. Ramirez, the Regional Governor for California. In San Bernardino, in 1943, the following councils are noted: San Bernardino LULAC Council No. 108 and San Bernardino LULAC Council No. 135 (President Roderick Flores). Prior to 1950, councils were formed in Orange County; and in Bakersfield (President Chris D. Perez, 1950); and in Richmond (President Raul Martinez, 1950). The first  LULAC councils formed in Orange County were: in 1946, Santa Ana LULAC Council No. 147 (President Manuel Veiga Jr.); in 1949, El Modena LULAC Council No. 179 (President Alex Maldonado); in 1950, Placentia LULAC Council No. 174 (President Jack Gomez); and in 1954, Stanton LULAC Council No. 245 (President Victor Zuniga). These councils soon led the way for others. LULAC councils of patriots with civil rights were also formed in Corona, La Habra, Buena Park, Fullerton, San Ysidro, San Diego, Paramount and Sylmar and Anaheim. Hence many have been formed.

The founders of California councils organized themselves with the assistance and guidance from LULAC on the national level whose leaders specifically appointed LULAC organizers for California’s patriots with civil rights. LULAC organizers passed on the spirit of LULAC and manifested Americanism through generations of families through friendships and associations. Again as an example, the family of founder of LULAC in Orange County Hector R. Tarango had a close family friendship with the family of LULAC regional organizer William H. Wheat in Los Angeles that continued when the Tarango family, originally from Clifton Arizona, left Los Angeles to move to Orange County. Hector Tarango’s father and William H. Wheat were close friends. William H. Wheat, half Irish and half Mexican and from Texas, his father born in Ireland then came to Tennessee then Texas, passed on his knowledge of LULAC to Californians. It is William H. Wheat a person involved in law enforcement, (according to grandson Joe Cruz, possibly F.B.I.), while living in San Gabriel a member of Alhambra LULAC Council No. 137,that officially organizes LULAC in Orange County and installs the Santa Ana LULAC Council No. 147 on June 9, 1946. Prior to this installation of officers, Wheat held informative meetings about LULAC at Ramon Prado’s Barbershop on 4th street in Santa Ana (Interview: Tony Luna, 1996). John O. Gonzales came to California from Phoenix Arizona where he was a member ofLULAC. John O. Gonzales is present at the installation ceremony of the Santa Ana LULAC Council as 1st Vice-President General of LULAC on the national level and an organizer in California and a Los Angeles council member. Mr. John O. Gonzales, a law student who attended Los Angeles University College of Law, 1942-1944 wrote many articles. Please see in LULAC NEWS, an article of his “Calling All LULACS” advocating support for the Orange County school desegregation case Mr. John O. Gonzales further organized other councils as California regional governor a position today recognized as state director.

LULAC council founders demonstrated their leadership skills, their knowledge and experience learned from predecessors through civic participation. In Orange County for example, the parents of certain LULAC founders--community leaders themselves--imparted knowledge and experience in organizing heritage events such as the Mexican Fiestas Patrias. Such events were co-sponsored by Comisión Honorifica a commission of the Mexican Consulate. These public events featured public speakers, parades, educational and cultural entertainment such as dances, poetry, music, both Mexican and American, beauty pageants, and Mexican historical and oratorical performances. These ethnic events were sanctioned and partly joined in by respective local officials and civic leaders from the Anglo American community. Additionally, although less in extent, LULAC leaders were indirectly supportive of efforts of activists who were involved in the civil rights of citrus workers who organized themselves as local labor movements. Moreover, LULAC as a civic organization contributed to the success of other American civic groups as well. LULAC was actively and visibly engaged in community efforts of the American Cancer Society, the American Red Cross, the Olympic Fund, the Boy Scouts of America and many more. California LULAC is grateful and honors its founders for its members mostly of Latin or  Mexican descent remain faithful to the cause of being vigilant in the defense of equally shared American freedom and justice in the American way of life while upholding education as a means to ensure success.

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA



Playwright Paul S. Flores Brings PLACAS to San Diego 
Posted: 16 Apr 2015

Part One of a Two Part Interview with the Former Chula Vistan and UCSD Student By Brent E. Beltrán Writer Paul S. Flores grew up in Chula Vista and attended UCSD. He moved to San Francisco to pursue his Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing. While there he immersed himself in the Bay Area arts/activist scene, helped found Youth Speaks, co-founded the irreverent poetry troupe Los Delicados, wrote an award winning novel, Along The Border Lies, wrote and performed his original plays, had children, and was recently named a Doris Duke Artist. His play PLACAS: The Most Dangerous Tattoo is touring California with a stop in San Diego April 23-25. I met Paul, along with his Delicado compatriots, at a Floricanto Festival in San Jose in 1999 while publisher of the grassroots literary publishing house Calaca Press. In 2000, Calaca Press produced the spoken word CD anthology, Raza Spoken Here 2, which featured their poem Presente! In 2001 Calaca released their full length CD, Word Descarga. Since then Paul has gone on to do some tremendous literary work.--

Playwright Paul S. Flores’ PLACAS: The Most Dangerous Tattoo is Coming to San Diego 
Posted: 17 Apr 2015 

Part Two
of a Two Part Interview with the Former Chula Vistan and UCSD Student By Brent E. Beltrán For Part I of the interview please visit. In this second installment of my two part interview with playwright Paul S. Flores he discusses the founding of Los Delicados, what poetry means to him, his novel Along The Border Lies, what attracted him to theatre, his play PLACAS: The Most Dangerous Tattoo, the casting of Culture Clash’s Ric Salinas in the lead role, the outreach for the play, him being named a Doris Duke Artist, and what advice he’d give to fledgling minority writers.

Sent by Dorinda Moreno pueblosenmovimientonorte@gmail.com 




Felix Gutierrez Death Certificate
Felix Gutierrez and his wife, Dolores Cruz Gutierrez raised my maternal grandfather, Buenaventura Claromiro Romero Gutierrez in 1885, in Azusa, CA.
This certificate is indeed a family treasure. My Mother, Evangeline Gutierrez and her sister, Alberta Gutierrez, were daughters of Buenaventura and Irene Moreno.  Please share the enclosed certificate with our Gutierrez family, as I do not have their e-mail addresses.

We are eternally grateful to our Gutierrez adopted family for acknowledging us Romeros, as their own, over several generations.  Blessings, and Love, 
Lorri Ruiz Frain  
lorrilocks@gmail.com

 

Three Generations and the Monrovia Plunge: 
Grandfather Francisco J. Gutierrez, Father Felix J. Gutierrez, and Son Felix F. Gutierrez   
by Susie Ling, 18 September 2011

Dear Family and Friends,  the elder Felix Gutierrez, born 1819, was my grandpa Ben Romero Gutierrez's adopted father.   My Mom, Evangeline, knew Felix J. Gutierrez, as her cousin, and knew about his son, Felix Frank Gutierrez.  The Gutierrez family is very proud of Felix F. Gutierrez and of his accomplishments.  This coming week I plan to contact Felix F. Gutierrez and confirm all this info.  Take care,  Lorraine Frain lorrilocks@sbcglobal.net 

Francisco Gutierrez was born in 1871 at La Mision Vieja to Californio parents who came for the Gold Rush. Francisco worked as a foreman in orange packing houses and was a Los Angeles Deputy Sheriff stationed in Arcadia. In 1905, Francisco came to Monrovia and worked for B. R. Davison Company as cement foreman. In 1925, he opened his own cement business. Sidewalks around Monrovia Plunge, Immaculate Conception, tennis courts at Recreation Park, and private homes would have the Gutierrez imprint.

Francisco’s son Felix J. was born in 1918. He was part of the Shamrock Rovers, a group of multiracial boys who did what boys do. But life in Monrovia was segregated. Felix J. would only be able to swim one day a week at the pool that his father helped build. Francisco had other ideas and allowed Felix J. and his friends to baptize the pool with their frolics before opening day. Felix J. went to MAD High School and was one of only two Mexicans to graduate in 1937. He lettered in track and was staff artist for the school’s Wildcat newspaper. The Depression caused hardship for Gutierrez’ cement business and Felix worked to support his own ambitions. It was even harder to find jobs picking oranges along Huntington Boulevard with more “Okies” in town.

Felix J. had grand ideas. Upon transferring to Pasadena Junior College to study art, Felix started a newspaper, Mexican Voice. Launched from his home at 323 E. Lemon, Felix was writer, artist, editor, and spoke for the Mexican American movement throughout the Southwest. In a blistering editorial with political cartoons, Mexican Voice questioned why Mexican volunteers were considered “White” by the World War II draft board, but “colored” by Monrovia Plunge, school districts, and neighbors. Some of these Mexicans had gone to Monrovia City Council in 1939 to assert their rights to integration, comparing their segregation with that of Jews in Germany. Mexicans could only sit on the right side of the theater and could not patronize some restaurants on Myrtle. Felix J. reported on a 1949 police brutality case involving Monrovia’s Chago. Felix’ high school buddy, Art Tsuneishi, continued to correspond with him after being unjustly removed to Heart Mountain concentration camp.

Felix F. remembers his father teaching junior high in San Bernardino and then East LA. But Felix F. and his two sisters lost their father to cancer in 1955. Felix F. came back to Monrovia Historical Museum for Monrovia Latino Heritage Day on 18 Sept 2011. He stood in front of the panel of pictures that Curators Mark Still and Jimmy O’Balles had compiled. He chatted with Garcias, Zermenos, Quinteros and others who have lived for generations in Monrovia. He listened to Steven Sandoval make a speech about his grandfather, Jim Espinosa, a community activist who was loved by everybody. Felix F. even got a proclamation from Assemblymember Anthony Portantino in memoriam of Felix J.

Dr. Felix F. Gutierrez is Professor at USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. He is the 2011 recipient of the Lionel C. Barrow Jr. Award for Distinguished Achievement in Diversity Research and Education by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. His recently curated “Voices for Justice: 200 Years of Latino Newspapers in the United States.”

Dr. Gutierrez choked a little as he made his speech at the exact location of the Monrovia Plunge – where his grandfather and his father had both made their own imprint. The large multicultural audience choked up a little too to marvel at how far we’ve all come, thanks to the contributions of those before us.

https://susieling.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/monrovia-latino-day-113.jpg 
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Posted in Monrovia Plunge



The History of Neighborhood House in Logan Heights: Americanization through Baseball 

Posted: 04 Apr 2015

By Maria E. Garcia Settlement Houses across the United States, including Neighborhood House, stated that the Americanization of immigrant residents was one of their goals. Books and news article from the 1920s through the 1940s allude to the fact that baseball games and baseball teams were methods used in that Americanization. Some articles go as far as to state that they were a way of replacing what was considered “Mexican interests.” Emory Bogarus from the University of Southern California (USC), in referring to the Mexicans in Los Angeles, states “Baseball clubs were used to counter the interest Mexicans had in bull fighting, gambling and cock fighting.” Neighborhood House, the various canneries and some employers in San Diego formed baseball teams for their employees. This was done not only to Americanize them but to maintain loyalty to a particular employer. Involvement in this popular sport had consequences that broadened the meaning of Americanization in unanticipated ways.

Sent by Dorinda Moreno pueblosenmovimientonorte@gmail.com 


The History of Neighborhood House in Logan Heights: Girls Play Ball!

Posted: 11 Apr 2015 

Part II of Americanization through Baseball By Maria E. Garcia Newspaper articles in the 1940s and later indicate that at times a girls softball game was played prior to the boys games. This was almost always done as a way of enticing more people to attend the game. It is unclear whether attendance was to the benefit of the girls playing prior to the boy’s game, or if the boys team attendance benefited by playing after the girls. From time to time the girls team would play against the boys team to add to the enjoyment of the game and to increase attendance. In some ways the early girls teams were a novelty to the general public, and yet, taken very seriously by the girls playing the game.

Sent by Dorinda Moreno pueblosenmovimientonorte@gmail.com 



 

POMONA:  
Dirigentes Locales Reciben Reconocimiento 
en 
Desayuno Cesar Chavez
Por Olga Rojas


POMONA – Más de 400 personas asistieron al desayuno que organizó Latino and Latina Roundtable del Valle de San Gabriel y Pomona y el Concejo para el Avance Latinoamericano, en honor al líder de los trabajadores del campo, César Chávez.

Tradicionalmente por 11 años se ha estado realizando este evento, en el cual se honra a personas de la región que hayan demostrado poseer los principios y prácticas de César Chávez.

El viernes, 27 de marzo los homenajeados fueron la familia De La Cruz. La difunta abuela Jessie De La Cruz, fue miembro del sindicato de trabajadores del campo en sus inicios y ayudó a reclutar miembros y a organizar huelgas. 

Su hijo, Roberto de la Cruz, ex vicepresidente del sindicato de los trabajadores del campo, hoy día se desempeña como representante internacional del Sindicato Internacional de Empleados de Servicios (SEIU, por su sigla en inglés) y el nieto, Arnulfo de la Cruz, quien trabajó como director estatal de Mi Familia Vota y ahora es director nacional del SEIU.

“Es un orgullo agarrar este reconocimiento para mi madre. Ella comenzó a organizar trabajadores entre 1961-1962 y falleció once días antes de cumplir 94 años. Pero parece que escogió cuando morir: fue un Día del Trabajo”, dijo Roberto De La Cruz.

Por su parte, Arnulfo De La Cruz, expresó que “ella debe estar mirándonos al lado de César Chávez, sé que está aquí presente en espíritu y debe gustarle lo que está pasando: más leyes de respeto hacia los inmigrantes como la licencias para los indocumentados y más derechos para los votantes”.

Además mencionó sobre las acciones a favor de los inmigrantes como DACA y DAPA. “Esos eran los temas por los que mi abuela trabajaba en los barrios en los años 50 y 60”, dijo Arnulfo De La Cruz. 

Arnulfo De La Cruz recordó la actitud de positivismo de su abuela. “Ella era impresionante… En un rancho en Fresno, donde mi abuela solía hacer la comida para quienes iban a las juntas de la unión con César Chávez, ella escuchaba las estrategias de la lucha y me decía: ‘Eso era muy emocionante’”.

Hasta que un día César Chávez dijo: “Jessie debería unirse a la mesa de conversación”.

“En la actualidad hemos colocado líderes en el poder como Hilda Solis, escuchamos mentores como José Calderón, pero todavía tenemos mucho por hacer… Hay un hombre que siempre me dice que mi generación es más perezosa que la suya en organización, ese es mi papá”, dijo Arnulfo De La Cruz.

“Mi madre dejó un legado de tener conciencia. Ella amaba ayudar a la gente. Tenemos que llenar esos guaraches”, mencionó Roberto De La Cruz.

Otro de los homenajeados ese día fueron Luis Moisés Escalante, líder de larga data en los derechos de los inmigrantes y Suzanne Foster, ex directora del Centro de Oportunidad Económica Pomona o Centro de Jornaleros.

También asistieron al evento Hilda Solis, supervisora del Condado de Los Angeles, y la senadora del Distrito 20 de California, Connie Leyva, quien representa al Distrito 20 del Inland Empire. 

El alcalde de Pomona, Elliott Rothman, agradeció el esfuerzo de quienes organizaron la actividad, a la que calificó como el mejor evento que se hace en esa ciudad.

Padres y alumnos 
Siete estudiantes obtuvieron becas ese día por sus logros académicos y de compromiso de la comunidad, ellos son: Mitzie Pérez y Chris Gutiérrez, Mt. San Antonio College; Ariana Méndez, Pomona High School; Angelica Orozco, Cal Poly Pomona; José Orozco, Ganesha High School; Ivonne Anzures, Garey High School y Jennifer Monteon, Fremont Academy of Engineering and Design.

Andrés Chávez, nieto de César Chávez, también estuvo presente en el evento y empezó agradeciendo a los hombres y mujeres que prepararon y sirvieron el desayuno. 

Él fue el encargado entregar las becas a los estudiantes de quienes expresó que espera regresen a trabajar por la comunidad.
“Hay una necesidad de cambios sociales sustentables”, dijo el joven Chávez.

Por su parte, el superintendente de Distrito Escolar Unificado de Pomona, Richard Martínez, también agradeció a Latino y Latina Roundtable por darles una voz a los padres de ese distrito quienes recibieron uno de los reconocimientos.

“Si queremos ver un cambio, tenemos que trabajar por ese cambio”, dijo Claudia Bedolla, en representación de los padres de ese distrito. 

http://www.unidossc.com/articles/cruz-20489-ch225vez-pomona.html
 
http://images.onset.freedom.com/ocexcelsior/gallery/nm1ndx-b88365868z.
120150330142013000g5h8puke.10.jpg
 

Sent by Roberto Calderon,  Roberto.Calderon@unt.edu 
Source; Jose Calderon mailto:Jose_Calderon@pitzer.edu  




NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

The City of Berkeley will honor
Rafael Jesús González
with a Lifetime Achievement Award

Tuesday, May 12, 2015, at 7:00 pm
Berkeley City Council Chambers
Berkeley City Hall
2134 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way
Berkeley, California

The award will be presented at the
13th Annual Berkeley Poetry Festival
Saturday, May 16, 2015
between 4:00 - 5:00 PM

Rafael Jesús González will be reading accompanied on flute 
by Gerardo Omar Marín


Berkeley City College
2050 Center Street
Berkeley, California 94704
(510) 981-2800



Hispanic Winemakers: Another cultural phenomenon
Written by Dane Lutes-Koths on August 11, 2011. Posted in Marketing 


The roots of the Napa Valley run deep. Some of the richest Native American history in California hails from this rich valley. In 1966, the valley underwent a cultural phenomenon that would change the valley’s character for good. It was in 1966 that Robert Mondavi built the first major winery. Following this, waves of European immigrants came into the valley and put their stamp on its character, turning it into a world-renowned wine-producing region.

Currently, the valley is undergoing another cultural shift, or at least the shift is finally being recognized. For years, it has been Hispanics tending the vines upon which the valley’s international reputation rests, from the planting of rootstocks and picking the ripened fruit during harvest, to fermenting the juice into wine and producing the “bottled poetry” that has made the Napa Valley the world-renowned wine region it is. Hispanics are engaged in every aspect of wine production and are the life-blood of the region. Many have climbed to the top of their art and become some of the most exciting winemakers of the region.

In the last ten years, these Hispanic wine growers and winemakers have been gaining notoriety. In fact, the first annual meeting of Napa Valley Mexican-American Vintners Association was held on July 30. One of the best and most refreshing characteristics to come out of this shift is not only great-tasting wine, but a great story as well. In an industry that has become a popular tourist attraction and a huge commercial undertaking, many of the below wineries are small family-owned operations. There is pride taken in the land in which the vines are grown, the work it takes to produce the highest quality fruit and the whole process, grapes to bottle. The recognition of Hispanic contributions in the Napa Valley wine industry is growing; as it does, these wineries will be players to watch in the coming years.
Some Hispanic owned wineries in the Napa Valley:
Alex Sotelo Cellars
Ceja Vineyards
Delgadillo Cellars
Encanto Vineyards
Maritas Vineyard
Mi Sueño Winery
Maldonado Vineyards
Renteria Wines
Rios Wine Company
Robledo Family
Voces Wine
http://reachhispanic.com/2011/08/11/hispanic-winemakers-another-cultural-phenomenon/ 




Latino Winemakers in California
Written by Alejandra Corona on April 1, 2015. Posted in Americas, Marketing, U.S. Hispanic 

For some time Latinos have been the labor force behind the most influential wineries fueling the wine industry in the U.S. The stories of the men who left their homes in Mexico and came to the United States to find work in the vineyards in the Napa Valley are not unlike other stories, like the young immigrant moving to the US to pick grapes and the migrant farm workers who see possibilities beyond the fields.

Some of them put themselves through school at night and work during the day to learn all they needed to know about wine. How to grow it, how to process it, the chemistry behind it, the best barrels and bottles, and how to taste it to make sure it’s the best.

Most came alone, leaving their families in Mexico. All had dreams of a better life. Those dreams included starting their own vineyard, owning land and planting vines. And all of them worked hard.

Today, many of these workers have become influential wine owners, with labels like Alex Sotelo, Ceja, and Robledo.

Mexican and other Hispanic immigrant families have become important and respected members of the winemaking industry on the West Coast of the United States. The following are profiles of some of these hard working families who earned success in the United States.

Alex Sotelo Cellars: Came for the first time to California in 1991 at the age of 18 searching for the American dream. When he arrived to Napa Valley, he knew that something amazing would happen. In 1991, 13 years after Alex arrived to the states, he released his first Napa Valley wine under his own brand – a major mile-stone for an immigrant. For him wine making is not just a job; it is his life.

Ceja Vineyards: One of the most notable Latino-owned wineries in the area, founded by Amelia, Pedro, Armando, and Martha Ceja – first generation Mexican-American winegrowers in the Napa and Sonoma Valleys.

Robledo Family Winery: Reynaldo Robledo left his home in Michoacán, Mexico in 1968 at only 16 years old, to work in the vineyards of Napa Valley. In October 2003, the Robledo family opened the first winery established by a former Mexican migrant worker.

If you asked me which of these labels are my favorite, I would say all of them. The wines from Ceja, Robledo, and from my good friend Alex Sotelo are some of the best.

During one of my conversations with Alex, he told me:  “We are here not just making average wines, but focusing on making some of the best wines in the world” -Alex Sotelo



From left, Gladys Aguilar, Jessica de Leon and Ana Cabezas are Napa Valley College students.   

Latinos in Napa Valley's History

Project to research and identify the presence and history of California's period of Mexican rule, 
starting in the 1800s to the present.

Article by Howard Yune
Napa Valley Register,
April 15, 2015 

Sent by Lorri Ferm  lorrilocks@gmail.com

Information: http://napavalleyregister.com/eedition/page-a/page_10fe8e94-15eb-5152-9db0-17b9cf571da1.html 




Return of a Spanish Legacy and Treasure: 
Cruce Spanish Colonial Horses 
By Robin Collins

 

Imagine on a remote and rugged ranch in Arizona a herd of horses whose ancestry can be traced back to Colonial Spanish times. Horse whose lines have been remained pure and are non-feral. And unlike most historical artifacts, these animals have not been frozen in time. Fighting for survival over the rough terrain and harsh environment, these horses continued to develop their self-reliant character, ruggedness and innate intelligence.

            Such a scenario presented itself in 1990 when Mrs. Wilbur-Cruce donated a herd of seventy-seven Spanish horses to the American Minor Breeds Conservatory (an organization dedicated to conserving endangered breeds of livestock unique to this continent). How did these horses get there and how is it that their bloodlines could remain pure while over time other American “wild” horses became a mixture of many breeds?

            In the late 1600’s, Father Eusebio Kino, a Jesuit priest and missionary, brought the Spanish horses into the Pimeria Alta, the area made up of Southern Arizona and northern Sonora, Mexico. Father Kino established headquarters in the San Miguel River Valley, approximately twenty-five miles east of today’s Magdalena, where he founded Mission Dolores and Rancho Dolores. It is from this area that Wilbur-Cruce horses originated. His mission remained active in the production of livestock for many decades, producing stock that was destined to be spread northward as each mission was established.

            In the 1879’s Dr. Ruben Wilbur bought the original Wilbur-Cruce horses form Juan Sepulveda at Rancho Dolores to stock his homestead ranch in what is now Southern Arizona. Through three successive generations, spanning over 110 years, the Wilbur-Cruce Spanish horses were kept in isolation on the family ranch. They were allowed to run in wild bands in rocky and mountainous terrain developing qualities that only the harsh selection process of survival of the fittest can produce.

            Only in 1990, when the ranch was sold and the horses donated to the Conservancy, did the world begin to know about these equine treasures. The Conservancy (now known as the “American Livestock Breeds Conservancy”) coordinated the task of trapping and removing the horses, ensuring that the blood samples were taken for typing. Dr. Gus Cothran, Director of the Equine Blood Typing Research Laboratory at the University of Kentucky, concluded that the Wilbur-Cruce horses were “a cohesive group based on type with nice genetic variability”, in other words, no inbreeding. The most significant find was that the results of the blood typing provided evidence of Spanish ancestry supportive of their oral history.

            Enter Robin Keller. A student of animal behavior for most of her 50+ years, she had worked with and studied both domestic horses and several exotic species, including marine mammals. But her passion was always horses. Wife of famed hunter/jumper trainer Richard Keller and a student of many years of legendary horseman Jimmy Williams, Robin spent most of her career working with a variety of sport horses. Because hunter/jumpers are chosen for their physical and mental qualities, a variety of types and breeds are represented in the world of show jumping. When she first met the Wilber-Cruce horses, she recognized many traits shared by horses she had worked with from Europe, Russia, Africa, and Great Britain. She was intrigued by their character, amazed by their athletic ability and impressed with their incredible dispositions.

Robin became one of the individuals chosen to have 18 of the Wilber-Cruce Spanish Colonial horses. Committing to keeping the bloodlines pure, that herd has now grown to 50 horses, all stallions and mares. When asked what she would like the public to know about the horses (now known as the “Cruce Colonial Spanish Horses”) she replied “In all my years of working with some of the finest examples of domestic sport horses, I have never seen the consistent highly developed character that the Cruce horses possess. In the modern quest for fine horses throughout technology, it seems to me that the emphasis is on performance rather than character. Character is rarely spoken of, nurtured of bred for. Working with these fine animals for the past 24 years has given me insight into the kind of relationships our ancestors in the world’s great horse cultures developed with their horses. Through these horses, I am given hope that this type of brave, empathic, willing athletic and NOBLE horse will be preserved and will be allowed to contribute to horses of the future. The existence of the Wilbur-Cruce horses offers the chance to reach back and reclaim a part of our equine history. ‘Once thought gone forever’ I would like persons who appreciate and love horses to have the opportunity to meet the Cruce horses and to see for themselves the unique qualities they possess.

            Robin has committed herself to the preservation of these rare horses on her ranch in the California foothill town of Madera.

This article was taken from the Rare Breeds Journal September/October 1997

Rancho Del Sueño

Equine Division of
Heritage Discovery Center
40222 Millstream Lane
Madera, Ca. 93636Phone: (559) 868-8681
Fax: (559) 868-8682  

 
"Preserving our Past for our Future" Saving the whole package for future generations
by Robin Collins, President
Heritage Discovery Center & Rancho del Sueño
hdcincrlc@aol.com www.ranchodelsueno.com 
In order to plan our future we must conserve and understand the world as it was before our generation. A word often used for this effort is 'Preservation' and today as our planet is demonstrating the problems that can occur with progress; perhaps preservation and stewardship are more important for humanity to implement and practice than it has been for previous generations. 

First we must have knowledge of our past and share this knowledge in any way we can. This awareness shares, strengthens and enriches our lives and resources for national and international appreciation of our planet. This is a major goal and role of the Heritage Discovery Center. One of the current HDC projects to help preserve our history and resources is to expand our preservation breeding program. 

Rancho del Sueño is currently preserving our Colonial Spanish Horse. In addition, we plan similar preservation/conservation programs for our Colonial Spanish Cattle, Goats, Sheep, Pigs, other Equids (Burros & Mules), and Foul (Chickens, Ducks, etc.) Rancho del Sueño's vision is to host all Colonial Livestock brought to the Americas by the Spanish.

The Rancho del Sueño Area of the HDC will not only be focused on preservation/conservation genetic programs but will also serve as an extensive educational and learning center for young and old alike to realize and develop a comprehensive appreciation for the nature of and contribution of each species. Without the introduction of these marvelous animals our cultural development and lifestyles would have been enormously different. Can you imagine our western history without Farms or Ranches?

Preservation breeding is a description of the practice of preserving genetic variability by breeding animals within specific bloodline groups.

Breeding goals are important, but it is important to save all the pieces if we are to have a complete picture. (Without knowing where you are headed it is impossible to know when you arrive) Within the context of the overall goal, a preservation breeder will consider the genetic contribution of the specific animal. Sire or dam lines that are endangered are noted and special effort is made to breed the replacement individuals to carry on the tradition. True Spanish genetic populations are very rare, sometimes finding just one Spanish individual is difficult and a true gift to the delicate balance of preservation of the breed.

By the time Spanish explorers were setting sail for the New World, Spanish horses had become world famous, and much sought after by the Royal Stud farms throughout the world. There were three main types of Spanish horses being bred, and all three were brought to the New World as part of Spanish Exploration. 


Hi Robin 
These Spanish horses are without a doubt the best moving horses I have ever ridden. I have worked hundreds or Quarter horses, Morgans, Arabs, Appys, Paints, Walkers, Andulusians. Nothing can compare to the ease and strength of movement these horses naturally possess. They are very old souls; not with the skittish, flight-oriented mentality of the modern breeds. In my opinion, today's horses have been linebred and inbred so much that they have lost the traits these old Spanish horses possess; calm minds, excellent body strength, great ability to travel without stress or high ambition. 

Should you want to go to the mountains for very long rides, gather cattle day after day, work in the corrals roping and branding--you would not need a string of horses--just use one of these every day and they will be there every time for you.
The amount of show ring performance ability varies with each individual as it does with every breed of horse. We have one Spanish horse that shows as much or more reined cow horse talent as any of the other horses we have or have shown in the past.
The greatest thing I find with the Spanish horse is his desire to bond with you. No meanness ever, no aggressiveness to people ever, extremely kind and at the same time very aware of everything that goes on for miles around them.

Gary Long 
Performance Horses




Sequoia Genealogical Society, Inc., Volume 31, Number 2, April 2004

Ranches in the San Joaquin Valley
By Norman Atkins

In the March 2004 issue of the SGS Newsletter there was an FYI article explaining what a California Bank Note was and how it came to be. It led me to examine why there were so many herds of cattle in early California and the California Ranches where those cattle were raised. This, in turn, led me to find what land grants were issued in the San Joaquin Valley or close proximity.

A few cattle were brought with the Portola Party in 1769 to help make the Missions and Presidios self sufficient. More cattle came in subsequent expeditions from Mexico with colonists. Relatively small numbers of cattle soon grew into huge herds, numbering into the thousands. Land was needed to feed and water them, so it soon became apparent that large tracts of land were needed.

The first Spanish land grant was made in 1774, a mere 8 years after the first settlers came to California. Grants were given by the Spanish and later Mexican government to encourage agriculture and industry, to reward soldiers, and to colonists who did not own land. By 1828 the rules for establishing land grants were codified in the Mexican Reglamento.

The minimum size of a ranchero was set at one square league (about 4,500 acres) with an 11-square-league maximum. There was no limit on family holdings or holdings from inheritance or purchase. Of the 11 leagues, one league was to be irrigable soil, four were to be dependent upon rain, and six fit only for grazing. By 1822, only 30 Spanish land grants had been issued. But then came the Mexican era, and more than 800 additional land grants were issued between 1822 and 1846. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo signed at the end of the US-Mexican War (February 2, 1848), guaranteed the Californios title to their land. But in the meantime, because of the immigrant explosion in California, most of the Rancho land titles came into dispute. Immigrants felt the Ranches were too large and the land was not used, so many became squatters and soon laid claim to the land.

During the Spanish and Mexican periods, obtaining a land grant was relatively easy. An application was made with the name of the citizen, religion (being Catholic was a requirement), residence, occupation and size of family. A map or diseno was required and attached to the application with a vague description of the property. Later, in many cases, this was to cause many problems. The maps and descriptions were unable to stand up when reviewed years later because they were written with physical characteristics that changed over time. None was surveyed as we understand surveys today. In one case with which I am familiar, a description loosely translated reads:

From the top of the hill east across the creek (unnamed) to the rock on top of the hill, down the next creek on the other side to the tall tree (Palo Alto).

This was part of the description of what is today a portion of the campus of Stanford University. It was the San Francisquito grant to Antonio Buelna in 1837.

After the application was made, various officials would review it, making sure no overlapping lands or previously owned titles were involved. The next step was the Informe, a document attached to the application containing statements of approval from the inquiring officials. The final step was approval by the Viceroy (under Spain) and the Alcalde (local judge) under Mexican rule. . 

A Board of Land Commissioners was formed in 1856 to validate the Californios' land grant claims. Of the 813 land grants submitted to the commission, 604 claims were confirmed, 190 rejected, and the rest (19) were withdrawn. These land grants covered most of the fertile land in California. Many were not even submitted.

In the San Joaquin Valley area there were only about 11 land grants dating from the Mexican era. Few of them were actually on the floor of the Valley itself, but they were certainly a part of the history. They are not so obvious to us today, but they did cover areas such as the following, as recorded by the Board of Land Commissioners in 1856.

Del Campos de los Franceses which covered the present city of Stockton and French Camp issued in 1844 to William Gulnas. Unknown acreage.

San Luis Gonzaga issued to Pacheco and Mejla families in 1843. Covers the area of Pacheco Pass and San Luis Dam and Santa Nella. Unknown acreage.

Sanjon de Santa Rita which covered the area around present-day Firebaugh and the west side of the Valley and contained 11 Spanish leagues (49,500 acres). Dates from 1841 and granted to Francisco Soberanes. This Rancho was later purchased by the Miller-Lux Company which at one time owned more than one quarter of the land in California and Oregon.

Panoche de San Juan y de los Carrisolitos which covered 20,000 acres of land around Los Banos. Dates from 1844 and was granted to Julian Ursua. Most of this area was purchased or claimed by the Miller-Lux Company which was headquartered in Los Banos.

Los Mariposas which covered 44,380 acres from the San Joaquin River to the Sierra foothills. Today contains the towns of Merced, Mariposa, and Atwater. Dates from 1844 and granted to Juan Alvarado. This rancho was purchased in 1847 by John C. Fremont.

Laguna de Tache was granted to Manuel Castro in 1841, covering an area from west and north of Tulare Lake to north of the town of Laton. El Adobe de Los Robles, which covered about 1,000 acres just north of Lemoore, is thought to have been a part of this original Laguna de Tache land grant. Daniel Rhoads reclaimed the land as part of the Swamp Buster Act about 1852, building the first canals for irrigation and drainage and planting the first orchard in the area. The adobe home is still standing, just west of Highway 41 and Lacy Blvd., and it has been continuously occupied since 1856. This is the oldest home in the Southern San Joaquin Valley. More on Daniel Rhoads and family in a later issue of the SGS Newsletter.

El Tejon
which contained 97,616 acres in the southern most area of the Valley. Part of this land is where Fort Tejon was located and is now a part of Tejon Ranch, which was purchased by General Edward F. Beale about 1852.1 will write more about General Beal at a later date. This dates from 1843 and was granted to Jose Aguirre.

Los Alamos y Agua Caliente which extended south of Kern County into Los Angeles County. Purchased by General Beale and was incorporated into his Tejon Ranch operation. This grant dates from 1843 and 1846 and belonged to the Lopez, Jordan and Botello families.

Castac (now spelled Castaic) which was not in the San Joaquin Valley but became a part of the Tejon Ranch after being purchased by General Beale. It extended from the area of Lebec, on the Grapevine, to Los Angeles County. Dates from 1843 and was granted to Jose Covarrubias.

De La Leibre also a part of General Beale's Tejon Ranch, located in Kern County. Dates from 1846 and granted to Jose Flores.

San Emigdio (now spelled Emidio) located at the bottom of the present-day Grapevine along Interstate 5, was purchased by John C. Fremont and General Beale. It has been predicted that this area will eventually become a bedroom community of 100,000 or more to the greater Los Angeles area. Dates from 1842, granted to Jose Dominguez.

 




Bricks drying at the Presidio, 2008. 
Photo by LisaRuth Elliott

Did you know that one of the first noted industries on the upper peninsula we now know as the City of San Francisco was a brickyard, a factory which produced bricks for what was reported to be the settlement's first non-adobe brick house built on the banks of Mission Creek (today's present day 16th and Harrison) next to that brickyard? Hear more about Bay Area brick making from Fort Ross to the Presidio to Richmond, and many more fun stories this Wednesday, April 22 (EARTH Day!) as part of our Public Talks Series. See below for more information.
http://shapingsf.us4.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=9660d940fc78519288ebbbb43&id=6c67405a9a&e=0d7c0ebdbd 
Sent by Dorinda Moreno 

pueblosenmovimientonorte@gmail.com

NORTHWESTERN UNITED STATES 

Changing face of Chicano studies by Deborah Bulkeley




Changing face of Chicano studies
Classes at the U. bring to life the history of suffering and struggle of Hispanic people

By Deborah Bulkeley, 
Deseret Morning News, Nov. 16 2004 
Armando Solorzano, Univ of Utah assoc professor of family/consumer studies, Photo: Michael Brandy, 

Armando Solorzano sees his lectures on the Chicano experience as bringing alive the history of suffering and struggle of his own people.

For Solorzano, University of Utah associate professor of family and consumer studies, it's an effort to connect with his students — most of whom are white.

That's the opposite of the beginning of Chicano Studies at the U. The program grew out of a local branch of the Chicano movement — a Mexican-American struggle for equality that paralleled other civil-rights movements of the 1960s, Solorzano said.

Chicano Studies was created at the U. to "educate and prepare children of Chicano people," he said. "Now the goal is to educate everybody about the Chicano experience in the United States."

The demographic of students learning about the Chicano experience isn't the only changing aspect of the program. The nation's Latino population is growing — in diversity and numbers.

As many as 95 percent of Utah's Latinos were of Mexican descent in the 1960s and '70s, Solorzano said. An influx of Central and South American immigrants shifted the Latino demographics, making the group much more diverse, he said.

Many universities nationwide are re-evaluating how they look at Chicano Studies, and the U. is no exception.

Lisa Flores, director of Chicano Studies at the U., said there are discussions every year about how to focus the program to best meet the needs of the community. The program falls under the Ethnic Studies umbrella and offers a minor.

"We are definitely thinking about developing new courses," she said. "I'm not sure we're ready to make any major changes."

While about 60 percent of the U. courses are Chicano-specific, there is movement to create a broader curriculum, Flores said. One new proposed course, U.S. Latino History, would encompass issues such as the growing diversity in the Latino population and changes in immigration policy, Flores said. Flores said that course could be offered by the 2006 spring semester.

David Gutierrez, associate professor of history at the University of California, San Diego, recently discussed the issue at the U. He noted the academic world has been slow to catch up with changing demographics.

In 1960, the 7 million Latinos in the United States comprised only about 4 percent of the population, he said. Today, the estimated 38 million to 39 million Latinos represent some 13 percent of the population and have surpassed African Americans as the nation's largest minority group, Gutierrez said.

During that time, new identities have emerged. There's "Hispanic," created by the government, and "Latino," created by those who disliked the government term, Solorzano said.

Some people choose to identify themselves by their ancestral country: Mexican-American, or Cuban-American.

Solorzano describes himself as Chicano in ideology, Mexican in nationality, Mexican-American by adoption, Latino by roots, and European by family background (his mother is French).

Of such labels, Gutierrez said: "The key to breaking out . . . is to focus on the content and context of teaching and research, (rather) than on what we call ourselves."

He was referring to an ongoing debate at the U. and other universities about whether Latino Studies might better describe today's population. Gutierrez noted it's important to "broaden the context of Chicano studies," whatever it's called.

Solorzano said it's important to note that Utah's Chicano movement did not have the militant focus of the national movement, which used strategies such as confrontation, boycotts, public demonstrations and closing schools.

In Utah, those involved in the Chicano movement believed they could solve more through negotiation than confrontation.

Solorzano said Utah's movement was particularly successful in gaining educational equality.

In 1967, Solorzano said, the U. had only four Chicano students. By 1972, there were almost 800. At that time, the U. had more Chicano students than any other university in the nation.

Chicano studies emerged at the U. out of a campus branch of the national Chicano studies movement.  Solorzano noted that while nationally, Mexican-Americans described themselves as Chicano, in Utah, there were Peruvians and Puerto Ricans who called themselves Chicano.

E-mail: dbulkeley@desnews.com 


SOUTHWESTERN 
UNITED STATES

"What If?" by Edward R. Alcantar
Arizona Latino Arts and Culture Center In the Heart of Downtown Phoenix 
Alianza Memories by by John de Aragon
Unknown raiders along the Mexican Border attacked Nuecestown.  
The Chinese-Mexican Cuisine, Born Of U.S. Prejudice by Lisa Morehouse
To all Anza Society members and friends
Dreamers, Deportees and Daredevils:  J. Paul Taylor and Justice for Migrant Children and Youth
El Cerro de Tomé: a Hill that Unites by Nicolás Cabrera
Espana en el Suroeste de Los EEUU: de Cabeza de Vaca . . a Juan de Onate
      by José Antonio Crespo-Francés



"What If?" by Edward R. Alcantar

 

My parents were born in Mexico and had lived here since 1900 and 1910 respectively. My oldest brother Henry, has always enjoyed teasing me about an incident that occurred to me and my family, back in 1933 when I was five years old. Jobs were hard to find and my father was lucky to be hired to work as a gardener at the estate of a very wealthy family in Phoenix, Arizona. The people of this estate, besides having gardeners, also had house maids, chauffeur and a butler.

I was a very sick child at that time. The doctors couldn't find what was wrong with me. I couldn't hold food in my stomach. So, for what ever reason, my father took me to work a few times. He would lay out a raggedly blanket close to where he was working and sit me there, where he could keep an eye on me. 

On one particular day, Mrs. Cook, the owner of the estate came out and started talking to me. Unfortunately, my father did not speak English. Fortunately, mother did speak English, so we spoke English and Spanish at home with her. I

In some fashion I was able to communicate with Mrs. Cook. This happened a few times. So I was not afraid of her. On a few occasions, she had the butler bring us some thing to eat. A couple of times she had me brought to the kitchen and fed lunch there. 

Well, it came to pass that on one Sunday, Mrs. Cook came to our house. The estate-over seer came with her, Mr. Alex, as I seem to remember.  Mr. Alex was German, and spoke with a very heavy accent. He had already established a prior relationship with my mom and dad.  Mr. Alex  would visit us once in a while and bring his two children, a boy about 8 and a girl about 10. 

Well,  it seems that the reason for Mrs. Cook's visit was that she wanted to adopt me and take me to England, and raise me as her son and heir. She and her husband had no children of their own. They supposedly, were direct descendants of the famous Captain Cook of English fame. Well, this went on for a short while. The Cooks suddenly left, back to England. I am 85 years old now, and I wonder what my life would have been like, if I had gone with the Cook's. My older brother, periodically reminds me, "Ed., you could have gone to Eton. "IF"....

Edward R. Alcantar Grants Pass, Oregon 1144 NE Quail Crossing
Grants Pass, Oregon 97526

 




Arizona Latino Arts and Culture Center In the Heart of Downtown Phoenix 

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTE:
AMERICAN SABOR Exhibition and ALAC Opening April 11th: 


American Sabor: Latinos in U.S. Popular Music will celebrated their final exhibition at Arizona Latino Arts and Culture Center in the heart of Downtown Phoenix. American Sabor has been traveling cross-country for ten years and has chosen to celebrate its incredible journey with people of Phoenix one last time. 

Developed by the Experience Music Project (EMP) in Seattle and the University of Washington, American Sabor traces the vast and significant contribution of Latino music to American popular music and culture. Through the use of film, artifacts, historic musical instruments, listening kiosks, and a full-sized dance floor, all guests will experience the excitement, diversity, and beauty of Latino music as it developed in five key U.S. cities: Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston, New York, and Miami. 

From the mambo, rhumba, and cha cha cha dance crazes of the 1950s to East L.A. punk rock of the 1970s; from conjunto and Tex-Mex to contemporary styles like reggaeton and banda rap, American Sabor will bring to life an extensive but often overlooked area of American pop. Instruments, costumes, and other artifacts from musical icons such as Carlos Santana, Celia Cruz, Los Lobos, Linda Ronstadt, Tito Puente, Flaco Jiménez, the Fania All-Stars, and many others will trace the trajectory of Latino music across the American landscape and into the hearts of millions.

To keep updated on additional events for American Sabor, please check out our Website. 






ALIANZA MEMORIES By Ray John de Aragon


There are certain experiences in our lives that we never forget. When I was eleven years old I was filled with excitement when my father took me to Cerrillos, New Mexico to meet his cousin Fray Angelico Chavez. Fray Angelico was a well-known writer and he also served as the pastor of the Cerrillos Catholic Church. I was so proud that he was a member of our family. The distinguished priest gave me a copy of his recently published book, Our Lady of Toledo and he signed it for me. It was a treasure. When I turned thirteen I was excited about finally being a teenager. My favorite singer was Buddy (Holley) Holly. I also liked Ritche (Valenzuela) Valens. I couldn’t help but be proud that Holly was not only becoming very popular, but he was recording his songs at a studio in Clovis, New Mexico. This was a special attachment. I was overjoyed that Holly called New Mexico home. I loved dancing to Ritchie Valens’ La Bamba. Less than a month after my birthday Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens died in a plane crash on February 3rd, 1959. I was devastated.

During my Junior year of high school in Las Vegas, New Mexico, I had to take a current events class as an elective to graduate. I remember it as though it was yesterday. Each Monday we were given a copy of Newsweek Magazine. We had to read it from cover to cover and deliver a report on a subject we selected in front of the class for a letter grade. I enjoyed learning about what was going on in the world. President Kennedy and First lady Jacqueline were, of course, consistently featured in the newspapers we had at home, magazines, and on television. My father and I didn’t miss a debate when Kennedy ran for office. In my class, we intently studied the Cuban Missile Crisis and kept up with anything and everything President Kennedy and all world affairs.

I never forget November 22nd, 1963. I had walked home for lunch and returned to school. My first period after lunch was my Current Events class. Although I was early, the teacher and most of the other students were already there. As I walked in the female teacher and all of the other girls in the class were crying. My friends were sitting on their chairs with sad faces. When I sat down I discovered that President Kennedy had been assassinated. The rest of the school day was passed in grief. All of us were severely impacted, but we did not have grief counseling. When I arrived home, my father was glued to the television screen. During the following days we watched stunned as Jack Ruby killed Lee Harvey Oswald in front of our eyes, and in my events class we all wrote and reported on everything leading up to Lyndon Johnson’s swearing in and the funeral. I can still hear the pain filled heavy hooves of the rider less horse on the television screen. Not only was Camelot lost, but we were entering into a phase of more despair in just a few years with the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King. I became a part of the Beatles generation. When John Lennon was also killed it appeared as though there was no hope. Kent State, Selma, Alabama, Rose Parks, all of that affected me and left an indelible mark on my soul and being.

My senior year was one filled with anticipation and worry about Vietnam. At graduation, some of my friends had been drafted and were already leaving. A very close companion was Larry Holley. He was Buddy Holly’s first cousin and we walked home every day after school together. Larry always talked about his cousin. At home I had a prized long playing album of Buddy Holly’s songs so I played it on the record player every day, even while I did my homework. At night I went to sleep listening to Oh Donna and Peggy Sue. I even got to dance with girls to those songs at school. Larry enlisted in the Navy, so I saw him go off to serve on an aircraft carrier right off the coast of Vietnam. He helped to direct the pilot’s landings. He was killed when a jet accidentally veered off and struck him. Larry’s picture was on the national news. I could still see him as we had walked home every day. He was right there beside me as my best friend. This war that was far away suddenly brought everything closer to home. I thought about how both Buddy Holley and Larry Holley had met their deaths by a plane.. I enlisted in the New Mexico Air National Guard, and my unit was called on active duty in the Air Force during the Pueblo Incident that took place in Korea so I went through Red Horse training in Florida. We were then deployed overseas. Back home Reyes Lopez Tijerina was in the national news and spotlight.

I was first introduced to Tijerina in 1963. My father, Maximiliano, ”Maximo” de Aragon was very involved in politics as a Democrat in northern New Mexico. He had actively participated in his cousin’s, United States Senator Dionicio, “Dennis” Chavez’, campaigns and Kennedy’s presidential campaign. My father was extremely passionate about the land grant issue in New Mexico. We were direct descendants of Don Pedro Duran de Chavez who arrived in New Mexico in 1598. His son, Nicolas Duran de Chavez eventually received a land grant of forty two thousand acres. Our family lost this land grant when American speculators and land swindlers swept into New Mexico during the territorial period. Land theft was rampant in New Mexico. As par to the course, the land thieves not only had control of the law, and the court system, but many of those involved in the judicial system were partners in the theft. Shady American Anglo merchants were also directly involved. My father supported Tijerina so I became actively involved in the land grant organization he established and called La Alianza Federal de las Mercedes. His premise was that the Hispanos in New Mexico who lost their land grants which were to have been protected by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo signed by the governments of United States and Mexico in 1848 could be returned to the rightful heirs. I was an heir so I knew that I had to take part. The Alianza also became a social justice organization so Tijerina communicated regularly with Martin Luther King and Cesar Chavez. As a teenaged young adult member, I drew in other young adults and coordinated with Civil Rights attorney William “Bill” Higgs who advised Reyes. I got to travel with them and, therefore, I was able to attend some of Tijerina’s speeches and presentations. He was a gifted speaker who touched anyone who listened to him.

Reyes lopez Tijerina was charismatic. He had an unmatched presence. Tijerina not only had a magnetic personality, but he was very knowledgeable and he had a deep commitment to social justice and achieving Hispanic equality in the United States. Cesar Chavez believed that one had to take the route of Mahatma Ghandi in India so he believed that justice could only be achieved through hunger strikes. Tijerina, on the contrary, still believed in the legal system to ensure change. He voraciously studied New Mexico history and knew about past events. During the territorial period of New Mexico Hispanics were so frustrated with the blatantly corrupt legal and political system they organized Las Gorras Blancas to fight the injustice that was rampant throughout the territory. It is believed that at one time this group had over fifteen thousand members. These armed horseback riders destroyed barbed wire fences that were illegally being strung up on private and community properties all over the land. They also burned down buildings that were being erected by a notorious group called the Santa Fe Ring that included shady lawmen, judges, and territorial officials. In territorial New Mexico land and livestock was stolen and held at the point of a gun. As what always happens in these type of situations, innocent Hispanic ranchers and farmers were murdered and the perpetrators of crimes were never brought to justice. The Gorras Blancas wore short white hoods to conceal their identities and not a single one was ever turned in to those seeking to apprehend them.

During the 1960’s land grants that had managed to survive were still being stolen. One Anglo-American governor in Santa Fe had burned centuries old documents and archives on the plaza to keep the rightful native Hispanic land claimants from keeping their properties. Unknown to the governor, many land grant heirs had duplicate copies of documents. Those that did not have a written chain of title automatically lost all rights to land ownership. Some unscrupulous lawyers, and judges were still the norm in the late twentieth century. A famous case was the centuries old Tome Land Grant. A company called Horizon Corporation paid the Tome heirs approximately seven thousand dollars each to relinquish their claims to the thousands of acres of land that Horizon planned to develop. However, it was determined by the courts that the heirs could not sell the land since it was an illegal sale because the land technically could not be sold since it was an original Land Grant. The heirs had to refund the money paid to them immediately or high interest on unpaid balances would accrue. However, it was decided that Horizon had purchased the property in ,”Good Faith” without knowing that the heirs that sold it could not sell it so the corporation got to keep the land. The Nicolas Duran de Chavez Grant was stolen through the courts in similar fashion by a district judge who was in cahoots with another group of land swindlers.

Frustrated with the legal system, and seeing no fruits to his labor, Tijerina decided to follow the lead of Black civil right leaders. He thought that by bringing the matter to public attention nationally might be the key to success. On June 5th, 1967 the now famous Tierra Amarilla Courthouse Raid took place. Tijerina and a group of Alianza members took over the courthouse and made a series of citizens’ arrests with a handful of warrants outlining crimes. The situation went out of control and resulted in one death and various injuries to those involved. The New Mexico State police and other police agencies sent in officers and arrested men, women, and children and placed them in live stock corrals. The national news immediately covered the rapidly developing story especially when the Governor, Dave Cargo, deployed the New Mexico National Guard and sent in troops and tanks into the Tierra Amarilla area and sealed off the territory. Since the Alianza had over five thousand members it was believed that a revolution might be taking place. I was at summer camp with the New Mexico Air National Guard in Wisconsin and the Air Guard was placed on alert status . We waited impatiently to see if the Air National Guard was going to be activated and ordered back to New Mexico to support the ground forces already in place. Fortunately the situation settled down within a few days. Tijerina and several others were arrested. Reyes Tijerina served two years in prison under other charges unrelated to the Raid, and he continued to state his innocence and carry on his message of social justice. He died believing he was a victim of circumstances. Ironically, Governor Cargo’s own wife was an active member of the Alianza.

The now generations old land grant problem in New Mexico is still a contentious and touchy problem among Hispanic natives with roots stemming from the early colonization of the land by Spanish ancestors in the seventeenth century. It is not an issue that has died out. It is as relevant now as it was during the nineteenth and twentieth century. Tijerina followed the lead of other Hispano organizations that had sprung up and died out fighting for the return of stolen lands to the rightful Hispanic heirs and owners. Vestiges of the Alianza lives on and claimants still continue to state their cases through the print media and in the courts. The federal government, however, continues to lend a deaf ear believing that the entire matter will simply die a natural death and that those holding on to the land through “Legal” finagling will be able to keep it. At one time United States Senator from New Mexico, Thomas B. Catron of the Santa Fe Ring, was the largest land owner in the country, controlling millions of acres. He also had one of the largest herds of stolen cattle in the country. He and others like him including famous Old West cattle man John Chisum hired dozens of gun men and outlaws to keep Hispanics at bay. Not only was land stolen but horses, cattle, and other livestock was also stolen, as were the livelihoods of an entire population of people who lost land, farms, ranches, homes, and whole towns. Alianza members, and hundreds of Spanish land grant heirs are still waiting for justice. Memories never fade. 

 

 



March 26th, 1875 - Mexican raiders attack Nuecestown

Editor Mimi: Based on their summary itself,  I really take issue with the title.  I reread this paragraph over and over and came to my own description and title of what was taking place.   There were many non-Hispanic, Anglo outlaws living in Mexico and through-out the Southwest.  

Perhaps a more correct title to this incident would be:  
Unknown raiders along the Mexican Border attacked Nuecestown.  

Article:

On this day in 1875, a party of Mexican raiders attacked Nuecestown. The raid can best be explained as part of a cycle of violence among Mexican citizens, Hispanic Texans, and Anglo Texans. By 1875 raids and murder were common on the part of both ethnic groups. 

In late March a number of men left Mexico (Mimi: not necessarily Mexicans)  in small groups and met about twenty miles from where the raid began. The Mexican raiders concentrated their efforts on Nuecestown and the surrounding area, but also hit other areas between Nuecestown and the Rio Grande. The raiders attacked homes, ranches, and stores, stealing horses and valuables, taking hostages, and killing several men. They attacked Thomas Noakes's store at Nuecestown on March 26 and Roma, in Starr County, on April 2. Soon thereafter the band crossed back into Mexico. Anglo residents of South Texas retaliated with a vengeance. Bands of volunteers organized "minute companies" and proceeded to hunt down Mexican outlaws, peaceful rancheros, and merchants; the avengers looted property and burned homes.<<<<< 

Violence along the border would continue for years to come.
Source:  Texas State Historical Association  Day by Day

 



The Chinese-Mexican Cuisine, Born Of U.S. Prejudice
April 16, 2015
by Lisa Morehouse

In the Fortune Garden kitchen in El Centro, Calif., near the Mexican border, cooks speak to each other in Cantonese, and waiters give orders in Spanish.


In the Fortune Garden kitchen in El Centro, Calif., near the Mexican border, cooks speak to each other in Cantonese, and waiters give orders in Spanish.  Courtesy of Vickie Ly/KQED

If you ask people in the city of Mexicali, Mexico, about their most notable regional cuisine, they won't say street tacos or mole. They'll say Chinese food. There are as many as 200 Chinese restaurants in the city.

North of the border, in California's rural Imperial County, the population is mostly Latino, but Chinese restaurants are packed. There are dishes in this region you won't find anywhere else, and the history behind them goes back more than 130 years.

Every couple of weeks, the Salcedo family travels more than an hour from Yuma, Ariz., to dine at Fortune Garden.Every couple of weeks, the Salcedo family travels more than an hour from Yuma, Ariz., to dine at Fortune Garden.   Photo Courtesy of Vickie Ly/KQED.  

 
The Salcedo family sits in a coveted booth at the Fortune Garden restaurant in the city of El Centro, north of the border. They come from Yuma, Ariz.— over an hour away — twice a month just to eat here.

A huge side order arrives, light-yellow deep-fried chilis, a dish I've never seen. Then a salt-and-pepper fish, which the Salcedos describe as "Baja style," with lots of bell peppers, chilis and onions. But have you ever heard of Baja-style dishes in a Chinese restaurant?

Mayra Salcedo explains, "It's like a fusion, Mexican ingredients with the Chinese. It's very different than if you go to any other Chinese restaurant, Americanized Chinese restaurant."

Fried yellow chilis in the Fortune Garden kitchen. This dish showed up on almost every table at the Chinese restaurants we visited on both sides of the U.S. border with Mexico. Their sauce has kind of a margarita flavor: lemon with lots of salt.
Fried yellow chilis in the Fortune Garden kitchen. This dish showed up on almost every table at the Chinese restaurants we visited on both sides of the U.S. border with Mexico. Their sauce has kind of a margarita flavor: lemon with lots of salt.
Photo: Courtesy of Vickie Ly/KQED

"When they order, they don't say barbecue pork," says Fortune Garden co-owner Jenissa Zhou. "They say carnitas — carnitas coloradas." That's "red pork" in Spanish.

Zhou came to the U.S. from southern China. Her husband, Carlos, is from Mexicali, where he worked in Chinese restaurants. It took her a while to get used to her customers' taste buds.

"You can see, every table, they have lemon and hot sauce," Zhou says. "In Chinese food, we don't eat lemon."

Those fried yellow chilis on almost every table, chiles asados, are served in a lemon sauce with lots of salt — kind of a margarita flavor. If you believe the rumors, some chefs marinate pork in tequila.

It's not just on the plate where cultures combine. In the Fortune Garden kitchen, the cooks speak to each other in Cantonese. The waiters speak Spanish and English.

Today's Border Patrol grew out of the Mounted Guard of Chinese Inspectors, created to keep Chinese immigrants from entering the U.S.
"The restaurants you see now are remnants of the Chinese population that used to fill the U.S.-Mexico borderlands in Mexicali and in Baja California," explains Robert Chao Romero, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. He teaches in both the Chicano and Asian-American studies departments and wrote the book The Chinese in Mexico.  

And just why were the Chinese there? Because of the Chinese Exclusion Act.

Spurred by anti-Chinese laborer sentiment among American workers, the 1882 law banned immigrants from China from entering the U.S. Tens of thousands went to Cuba, South America and Mexico instead. Many settled along the U.S.-Mexico border, becoming grocers, merchants and restaurant owners. Others managed to cross illegally and make lives in the U.S., including in Imperial County.

One of the inventive dishes at El Dragon, in Mexicali, Mexico: arrachera beef (great in tacos) with asparagus and black bean sauce. One of the inventive dishes at El Dragon, in Mexicali, Mexico: arrachera beef (great in tacos) with asparagus and black bean sauce. Courtesy of Vickie Ly/KQED

 

"The Chinese invented undocumented immigration from Mexico," says Romero. He says they were smuggled in with the help of guides hired to lead them across the border. "Smuggling with false papers, on boats and trains — the infrastructure for that was all invented by the Chinese."

Today's Border Patrol grew out of the Mounted Guard of Chinese Inspectors, created to keep Chinese immigrants from entering the U.S. At the same time, the Mexican government welcomed Chinese immigrants to go to the sparsely populated border region, to work on farms and in mines and canals.

The Chinese-Mexican cuisine this history begot is even more prominent on the Mexican side of the border, as I learn while taking a drive over the border with George Lim. He lives in the U.S. but commutes every day to Mexicali. Lim helps run one of the city's oldest: El Dragon.

Why cross the border every day to run a restaurant? Lim explains that Mexicali's population is nearly 1 million, which dwarfs the rural population on the California side of the border.

The egg roll at El Dragon in Mexicali, Mexico, is a Chinese-Mexican-American combo: shrimp, cilantro and cream cheese.
The egg roll at El Dragon in Mexicali, Mexico,
is a Chinese-Mexican-American combo: shrimp, cilantro and cream cheese.  
Photo, Courtesy of Vickie Ly/KQED








"Just doing the math, you're going to have a lot more customers here in Mexico," he explains. "And I hate to say it, but people in Mexico are more sophisticated than in Imperial about Chinese food."

That sophistication may come from decades of people eating Mexican-influenced Chinese food here. Once, it was a necessity: Chinese cooks used Mexican ingredients like chilis, jicama and certain cuts of meat, because that was what was available. Now it's part of a culinary legacy.

There's a new dish at El Dragon: arrachera beef, served with asparagus and black bean sauce. Lim says that's the best meat for tacos, a clear Mexican influence: "Asparagus could be both Chinese and Mexican, but the sauce, the black bean, that's Chinese."

I try out a kind of Mexican-Chinese-American hybrid: an egg roll with shrimp, cilantro and cream cheese that seems like it shouldn't be good, but is. And at El Dragon, they put avocado in the fried rice.

Lim says people still come from China to work in Mexicali restaurants, and sometimes these cooks move up north, to work in Chinese kitchens in Imperial County.

"One of the goals is to go to the U.S., have a better life for you and for your kids, give them a better education, better opportunity, maybe earning dollars instead of pesos," he says.

The same reasons, in other words, that drew their ancestors here from southern China 130 years ago.

This story first ran on KQED's The California Report. Vickie Ly helped with reporting and translation. The series "California Foodways" is supported in part by Cal Humanities. Lisa Morehouse, an independent journalist, produced this story during a fellowship at Hedgebrook, a residency for female writers.

Sent by Howard Shorr  howardshorr@msn.com
Source:  

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2015/04/16/399637724/the-chinese-mexican-cuisine-born-of-u-s-prejudice?
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To all Anza Society members and friends,

Due to the many requests for more information on Anza's, trek from Santa Fe to Arizpe and on his return via el Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, I decided to scan and e-mail to all    concerned, Anza " A Documentary Chronology" of the three Anza's.

Ansa= Antonio de Ansa 1666 - 1737
Anssa = Juan Baptista de Anssa 1693 - 1740
Anza = Juan Baptista de Anza 1736 = 1788 [our subject]

To start go to page 17 and look under 9 November and so on. The support to this work can be found at the Presidio de Tubac.

This work was sent to me by the late Donald T. Garate, a colleague and good friend, after I not being able to attend the 1999 conference due to being abroad.

Enjoy
Phil Valdez, Jr.
 DeAnza8g@aol.com 





Dreamers, Deportees and Daredevils: 
 J. Paul Taylor and Justice for Migrant Children and Youth
April 1, 2015:

Frontera NorteSur Editor’s Note: A review of the 11th Annual J. Paul Taylor Social Justice Symposium held last month at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces. This article is dedicated to the memory of Nohemi Alvarez Quillay.

FNS Feature: Dreamers, Deportees and Daredevils:  J. Paul Taylor and Justice for Migrant Children and Youth
April 1, 2015:

Maria Eugenia Ponce grew up in what she calls “Puebla York.” Brought to the Big Apple as a young girl in the 1990s, Ponce recalled her undocumented parents working very hard to pay for private schools so their children could get ahead in life. But as she became older, the daughter of migrants from the Mexican state of Puebla grew increasingly restive when she was told to be quiet and not draw attention to herself.

“I grew up thinking my life was reduced to living in the shadows and remaining there. I grew up thinking my parents were cowards for not standing up for themselves,” Ponce told an audience at New Mexico State University. “I stopped thinking that a long time ago. They aren’t cowards. They’re heroes.” 

Ponce called her 2005 graduation from college with a business administration degree a “bittersweet moment,” because her dreams of additional studies or professional employment were stymied by the lack of proper immigration papers.  Stuck in limbo, the new graduate made the difficult decision in 2006 to embark on a new life in Mexico even if it meant separating from her immediate family, which like thousands of others from Puebla was now transplanted and rooted in New York.

Fluent in English with the flair of a New York accent, Ponce found ready employment in the call center industry expanding in Mexico. She had ample company in the hundreds of thousands of English-speaking young people from the Dreamer generation, who either because of self-deportation or U.S. government deportation, were now back in a land of which they had little or no memory and where many struggled with the Spanish language. 

The U.S. call center industry had an ideal labor pool: job salaries were good by Mexican standards but much less than comparable positions in the United States.  In the 21st century, the model of the Mexican maquiladora that produces goods for export to El Norte now extended to bits of information crossing borders tariff-free.

A “correlation” exists, Ponce later told FNS, between the specific locations of call centers and Mexican cities with large populations of Dreamers. “It’s not really necessary to speak Spanish,” Ponce said about her life as what might be termed a Call Center Dreamer.  “It becomes a trap because it’s the only place you feel you can belong at times.” 

Ponce adjusted to Mexico, later locating employment with a software developer in a job that, ironically, allows her to obtain business visas to visit the United States. The “Puebla Yorker,” if you will, admitted she still grapples with the “internal conflict” Dreamers possess. American? Mexican?  Someone in between?

“I’m a mix of both. A lot of people struggle with that, because sometimes you’re going in the subway and people are critical about you speaking English,” Ponce said.

Together with other Dreamers, Ponce is part of a growing organizational network, Dream in Mexico, for which she works as the program coordinator. She described the purpose of the organization as playing an advocacy role in addressing the particular needs of a large and growing community that is stranded between two nations, two cultures and two systems of bureaucracy.

Ponce was among keynote speakers at the NMSU symposium which focused on the varied dimensions of the crises facing migrant children and youth in the Americas. 

Dr. Camilo Perez-Bustillo, visiting professor of criminal justice at NMSU, dedicated the event to Nohemi Alvarez Quillay, a 12-year-old indigenous Ecuadoran girl who set out on a dangerous journey along immigrant smuggling routes spanning continents to reunite with her parents in New York City. The school girl made it to a stone’s throw to the U.S. border only to wind up hanged to death in a privately-run shelter in Ciudad Juarez in March of last year. 

Quickly ruled a suicide by Chihuahua state authorities, Nohemi’s death sparked diplomatic tensions between Mexico and Ecuador. Most recently, the pronouncements by Chihuahua officials that Nohemi had not been sexually abused were contradicted by the Mexican federal attorney general’s office which determined that, indeed, Nohemi had been raped in the days prior to her death, according to Mexican media reports.  

Perez-Bustillo informed the symposium that Nohemi was from a region of Ecuador where 60 percent of the children hail from migrant families that, out of desperation, pay thousands of dollars to smugglers to transport their children north.  Nohemi’s death occurred at the height of last year’s “exodus” of migrant children north but shortly before it became a controversial issue in this country, Perez-Bustillo said.  “Let us remember Nohemi tonight was we hear the keynote speakers,” he urged.

Father Alejandro Solalinde Guerra was among numerous speakers during the three days of the March symposium.  The winner of Mexico’s 2012 National Human Rights Award, Solalinde is the founder of a migrant shelter in the southern state of Oaxaca that hosts large numbers of Central Americans.  Solalinde based his words on theology as well as a human rights imperative.

“God exists and doesn’t have franchises,” Solalinde declared. “It’s a god of life.” The outspoken Mexican priest sketched recent changes that have overtaken the migrant route in southern Mexico. At the behest of the U.S., stricter Mexican government controls have created logjams and packed his and other migrant shelters with people who now cannot so easily jump aboard the train known as “The Beast” that once transported them north.

Central to the new policy is the Mexican government’s Southern Border Plan and its checkpoints and security patrols that branch out in a “security arc” from the southern border to the Gulf Coast, forming a vise that forces migrants into more dangerous routes controlled by organized criminal gangs, Solalinde said. Though the passage is much more difficult than before the migrants- especially Hondurans- keep coming, the internationally-known human rights activist reported.

“Honduras is not even a failed state,” Solalinde insisted. “It is a non-existent state.”

On a related note, the Washington Office of Latin America recently cited official Mexican government statistics in reporting that deportations of migrants from Mexico, mainly Central Americans, increased from 80,079 in 2013 to 107,814 in 2014. For migrant children, the number of deportees soared from 8,350 in 2013 to 18,169 last year.

The NMSU symposium garnered praise for its simultaneous translation of English and Spanish in all the sessions, as well as the interspersing of film, poetry and photography with the presentations.  Laurie Ann Guerrero, poet laureate of San Antonio, Texas, enraptured an audience with her jolting verses about domestic violence, death and victimized children. The award-winning poet told a personal migration story of sorts, recounting her experience as a college student in Massachusetts while raising three children and toiling as a domestic worker to pay the bills. 

Mexican photographer Karla Hernandez has worked for human rights organizations like Amnesty International and the Tlachinollan Human Rights Center of the Mountain in the southern state of Guerrero.  Hernandez’s eye enlivened the symposium with her striking photo exhibition of life in the indigenous municipality of Cochoapa El Grande, Guerrero, where many people leave to work as farm laborers in the tomato harvest of the Sinaloa agro-maquila industry in northern Mexico.

“All this product is for the United States and Europe,” Hernandez told FNS. “Free trade has a lot to do with this.” Previously, the migration from Cochoapa El Grande was a male one, according to Hernandez. “Now the whole family goes, including the children,” she said.

Like their sisters and brothers from Puebla and Ecuador, the Mixtec people of Cochoapa El Grande, one of the poorest communities of Mexico, are among the latest peoples to carve out new lives in the shimmering lights of New York City, Hernandez added.

The visiting photographer also displayed her dramatic shots of the Central American migrants who risk life and limb climbing aboard the clanging cars of the “The Beast.” Hernandez pointed to her photo of a very young girl clutching and hanging from her father’s back as the two dangled from the train.

“She has to be very conscious about this or she could easily fall,” Hernandez observed.

Hernandez, too, noted the prevalence of Honduran migrants pushing northward, including new communities of indigenous and African-origin peoples. The Honduran exodus has intensified since the 2009 coup, and currently incorporates multiple generations from the grandparents to the grandchildren, she said.

“This speaks to a forced displacement,” Hernandez affirmed.

Now more than a decade old, NMSU’s J. Paul Taylor Social Justice Symposium paid tribute to the man whose name the event bears. A veteran, Las Cruces-area educator with a keen interest in bilingual education, J. Paul Taylor served as a member of the New Mexico House of Representatives from 1987 to 2005, where he was called by some “The Conscience of the House.”

NMSU Provost Dr. Dan Howard honored Taylor, whom he called “one of the icons of the community” and a man that “brings out the best in us.” Howard said the symposium was a “fitting topic” for an individual whose life has been dedicated to children. 

Striding up to the stage, J. Paul Taylor looked dapper for his 95 years of age.

“As time goes my voice gets weaker and the hands shakier, but I don’t lose my great lust for the university,” Taylor said.  “I’m a graduate of NMSU, and I kind of like the place.”

In telling the story how he attended a question and answer session for then-NMSU presidential candidate Michael Martin, Taylor remembered asking the hopeful what he would do in the social justice realm if he became NMSU president. The response, Taylor said, was the annual symposium named after him.

“The audience is getting bigger, and it’s not because of me,” Taylor said. “They have a driving interest in social justice.”

This year’s symposium was attended by scores of academics, students, activists and officials from the U.S. and Mexico. The gathering was sponsored by the NMSU College of Arts and Sciences, the Center for Latin American Border Studies, the New Mexico Humanities Council/ National Endowment for the Humanities, and various campus departments and organizations. 

For an earlier FNS story about Nohemi Alvarez Quillay check out: http://fnsnews.nmsu.edu/a-little-girl-named-nohemi-martyr-of-migration/ 

Dream in Mexico: http://dreaminmexico.org/
-Kent Paterson

Frontera NorteSur: on-line, U.S.-Mexico border news
Center for Latin American and Border Studies
New Mexico State University
Las Cruces, New Mexico
For a free electronic subscription  email: fnsnews@nmsu.edu 
Sent by Patrick Osio  Posiojr@aol.com 




El Cerro de Tomé: a Hill that Unites by Nicolás Cabrera
April 4, 2015

Frontera NorteSur Editor’s Note: As part of our ongoing series of articles written by NMSU students, Nicolás Cabrera, a graduate student studying Spanish literature, filed this report about a longstanding New Mexican tradition that takes place during Holy Week.
In the borderlands, Good Friday is one of the most important days of the year. People across the region mark the solemn occasion in many ways, including long walks known as caminatas to pilgrimage sites.

In central New Mexico, there is a brown and dry hill that overlooks the green and fertile bosque of the Río Grande and the Village of Tomé. This giant hill, called the Cerro de Tomé, has three crosses at the top and is a pilgrimage site for thousands of people on Good Friday. Each person who makes the journey does so in his or her own way by carrying crosses, walking barefoot, singing, praying, or simply taking each step in silence.

Mary Rose Páiz is from Pajarito y Los Padillas, a historic community nestled between Albuquerque and Tomé. She said that she started the annual Holy Week walk with her family when she was seven years old. Although she does it alone now, she continues to make the pilgrimage as an adult every year because it is important to her. Along the way, she sees fellow pilgrims keeping religious and cultural traditions alive that have existed for generations.

“One can expect to see church groups and families walking together from their church or homes,” said Páiz. “Prayers that are often prayed while walking are the rosary, Stations of the Cross, Divine Mercy Chaplet, and the Litany of Saints. A person can expect to see pilgrims of all ages, including some who are barefoot and others who carry large crosses on their shoulders.”

For decades people have made the long trek up this dusty hill in Tomé, a land grant settlement some 30 miles south of Albuquerque. Some of the Good Friday pilgrims are New Mexicans who have lived in this area for generations and are heirs to the Spanish-Mexican land grant known as a merced. Others are recent arrivals from Mexico who are fulfilling their mandas, which are vows or promises they have made.

Josefina Olivas and her daughter Norma Muñoz are from the San José neighborhood of Albuquerque. This year they made the walk together. Slowly they made their way up the hill as they prayed in Spanish out of a worn and fragile book whose pages are turning brown. Olivas, who will be 83 in May, said that she has walked to the Cerro de Tomé since she was a child.

“I remember making the walk when I was a little girl in catechism,” she said in Spanish. “Now they have to bring me or I can’t come. We also make other sacrifices, such as fasting. We don’t eat in the morning or in the evening, just a little bit in the afternoon.”

Muñoz, whose husband and children start walking four miles away from the hill, said that many Good Friday travelers set out to complete their mandas. Speaking in Spanish she said, “A lot of people vow to God that they will make the pilgrimage a certain way, such as carrying a cross, to fulfill the promises they have made.”

The Good Friday caminata to the top of the Cerro de Tomé continues year after year as thousands of pilgrims make their way to the hill. Some people start as early as five in the morning from Albuquerque, Belén, Los Lunas, Pueblo de Isleta, and other nearby communities. One step at a time they move closer to their destination, leaving behind a dusty trail that drifts away in April’s notorious winds.

Anahai Guillermo de Bustillos is the daughter of Mexican immigrants who started making the pilgrimage 17 years ago from her parent’s home in Los Lunas on the banks of the Río Grande. Now her husband Efraín Bustillos Jr. accompanies her along with their children, Mario, Manuel, Alejandro and Elaina, who range in age from 18 months to 14 years.

“We make the walk in memory of our loved ones in heaven and for the ones here who can’t do it anymore,” said Guillermo. “We also do it for our elderly grandparents and the sick. The walk is also in remembrance of what Jesus did. It’s a very long walk, but it’s worth every step.”

Bustillos, who is from Los Lunas, has been making the walk with her for over 14 years. This yearly journey up the arduous hill is significant in his life because it reminds him how important it is to pass down the Catholic faith to his children.

“I bring my children because it is important to teach and show them our Catholic beliefs, just like our parents showed us,” he said. “I want my children to grow up with our faith which is an important part of our culture.”

At the top of the barren and rocky hill are three crosses that have been erected to echo the crosses of Calvary. There are also some tombstones written in Spanish and candles, scapulars (garments), rosary beads, and other objects that have been left behind by pilgrims in thanksgiving or prayer. Muñoz said that when she and her family get to the top of the hill they pray the Stations of the Cross in Spanish, which are known as the Viacrucis or Vía Dolorosa.

“It’s a sacrifice to make it to the top of the hill for my mom with her age,” said Muñoz. “All of this is a sacrifice for the both of us but this is a tradition we have kept for many years.”

Her mother agrees. “We promised to God to make this sacrifice,” said Olivas. “It’s a tradition I’ve kept all my life.”

Before they walk back down, people sing hymns, pray, and most importantly, rest at the top of the hill. Páiz said that the walk and activities that take place on this journey bring people together. “It allows the community to pray together and get to know each other on a deeper spiritual level,” she said.

At the bottom of the hill and alongside the many roads and trails that lead to it, there are people who give away water, drinks, and snacks to the travelers. Noemí Chávez and her family gave bottled water and aguas frescas to pilgrims in front of their home. For this family from Chihuahua, Mexico, giving away drinks is part of their special manda and how they now commemorate Good Friday.

“This is the second year we’ve done this,” said Chávez talking in Spanish. “Last year my husband wanted to buy this land and since we were able to do so, he promised that each year we were going to share water with the people who come to fulfill their own mandas or walk to the hill.”

Chávez said that they bought hundreds of bottles of water but that the people who stopped preferred the traditional drinks from Mexico called aguas frescas. By noon she said that her children had already filled the five-gallon jug holding horchata, a sweet beverage made with rice, milk, and cinnamon, four times.

One of her daughters started serving at 7:30 in the morning, even though some people had begun their walk in the pre-dawn hours. Although her family misses making the pilgrimage to the top of the hill, Chávez said that being generous is also important.

“It is important to teach my children to share,” said Chávez. Her son Rodolfo Chávez who stood next to her agreed and said in Spanish that he enjoyed both giving away drinks and making the pilgrimage.

“I like it because it’s a lot of fun,” said the young child. “I also like to go on the walk with my mom and dad.”

The Cerro de Tomé continues to draw people from different backgrounds year after year. This special hill has become more than just a pilgrimage destination, as people share a common bond and tell their stories, one step at a time.


Frontera NorteSur: on-line, U.S.-Mexico border news
Center for Latin American and Border Studies
New Mexico State University
Las Cruces, New Mexico

For a free electronic subscription
email: fnsnews@nmsu.edu



ESPAÑA EN EL SUROESTE DE LOS EEUU: DE CABEZA DE VACA A JUAN DE OÑATE (II)
Written by José Antonio Crespo-Francés
Published in Opinión
April 10, 2015


Como ya hemos señalado en el artículo anterior, 1583 es el año en el que Felipe II, de España y I de Portugal, emite una Real Cédula por la que concede el preciado y anhelado bien de la nobleza de la Hidalguía a todos los que se establecieran al Norte del río Grande así como a sus descendientes.

El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro

El virrey hizo entrega a Juan de Oñate el asiento con las detalladas instrucciones para su expedición, entre las que se encontraba la de descubrir y poblar las nuevas tierras siempre "con toda paz, amistad y cristiandad", nombrándole gobernador de este territorio, que sería llamado Nuevo México y que tendría carácter hereditario, por lo que pasaría a su muerte a manos de su hijo. Luego Oñate iría solicitando socorros para la organización de la expedición.

El propio virrey suministraría a la expedición las municiones, pólvora y los cañones que necesitaban, mientras que el resto del material de guerra sería financiado en su mayor parte por el propio Oñate, que empeñaría con ello la fortuna familiar. Estaba obligado a reclutar a 200 hombres totalmente equipados a su costa, cinco sacerdotes y, como se trataba de colonizar y poblar los nuevos territorios, también acompañarían a la expedición mujeres y niños, y cerca de 8.000 cabezas de ganados entre las que se contaban, 3000 ovejas, 1000 cabras, 1000 carneros y 1000 vacas además de 150 caballos y 150 potros.

Esta expedición, como la de Coronado, también tuvo sus incursiones por mar de la mano de Sebastián Vizcaíno (1548-1628), navegante español, nacido en 1448 en Extremadura y muerto en Nueva España en 1628. Tras varias expediciones por el Pacífico partió al mando de una expedición organizada por el virrey Luis de Velasco, cuyo fin era la exploración de la costa norteamericana, en busca del estrecho de Anián, que por el norte ofreciera un paso del Pacífico al Atlántico, y de puertos de descanso para las naves que venían de Filipinas. En 1596 descubrió la Baja California como Nueva Andalucía. En 1602 dirigió una segunda expedición, en la que participaron fray Antonio de la Ascensión, Toribio Gómez de Corbán, Gaspar de Alarcón y Jerónimo Martín de Palacios, recorriendo la costa de la Alta California hasta el cabo de Mendocino y descubriendo la bahía de Monterrey.

Mapa con la situación de Acoma y dibujada con la línea de trazos la ruta que ya en 1605 seguiría Oñate para alcanzar el Golfo de California, con la esperanza de abrir una nueva ruta por mar que le comunicará con Nueva España, aunque los territorios que tenía que atravesar eran muy peligrosos y no disponía de hombres para establecer una ruta segura hasta allí

Estas expediciones, tanto terrestres como marítimas, eran de una gran dureza y se hacían necesarias unas muy buenas condiciones físicas y gran capacidad de sacrificio y de resistencia para afrontarlas. En su mayoría se reclutó personal procedente de la península de todas las regiones de España, viajando en ella familias cuyos cabezas eran veteranos de las guerras de Flandes, y así lo podemos ver en las descripciones físicas que ofrece Gaspar de Villagrá en el listado de expedicionarios cuando pormenoriza los rasgos físicos de los alistados entre los que se incluían las cicatrices en cara y cuerpo, o ausencia de dedos.

Juan de Oñate, hijo de Cristóbal de Oñate fundador de Zacatecas, descubridor y dueño de las mayores minas de plata del momento, se había casado con la princesa Isabel de Tolosa Cortés Moctezuma, hija de Juanes Tolosa, cofundador de Zacatecas con su padre, y de Leonor Cortés de Moctezuma, hermanastra de Martín Cortés, hijo de Hernán Cortés. Don Juan de Oñate era criollo, o sea nacido en la Ciudad de México de padres peninsulares. Su esposa Isabel, era nieta como se ha dicho de Hernán Cortés y biznieta de Moctezuma, así el mismo Oñate simboliza en su familia la principal riqueza de la Hispanidad, el mestizaje, por tantos denostado.

El capitán Gaspar Pérez de Villagrá es la gran figura a reivindicar para el orgullo hispano y para la historia de los Estados Unidos de Norteamérica, como el primer europeo y hombre de leyes que actuó en labores de justicia en los territorios de esa nación, el primer juez de los EEUU. Villagrá había estudiado leyes y ejerció como procurador de justicia de la expedición y como notario de la misma, era un hombre de letras que sin duda soñaba con la gloria literaria, por eso emprendería una obra singular: la redacción de un monumental poema épico sobre la conquista de Nuevo México por Oñate, donde relata detalladamente la expedición, constituyendo esta obra la primera obra literaria íntegramente dedicada a los actuales Estados Unidos de América, y por la que se tienen las primeras noticias de sus tierras y sus pobladores. Allí se describe por primera vez a los búfalos o bisontes (cíbolos) y el encuentro de un europeo con un tornado, relatando el propio Villagrá cómo tuvo que asirse a una roca para no ser arrancado con su armadura y salir volando por los aires como una espiga de trigo.

A pesar de la detallada preparación, la partida de la expedición se complicó por motivos ajenos a la misma cuando Luis de Velasco, virrey de Nueva España en aquel momento y valedor de Juan de Oñate, fue nombrado en 1595 virrey del Perú, siendo relevado en el cargo por Gaspar de Zúñiga y Acevedo (1560-1606), quien tenía en mente a otro hombre para liderar la expedición, que no era otro que su amigo Pedro Ponce de León, aunque afortunadamente éste no contaba con los recursos económicos exigidos para acometer los gastos de organización de la expedición.

Oñate siguió adelante con sus planes pero sufrió una guerra psicológica de desgaste. Cuando en enero de 1597 lo tenía todo preparado para partir desde el asentamiento más norteño de Nueva España, la población de Santa Bárbara, en el actual estado mexicano de Chihuahua, Gaspar de Zúñiga, que no mantenía ninguna simpatía personal con Oñate y estaba dispuesto a poner todas las trabas posibles para torpedear la expedición, aún ignorando las instrucciones del propio Felipe II, que ya había ordenado el inicio de la expedición, envió una nueva inspección de la expedición, que terminaría, como no podía ser de otra manera, con un resultado positivo, pese a ordenar otra nueva inspección, señalando la prohibición expresa de que no se iniciase nada sin obtener su permiso.

Con todas estas visitas de inspección, claramente innecesarias, lo único que pretendía Zúñiga era sembrar el desánimo y descontento entre los expedicionarios y sus familias, algunos de los cuales abandonaron ante tal dilación. Por otra parte Oñate sólo tenía 120 soldados, cuando el asiento firmado estipulaba que debía armar a su costa a 200 hombres, por lo que el visitador enviado por el virrey Zúñiga, Juan Frías de Salazar, le impidió a Oñate a iniciar su marcha, argumentando como disculpa incumplimiento del contrato. Con todas estas trabas oficiales, la expedición sufrió un nuevo retraso hasta 1598, pero finalmente el 26 de enero de 1598 Frías, sin nuevos pretextos para retrasar la partida de la expedición, autorizó finalmente la expedición, y Oñate partió de Santa Bárbara en dirección a la frontera del norte. La columna era impresionante, digna de que algún cineasta reflejara en un film esta epopeya, con más de siete mil cabezas de ganado, con sus 120 soldados acompañados de sus familias, esposas e hijos de todas las edades, en una cadena de 83 carros tirados por bueyes, a la que se incorporarían en el mes de marzo dos sacerdotes y ocho monjes franciscanos, que serían los responsables de la atención espiritual de la expedición y de la evangelización de los nuevos territorios. En esa expedición se dibujaba un microcosmos de España pues sus miembros eran originarios de las cuatro esquinas del territorio peninsular y de Canarias, hecho que queda patente en los nombres y topónimos que han quedado en Nuevo México.

Oñate organizó la columna enviando una vanguardia para seguridad y reconocer los pasos complicados. Esa avanzadilla del cuerpo principal expedicionario estaba formada por diecisiete hombres bajo el mando de su sobrino Vicente de Zaldívar, con el cometido de explorar el itinerario y reconocer tanto los puntos de paso obligado como los lugares más adecuados para detenerse, así como prevenir cualquier emboscada de partidas de nativos nómadas. Aquellos valientes expedicionarios se internaban en un territorio habitado por diferentes pueblos con lenguas también diferentes, como los indios hopi, los tewas o tanos, zuñis, o los apaches entre otras muchas como los comanches o los navajos.

La Semana Santa de 1598 la pasaron junto a un río al que dieron el nombre de Jueves Santo, tal y como relata Villagrá, describiendo los oficios religiosos incluso la autolaceración de Oñate. Después reanudaron su camino, que les llevaría hasta una nueva corriente fluvial que les interrumpía el paso hacia hacia el norte: el Río de las Conchas, y para atravesarlo Oñate ordenó desmontar veinticuatro ruedas de las carretas, atarlas y cubrirlas con troncos para formar un puente y de esta manera el resto de carretas y el ganado lo pudieran atravesar. Pensemos que este proceso con todo el personal e impedimenta además del ganado, les llevó nada más y nada menos que una semana.

Por fin el 20 de abril de 1598 llegaron a las orillas del Río Grande o Bravo del Norte, que con un recorrido de 3034 kilómetros, recorre los actuales estados norteamericanos de Colorado, Nuevo México y Texas, para luego internarse en México recorriendo Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León y Tamaulipas, para desembocar en el Golfo de México. Es en este punto clave, el hoy conocido como Paso del Norte, donde se encontraba la expedición de Oñate, que tendrá que hacer frente a varios ataques de tribus nómadas, hasta que una vez totalmente atravesado el río en los primeros días de mayo, junto a las ciudades fronterizas de Ciudad Juárez en México y El Paso en los Estados Unidos, Oñate ordenó levantar junto a la orilla una capilla, donde tres semanas después ya estaba lista para celebrar una misa de acción de gracias en la que agradecen a Dios la fortuna de haber cruzado a la nueva tierra sin problemas.

En el texto de Gaspar de Villagrá encontramos la fórmula de la toma de posesión, en nombre de Felipe II, que fallecería ese mismo año y que fue empleada aquel histórico día 30 de abril de 1598:

"En el nombre de la Santísima Trinidad y de la individua unidad eterna, deidad y majestad, Padre, Hijo y Espíritu Santo, tres personas y una sola esencia y un solo Dios verdadero.... Quiero que sepan, los que ahora son o por tiempo fueren: como yo, don Juan de Oñate, Gobernador, y Capitán General, y Adelantado de la Nuevo México y de sus Reinos y Provincias... en cuyo sólido fundamento estribo para tomar la sobredicha posesión de estos Reinos y Provincias en el sobredicho nombre del Rey Felipe II".

Así nació y sería recordado el Primer Día de Acción de Gracias español en el suroeste de los Estados Unidos. En su largo documento Oñate hace descansar su derecho como representante de Felipe II en la bula del Papa Alejandro VI de 1497, que daba poder a los reyes de España de colonizar y evangelizar el Nuevo Mundo. Como nos dice Ch.F. Lummis en "Los Exploradores del Siglo XVI", "sorprende por el número la proporción de hombres educados en colegios que había entre los exploradores; la inteligencia y el heroísmo corrían parejas en los comienzos de la colonización del Nuevo Mundo".

Después, reorganizó y puso en marcha la columna para retomar el itinerario seguido junto al curso del Río Bravo, hasta separarse del mismo y adentrarse en una peligrosa zona desértica conocida como la Jornada del Muerto, en la que a lo largo de unos 120 kilómetros no existía ni el menor rastro de cursos fluviales ni pozos para abastecerse de agua. Por fortuna, en los límites del desierto se encontraron con un grupo de indios pueblo, que con gran hospitalidad les prestaron ayuda, ofreciéndoles agua y alimentos. Por tal motivo Oñate llamó a aquel pueblo Socorro.

Una vez recuperadas las fuerzas, la columna reinició la marcha, llegando hasta otro asentamiento de otra parcialidad de indios pueblo, los Oh-Ke, que los recibieron sin hostilidad. Allí será donde Oñate decidirá establecer su primer asentamiento en un lugar al que dará el nombre de San Juan de los Caballeros, en honor del santo patrón de Oñate, llamando a la nueva fundación San Gabriel. Hasta entonces, 18 de agosto de 1598, la expedición ya había recorrido 1000 kilómetros desde que partiera de Santa Bárbara el 26 de enero de 1598, decidiendo invernar allí para no sufrir incursiones de los nómadas apaches.

Tras la toma de posesión y la primera fundación en Nuevo México aquel fue un durísimo primer invierno para los recién llegados a un territorio hostil, árido y lo que era peor, a más de mil kilómetros de la población española más cercana. Realmente las dificultades no habían hecho más que empezar.

El 8 de septiembre de 1598, fiesta del nacimiento de la Virgen María, fue señalado para la dedicación de una pobre y humilde capilla y para dar gracias a Dios que les había ayudado a llegar a su destino con vida y salud y sin grandes contratiempos. Fray Alonso Martínez, superior de los franciscanos, celebró la misa, y Fray Cristóbal Salazar predicó el sermón. El culto católico hacía sentirse en casa a los colonos y les daba ánimo para seguir adelante. Esta Acción de Gracias fue la primera realizada en los actuales territorios de los Estados Unidos de América y cuya hermoso celebración concluyó con la representación de la obra teatral Moros y Cristianos, que el capitán Marcos Farfán de los Godos había vuelto a escribir y a montar.

La obra se representó en el campamento españo con el beneplácito de todos. Era una obrita sencilla, escrita en versos pobres, pero que revelaban todo el entusiasmo de la Fe de los hispanos. Fue la primera obra de teatro escrita y representada en los Estados Unidos. Villagrá no hace referencia de los detalles de la comida de aquel día, pero sin duda se sacrificaron muchos corderos y becerros y todos disfrutaron en paz de aquel día de descanso.

Es muy posible que los indios del vecino pueblo de Ohke asistieran admirados a aquella celebración, pues los hispanos les estaban sumamente agradecidos por su hospitalidad, hasta el punto de dar el nombre "de los Caballeros" a su fundación, a fín de recordar la nobleza de la bienvenida cordial de los indígenas. Insisto en que aquella fue el primer "Día de Acción de Gracias" (Thanksgiving) que se celebró en lo que es hoy el territorio del suroeste de los Estados Unidos de América; veintitrés años antes de que los "Peregrinos" de Plymouth Rock celebraran su "Thansksgiving Day".

Según pasaban las semanas fueron percibiendo los recién llegados que aquella tierra no era tan rica y fértil como soñaban, sino un lugar árido y rodeado de gentes hostiles, por lo que cundió el desánimo entre muchos de aquellos hombres que habían acompañado a Oñate al verse defraudados por el panorama en el que no veían futuro para sus familias, por lo que tomaron la decisión de abandonar el nuevo asentamiento y regresar a Nueva España.

Un total de 45 hombres con sus familias querían abandonar el proyecto, decisión que ponía en peligro al resto de la expedición, así como al cumplimiento de los objetivos de asentamiento y poblamiento, por lo que al surgir este conato de rebelión Oñate decidió cortarla de raíz reprimiendo con severidad el levantamiento. Para ello acusó a los cabecillas de desertores, lo que llevaba consigo una inmediata condena a muerte. Ante esta drástica situación uno de los franciscanos, fray Alonso Martinez, intercedió por ellos, solucionándose el conato de rebelión sin que se produjera ninguna muerte, aunque en aquel momento cuatro de sus hombres ya habían desertado y abandonado el campamento.

Oñate designó a su hombre de leyes por ser además de su entera confianza, Gaspar Pérez de Villagrá (1555-1620), para que persiguiera a los desertores, dado que no podía permitirse el lujo de dejarlos sin castigo para que el mal ejemplo no cundiera entre las filas de nuevos colonos. Tras varios días de persecución Villagrá conseguiría atrapar a dos de ellos antes de que cruzaran Río Bravo y entraran en el territorio de Nueva España, donde Oñate no tenía ya jurisdicción. Serían juzgados por Oñate, declarados culpables por deserción, condenados a muerte y ejecutados.

Pero Oñate era consciente de que tenía que ofrecer algo mejor a sus camaradas de de expedición que aquel asentamiento en una región árida y sin ningún aliciente para quedarse allí y prosperar, por lo que llevaría a cabo nuevas exploraciones por la región, enviando de nuevo a su sobrino Vicente de Zaldívar al madnod e esa misión, que se dirigió hacia el este, penetrando en el territorio que hoy conocemos con el nombre de Texas, donde tendría su primer encuentro con las enormes manadas de búfalos a los que los españoles dieron el nombre de cíbolos.

Cazaron algunos de ellos y comprobaron que eran indómitos y no podían domesticarse para ser utilizados como ganado. Finalmente la expedición regresó a San Gabriel sin haber alcanzado uno de sus principales objetivos: llegar hasta el Atlántico. Realmente desconocían la inmensidad continental que separaba el norte de Nueva España de las costas norteamericanas del Atlántico.

La búsqueda de un itinerario hacia el norte de la Florida seguía siendo una preocupación, ya que desde 1565 ya lo había intentado Juan Pardo, enviado por Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, desde Santa Elena en la Florida, y que llegó a sobrepasar únicamente la cadena montañosa de los Apalaches. La finalidad de encontrar este itinerario obedecía al deseo de librar las rutas marítimas que partían desde Veracruz a España a través del Caribe infestado de piratas y corsarios. En Nueva España también se interesaba por el posible itinerario para socorrer a La Florida.

Una vez realizada una incursión hacia el este fue enviada otra partida de exploración hacia el oeste para tratar de llegar al Pacífico, pero igualmente desconocían la auténtica extensión de aquellos territorios y por ello regresaron de nuevo sin alcanzar la costa. A pesar de todo Juan de Oñate persistió en su empeño y con su sobrino Zaldívar volvería de nuevo a la carga para dirigirse hacia el oeste y alcanzar finalmente las costas del Pacífico, para lo cual deberían de atravesar territorios de las diferentes tribus desconocidas para ellos que ya hemos mencionado: apaches, comanches, navajos, hopi y los indios pueblo.

A la izquierda tenemos un mosquetero y a la derecha un arcabucero. El mosquete era una evolución del arcabuz que duplicaba el alcance de sus disparos hasta alcanzar los cien metros de distancia, aunque no solía dispararse a más de 25 metros de distancia para que alcanzara su máxima efectividad. Se mantendría en uso desde el siglo XVI hasta el siglo XIX, mientras que el arcabuz desaparecería ya en el siglo XVIII. Estas armas junto con el uso de los caballos era la base de la superioridad militar de los españoles sobre los indios. Serían los caballos españoles abandonados en Norteamérica, los llamados mustang, los que luego formarían grandes manadas de caballos salvajes en las llanuras norteamericanas y durante el siglo XVII los indios comenzaron a domarlos hasta convertirse en grandes jinetes y a los caballos en toda una forma de vida (Ilustración de Dioniosio A.Cueto)

En búsqueda del ansiado itinerario terrestre entre Nueva España y la Florida, en concreto hacia Santa Elena, que evitara el encajonamiento de salida del Caribe en el que acechaban piratas y corsarios.

En este periplo se encontraron con la mítica Acoma, descrita por Fray Marcos de Niza, quedando maravillados por su imponente situación en un roquedo aislado, aunque no vieron las riquezas de las que hablara Fray Marcos. Los pobladores, sorprendidos por la presencia de aquellos extraños hombres con extraña vestimenta metálica, les trataron con hospitalidad. Casi sesenta años después del aquel primer encuentro, los españoles regresaban a aquel mismo lugar.

Juan de Oñate volvió a enviar a su sobrino Juan de Zaldívar, en quien tenía depositada la máxima confianza, con 50 hombres como vanguardia de la exploración, a qula que siguió Oñate después con el resto de expedicionarios. El 27 de octubre de 1598 contemplaron cómo se alzaba ante ellos, cual castillo medieval, la inexpugnable roca de Acoma.

Sobre esta imagen de la expedición de Tristán de Luna nos hacemos idea de la importancia de su exploración para conocer parte del recorrido que debía cubrir el itinerario desde Zacatecas a Santa Elena.

Inicialmente pareció que eran bien recibidos, pues los caciques descendieron hasta donde se encontraban los españoles para darles la bienvenida, aunque aquellos indios queres, pertenecientes a los indios pueblo, recelaban de aquellos hombres blancos de extraños atuendos y armas, por lo que decidieron que la mejor forma de librarse de ellos era matar a su jefe. Les invitaron a subir a la ciudad para visitarla aunque, en realidad, les conducían a una emboscada. Acompañado de diez de sus hombres, Oñate siguió a los indios por aquellos senderos sobre el abismo y donde un paso en falso podía suponer la muerte, mientras contemplaban las casas distribuidas a lo largo del macizo rocoso, con sus terrazas y albercas donde almacenaban el agua de lluvia. Hubo un momento en el que Oñate desconfió y se negó a proseguir, los nativos quizá porque no habían entrado del todo en la zona de emboscada, no actuaron y les dejaron marchar.

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TEXAS

May 4th - 7th: Hispanic Medal of Honor Exhibit, Texas State Capitol 
Texas Antes de El Alamo, 1682-1736
Vanished from Victoria: Southern Pacific Railroad depot 
April 10th, 1887 -- Pioneer Mexican Presbyterian ordained minister
Pena Launches "Texas Heritage Revival" Campaign 
Early Texas History Symposium Port Lavaca, TX by Jose Antonio Lopez
The Jola Coins  by Rueben M. Perez

The Ordeal of  Manuel Ramírez Martínez by Jose Antonio Lopez
Hispanic Roots: Series of three articles written by George Farias
Alphabetical listing of the families in the Camargo Census of 1750
New Books in Texas History 
This Day in History:  April 1st of 1813
JSTOR, Early Journal Content of the Texas State Historical Association


In observation of El Cinco de Mayo,
the Hispanic Medal of Honor Exhibit will be on display at the Texas State Capitol 
between May 4th - 7th 
Capitol Extension E2 North Gallery.  


Photos, courtesy of Juanita Tijerina

The Hispanic Medal of Honor Exhibit has been viewed from coast to coast, greeted with reverence and honor for the men and women in the military who serve and fight for our nation.   Below are a few photos from previous exhibits. 

 

For information 
about scheduling the exhibit in your community 
or about the
Hispanic Medal 
of 
Honor Society 
please contact:
Juanita Tijerina  
 juanita.tijerina@gmail.com

 



Clotilde P. Garcia  2015 Tejano Book Prize

Every year the Tejano Genealogy Society of Austin awards an author whose writing focuses on Tejano history, heritage and contributions. This $1,000 award, which includes a book signing session, will be announced at the 2015 Hispanic State Genealogical Conference on October 10th in Laredo, Texas. Books will be judged by three distinguished professors/authors. The deadline for submitting books is May 29.

Minnie Wilson   minswil@yahoo.com 
TGSA, Tejano Book Prize Committee Chair
Publishers interested in having a booth, please contact Minnie 
Website: http://TGSAustin.org 

Tejano Book Prize a tribute to Dr. Cleotilde P. Garcia, Sponsored by Tejano Genealogy Society of Austin (TGSA).  Publishers-$1,000.00 book prize for the best non-fiction scholarly book on Tejano history, heritage, or genealogy.  The book must be published between June 1, 2014 and May 31, 2015. Submit three copies of your book entries to the Tejano Book Prize judges panel.

Award to Winner:
• $1,000.00
• Recognition at the 2015 Annual Texas Hispanic Genealogical
and Historical Conference, Oct. 9-11, Laredo, Tx
• Book-signing session sponsored by TGSA
Published book entries must meet the following criteria:
1. Scholarly, peer reviewed, non-fiction
2. Focus relates to Tejano history, genealogy, or heritage
3. Based on original research with full documentation, including footnotes andbibliography
4. Appeals to general public, genealogists or scholars
5. Contains substantial primary sources
6. All works entered must be published in a print format
7. Unpublished manuscripts and online publications will not be considered
8. Entry must be the first published version of the work
9. Send a copy of your book entry to each of the three judges on the panel

Previous Winners:
2014-Dr. Emilio Zamora, WWI Diary of Jose de la Luz Saenz, Texas A&M  University Press
2013-Dr. Omar Valerio-Jimenez, River of Hope: Forging Identity & Nation in the Rio Grande Borderlands, 
       Duke University Press
2012-Dr. Jerry D. Thompson, Tejanos In Blue and Grey, Texas A&M University Press

For information visit website: www.tgsaustin.org 
Send book entries to the following judge’s  panel:
Sarah Cortez |  P.O. Box 980579  |  Houston. TX 77098-0579.
Dr. Alberto Rodriguez | 602 Quail Ave. | Edinburg, Texas 78542
Dr. Craig Roell | History Department | 238 Forest Drive Bldg., Rm. 1105  PO Box 8054|
      Georgia Southern University | Statesboro, GA 30460


  


TexasAntesdelAlamocopy2.jpg

Coahuila y Texas Antes de El Alamo - introducción (movie trailer)

From for all Audiences
texasbeforethealamo.com

Filmed at historic sites in Texas and Mexico with noted historians and professional actors, "Texas Before The Alamo" is about the founding of Texas and the Spanish who established Missions, Presidios and Trails now known as The Alamo, Goliad, San Antonio & its Missions, and El Camino Real.
The Film answers pivotal questions about Texas history; who founded the State’s most revered historical sites known today as the Alamo and Goliad; and who named its rivers and established the trails that became known as El Camino Real de los Tejas? And why did the Spanish permanently settle Texas in the early 1700s, when the region possessed no mineral wealth that it desired?

Texas Before The Alamo tells the stories of Spanish soldiers and Franciscan priests in the struggle to keep France from settling Texas and reaching the source of Spain's power; the silver mines of northern Mexico.  
The rich Mexican American culture in the US descended in part from Spanish Texas, and was manifested by the establishment and unveiling of the prominent Tejano Monument on the grounds of the Texas State Capital Building in 2012. This Film is an outreach of that project and the efforts of early Latina historic preservation activists like Adina de Zavala, whose efforts ensured that the Franciscan Missions in San Antonio, including The Alamo, would survive to be nominated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

 

http://www.texasbeforethealamo.com/index.html
https://vimeo.com/84238789 < trailer 

 

 

Filmado en lugares históricos en Texas y México con historiadores notables y actores profesionales, "Coahuila y Texas Antes de El Alamo" se trata de la fundación de Texas y el español que estableció misiones, presidios y Senderos ahora conocido como El Álamo, Goliad, San Antonio y sus Misiones, y El Camino Real.

La película responde a las preguntas fundamentales acerca de la historia de Texas, quien fundó los sitios históricos más venerados del Estado que hoy conocemos como El Álamo y Goliad, y quien dio nombre a sus ríos y estableció los senderos que se conoció como El Camino Real de los Tejas? Y ¿ por qué el español asentarse permanentemente de Texas a principios de 1700, cuando la región no poseía riquezas minerales que desea?

Coahuila y Texas Antes de El Alamo cuenta las historias de los soldados españoles y sacerdotes franciscanos en la lucha para mantener a Francia a partir de la solución de Texas y de llegar a la fuente del poder de España, las minas de plata del norte de México.

La rica cultura mexicano-americana en los EE.UU. descendió en parte de españoles Texas, y se manifestó por el establecimiento y la inauguración del Monumento Tejano prominente en los terrenos del edificio de capital del estado de Texas en 2012. Esta película es una extensión de ese proyecto y de los esfuerzos de los primeros activistas latinas de preservación histórica como Adina de Zavala, cuyos esfuerzos se aseguró de que las Misiones franciscanas de San Antonio, incluyendo El Alamo, sobrevivirían en ser nominada como Patrimonio de la Humanidad por la UNESCO.

 



Vanished from Victoria: Southern Pacific Railroad depot 
By Victoria Preservation, Inc. 
Aug. 28, 2010 


https://media.victoriaadvocate.com/cache/f7/8a/f78a9a66e2e10c55d57dbe8abd4e4b5e.jpg 


Mimi: Following is an article from our news from years ago. I am submitting this fantastic bit of Victoria's railroad history for two main reasons: my grandfather, Julio Lopez, worked for Southern Pacific Railroad for over 50 years! The photo of the railroad crossing (above) could have been taken from my front door, as we lived next to the railroad tracks most of my growing-up life, and the Depot was just a skip-and-a-hop away. It was the neighborhood called Dutch Lane. The Caboose, in particular, is significant because my grandfather would always stand in the back and "throw" us fruit, like bananas, when it passed by. The whistles and very loud horn-blowing was our time-keeper. We knew what time it was when the railroad came by. The Railroad depot burned down, and now it's a vacant lot that I pass by the area every single day. Trains do go by, but not like in the "olden days." 

Gloria Candelaria  candelglo@gmail.com  
April 8, 2015
The following excerpt of city council Feb. 8, 1873 minutes tells us much:

Moved seconded and carried that R. Owens, E. A. Hensoldt, J. J. Linn, J. A. Moody and C. LeSage be appointed to a committee to put a name for each street of the town of Victoria and that the mayor be authorized to subscribe for the board 75 copies of the picture of the "Bird's Eye View of Victoria" for the price of $3 for each copy, if found satisfactory after examination.

The above minutes being read and approved the board adjourned.
Charles LeSage
Secretary

Much of our city's Spanish heritage was swept away as a result of this act. Santa Rosa is one of the few streets to escape the grand re-naming in 1873.

If you go west from Santa Rosa Street you reach one of the old fords that allowed traffic to pass back and forth across the Guadalupe River. John J. "Juan" Linn was familiar with this ford, having arrived in Victoria in 1829. I suppose we have him to thank for retaining this name.

Eventually Santa Rosa Street would be anchored on the east end by the Southern Pacific depot and on the west end by the Missouri Pacific depot. This grand old street was like a second Main Street as there was so much traffic to and from the depots.

Victoria has always had a notable railroad history.

"The coming of the railroad to Victoria was an important part of the town's economic and social history. Although the first line reached Victoria by 1860, the railroad's major impact came after the end of the Civil War. In 1882, the proposed New York, Texas & Mexican Railroad completed a stretch of track from Rosenberg to Victoria and established its line headquarters here.

"Three years later it was sold to the Southern Pacific Railroad Company. Southern Pacific built a depot at this site in 1888-89 to serve arriving and departing passengers and to house its headquarters.

"Later, Victoria served as division headquarters for the Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio Railroad. The two-story depot had a baggage room, waiting rooms, and ticket offices on its first floor, with the divisions' general offices and the dispatcher housed on the second floor. It often served as a gathering place for community social functions.

"The last passenger train left Victoria in 1953, but the depot remained in use for various purposes until 1979. 

Although the depot burned in 1984, its history is a reminder of the railroad's importance as a vital part of the economic and physical growth of Victoria." 

The previous passage is taken from the Texas state historical marker at the site of the old Southern Pacific depot.

There are those who say that the railroad was "regulated to death." I'm sure there is some truth in this, but I feel that our attachment to our automobiles played a large part in the railroad's virtual demise.

In May 1983, VPI learned that the Southern Pacific Transportation Co. had plans to demolish the 95-year-old building. On May 3 of that year, the first letter was sent to the Southern Pacific offices in the hope that the depot might be given or sold to VPI in order that the building might be saved.

Negotiations continued through 1984, eventually arriving at an impasse.  Vagrants who were camped inside the old depot built a fire to keep themselves warm. That was the end of the depot and of the efforts to preserve one of our important historical structures. 



The Old Southern Pacific depot was consumed by flames. It was a sad day for those who remembered it and appreciated its part in the history of this area. Gone, but not forgotten.




April 10th, 1887 -- Pioneer Mexican Presbyterian ordained minister
On this day in 1887, José Marí Botello was ordained a minister by the Presbytery of Tamaulipas. Botello was born in Tamaulipas between 1840 and 1850 and lived in Matamoros. He converted from Catholicism to Presbyterianism and served as an elder in the Matamoros Presbyterian congregation. In 1883 the Presbytery of Western Texas licensed him "to preach the gospel to his people," and he was instrumental in the establishment of the Mexican Presbyterian Church of San Marcos, the first Mexican-American church in Texas to be affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Botello reportedly died in Mexico at the age of ninety-seven.

Texas State Historical Association   Day by Day

 


Texas Tejano.com is proud to support organizations' efforts to champion Tejano heritage and legacy. As such, we're forwarding the following press release.


PEÑA LAUNCHES "TEXAS HERITAGE REVIVAL" CAMPAIGN

AUSTIN—State Representative Gilbert Peña announced Wednesday his launching of the Texas Heritage Revival campaign, and kicked off the project by filing two resolutions in the Texas House. "Today I had the opportunity and privilege to file House Concurrent Resolutions 80 and 81, both of which contribute to reviving an appreciation for our rich Texas history," said Peña.

 "A lot of people don't realize the importance of our area and how it relates to some major events in our state's history. I thought that, moving forward, we should remember those who have gone before to make sure we not only heed their wisdom, but learn from their mistakes as well."

HCR 80 urges the U.S. Congress to provide federal funding to repair the Battleship Texas, the historic ship that was used in WWI and WWII—and the only surviving ship that was present during the Normandy invasion. "The battleship lies moored in the heart of my district near the ship channel. It's not only a tribute to Texas' prominent role in U.S. history, but it honors our veterans and those currently serving by showing that their efforts will never be forgotten." Peña also submitted several budget requests to the House Appropriations Committee to request state funding for the restoration project.

Peña also submitted HCR 81, which calls for a statue of Lorenzo de Zavala to be constructed at the Lorenzo de Zavala State Archives and Library building, near the State Capitol. "Lorenzo de Zavala was one of the Founding Fathers of Texas. He was a patriot and a lover of liberty, and he was influential in handling the surrender of General Santa Anna at the Battle of San Jacinto, fought in my district over 150 years ago. I'm very fortunate to be working with professors and historians from my district and across the state to finally see this project come into fruition." 

Rep. Peña serves on the House Human Services and Juvenile Justice and Family Issues committees. For more information or for press inquiries, contact Maricela De Leon, Chief of Staff, at (512) 463-0460.

http://www.texastejano.com/news/announcement-statue-of-de-zavala/



Join Jose Miguel Arciniega Descendants in honoring 
A Maker of Texas

http://email.gpeflow.com/t/r-l-qhkuyil-stujutdhj-r/ 

The Jose Miguel Arciniega Descendants Society(JMADS), invites you to the dedication of a Texas Historical Marker and the unveiling of an art exhibit of Time-Line in honor of A Maker of Texas: Jose Miguel Arciniega.
 

 

On Friday, May 15, 2015 from 5:30-9:00 pm at the historic Marriott Plaza Hotel, located at 555 South Alamo St., San Antonio, Texas 78205.  Marker dedication is at 6:00 pm  Admission: $25  Children 12 and under: $12
 
To view the original invitation, go to:  http://www.texastejano.com/images/uploads/invitation.pdf

 


TEXAS TEJANOS

Vincent Tavera | Publications
Texas Tejano.com
http://www.texastejano.com/
(210) 673-3584
10,000 W. Commerce St.
San Antonio, Texas 78227

Since its founding in 2002, Texas Tejano.com has become a firm with a collection of works associated with its primary objectives of history research, publishing and communications. The company’s mission is to create awareness and education about the contributions of early Texas Tejano Pioneers and to tell the true stories of their lives and legacies. 

By 2003, Texas Tejano.com had authored and published its first non fiction books. To date, it has an impressive array of historical material, including: “A Tejano Son of Texas” book series and history Teacher’s Kits for 4th and 7th Grade classrooms. Plus, over the years, thousands of books, booklets, pamphlets and posters have been published and distributed throughout Texas.

In 2004, a first ever web site: http://www.TexasTejano.com© was l,aunched to serve the online community. Since then, over one million persons have visited our site. This year, a new site will offer fresh ways to learn about Tejano education, programs and news.  Also, it will boast a first-ever “Tejano History Online”, which will offer an archive with family histories, photos, artifacts, documents, records, oral histories and much, much more.

Then, in 2006, we produced our first major historical documentary celebrating the life of a legendary Tejano pioneer, Jose Policarpio “Polly” Rodriguez. Currently, our “A Tejano Son of Texas” documentary is being aired on Time Warner’s “Texas Channel”.  Additionally, a world-class traveling exhibit on the life of Polly Rodriguez was produced and titled; “A Tejano Son of Texas©”. Plus, the same year, Texas Tejano.com helped lead Governor Rick Perry to proclaimed September as Tejano Heritage Month.

In 2007, we premiered a first ever original stage play titled “Texas Tejanos: A Revolution Remembered: 1835-1836 ©”. Additionally, we created a new “Tejanos in Texas Heritage” exhibit. The display tells the story of the first two hundred years of Texas and Tejanos and the roles they played in the state’s development. To date, over two million Texans have viewed these exhibits.

Further, in 2008, we created a “Tejano Historical Portrait Series©” that consist of historical portraits of legendary Tejanos. Our continued efforts will be to expand our products, services and outreach both state wide and nationally. Presently, we are in collaboration with THC, THSA, TGLO, THF, NLMC, NPS and NTHP.

Also, in 2009, through our advocacy, we were successful in helping found the new Hispanic Heritage Center of Texas. This heritage center will consist of a multi-national museum, research library, media center and Tejano Living History Village. We are very proud to have been apart of this effort and pleased for the many recognitions and awards given to us as a result of our efforts to champion our Tejano ancestors.

Lastly, in 2011, our brand new and stunning website will be unveiled in October along with a new Tejano Book Series for the classroom. Also, in early 2012, we will be completing a new traveling exhibit on The Caminos Real’s de Los Tejas and a first ever presentation on the Tejanas of the Texas Revolution. Texas history will never be complete without the legacies of the Tejano pioneers being told. To this end, Texas Tejano.com has long taken a leading role in the re-envisioning of Texas History.

 


Early Texas History Symposium

Port Lavaca, TX, 
March 27, 2015
 

  

For the fourth year in a row, we’ve been honored to accept an invitation from the Calhoun County Cultures & Cuisines organization in Port Lavaca, Texas.  The theme of this year’s celebration was Early Texas History.   

Our thanks go to the people of Port Lavaca & especially to Joe Mireles & crew for organizing the event.  The audience included a cross-section of local citizens as well as folks from nearby Victoria, Port O’Connor, and the surrounding gulf coast region.  Enveloping diverse backgrounds, all came to learn about early Texas history.     

Duo Robert Ojeda & “JJ“ Barrera, Austin, Texas, provided a presentation on the role of music in the lives of our Tejana and Tejano ancestors, and sang early Texas songs.   In addition, Reverend Rufus Diggs from Schulenberg, Texas, presented a perspective on Black cowboys.

It was interesting to note that the most popular topic after our presentation was the role of Hispanics during the U.S. War of Independence.  Most folks were unaware of the key help that Spain and its possessions in America gave to the young U.S. nation.   

In particular, they were pleasantly surprised to learn of (1) New Spain’s (Mexico) high level of involvement in blood and treasure; and (2) Tejano vaqueros driving over 9,000 head of cattle to feed General Gálvez’ troops stationed in a battle line stretching from Texas to Florida.  Both of these critical acts assured the U.S. colonists’ bid for independence.  

My wife Cordy and I were not surprised that the two most-asked questions were (l) “Why haven’t we ever heard of these things before?”  (2) “Why isn’t this being taught to all Texas school children in the classroom?”  

As I’ve reinforced in several articles I’ve written on the subject, those are great questions. Hopefully soon, we’ll be able to convince the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) that it’s time to let pre-1836 people, places, and events into mainstream curricula.  History is not to be feared.  Told in a fair and balanced manner, it helps to explain the present.   

That’s why we’re also hoping that our Spanish Mexican-descent brethren in Arizona can get their point across that teaching early Southwest history is the right thing to do for the right reasons.  Our ultimate goal is expressed clearly in the words of Dr. Lino Garcia, Jr., Professor Emeritus, UTRGV, “Exigimos solamente lo que merecemos.”  

Mimi, thank you and Somos Primos for all you do to preserve or rich Spanish Mexican heritage.  Indeed, it’s time to rediscover it and showcase it for what it is – a major founding block of U.S. history.

Very Respectfully,

José Antonio López   
jlopez8182@satx.rr.com
 
www.TejanosUnidos.org 

 


The Jola Coins
by 
Rueben M. Perez
jperez329@satx.rr.com

Check your pocket change. This rare Spanish coin, called Jola, was minted in San Antonio in 1818.  One such coin was found in the mid 1960s and sold in Philadelphia for $52,875.00!

In the early 1800s, Spanish missions included those at San Fernando de Béxar, Goliad, and Nacogdoches, the most successful settlements of the Texas interior. As daily activities bustled and commerce flourished, a shortage of small denomination coins caused a serious hardship on the people.

Those coins have the initials MB above ½ and 1817 on the obverse, with an incuse single star on the reverse, which is often noted as the first appearance of the Texas Lone Star symbol.

Following Governor Prado, the next and what would be the last Spanish governor of the Province of Texas was turned over to Antonio Maria Martinez who served from May 27, 1817 to August 17, 1822. In December 1818, he granted José Antonio de la Garza, the local postmaster, to mint the small change jola copper coins, which circulated within the Béxar population of about 2,000 people.

 

Manuel Prado was the acting Spanish Governor in New Spain in early 1817. He received authorization from Mexico City to produce copper coins known as “jolas” worth a half real each. Prado chose a local merchant and public administrator, Manuel Barrera to produce 8,000 of those coins. A copy of that notice can be found in the Béxar archives.

A recall notice went out for the Barrera coins in favor of the new coins produced by José de la Garza. The notice dated December 6, 1818 stated the population had 12 days to turn in the Barrera coins to José Antonio de la Garza and he would replace them with the new coins. The minted jolas would have the 1818 date, the initials JAG above the date, and the denomination at the center. On the backside is a multi-pointed lone star motif. The coins were made from copper ore with lead, nickel, iron, and silver with several variations being produced. The Texas jola is unique in that it is the only known Spanish Colonial coin made in what is now the United States of America. The jola coin was produced after much of San Antonio’s population was wiped out with the 1813 Battle of Medina and prior to Mexico seizing independence from Spain. In 1959 during excavation work along the San Antonio River approximately 60 coins were discovered.

The De La Garza house, gardens and mint were located at the corner of Veramendi Street and Main Avenue (present day Houston and Soledad Streets). Geronimo and Javiera Cantu de la Garza erected the house in 1734. The complex occupied an entire city block and was made of limestone with three foot limestone and plaster walls. They maintained extensive gardens which included cottonwood, pecan, fig and peach trees. The picture to the left is the De La Garza house

Two generations later José Antonio de la Garza used the homestead as the mint to produce jolas. During the siege of Bexar the house was used by Ben Milam’s troops as their headquarters. In 1912, six months of demolition finally brought the house down. A large sum of money was found and a cannon ball. In 1813, Antonio de la Garza was elected mayor and in 1824 he received Mexican title to two leagues of land and became one of the largest landowners having ranchlands along the San Antonio and Medina Rivers. He purchased Espada Mission and infuriated some of the residents who thought it was illegal.

In the 1840s, he moved to a new two-story structure near Calaveras Lake and in 1876 Garza County was named after the Garza family.

References:
Birdseye view of the De La Garza house, 1910, google.com, Images for De la Garza house in San Antonio De la Garza, José Antonio, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ José_Antonio_de_la_Garza 
_________, Jolas Make First Public Offering, 1817 New Spain, coins.ha.com.
_________, Investing in Silver Coins, Scott Huddleston, MySA, January 6, 2015
Perez, Rueben M., Tour Guide of Laredito The Forgotten Neighborhood West of San Pedro Creek Texas Historical Commission, Historical Marker, Site of de la Garza House, Gardens and Mint-San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas, gkey.com/markers/marker_detail.asp 
Orozo, Cythia E. “Garza, Jose Antonio de la”, Handbook on Texas Online, Texas State Historical Society,

Source: Granaderos y Damas de Galvez April 2015
News of Gálvez on the Internet
The Five Flags Pensacola Today by Phillip White · March 3, 2015
http://pensacolatoday.com/2015/03/guest-commentary-the-five-flags/ 

Gálvez Portrait by Ana Gershanik, Nuestro Pueblo columnist
March 3, 2015, scroll to the bottom of the article at the link below
http://blog.nola.com/new_orleans/2015/03/latina_women_remembered_telemu.html 

Source: Joe Perez 
Governor, San Antonio Chapter
Order of Granaderos y Damas de Galvez
www.granaderos.org
www.Facebook.com/GranaderosDeGalvez

 

 


Lopez:  The Ordeal of 
Manuel Ramírez Martínez 

By José Antonio López – April 5, 2015

 

Hopefully, articles I write for the Rio Grande Guardian are received by readers as a sincere effort to familiarize South Texans with their early Texas history.

Of special concern to me continues to be the sad fact that so many of our young people are unaware of their ancestors’ courageous stories. With a great sense of optimism, my goal is to try to fix that.

Based on consistent positive reader response, articles involving actual people tend to be more popular than those that deal with history in a general sense. That is, readers wish to learn specific details, and rightly so. Nothing adds more warmth and personal interest in a story than family names. That’s to be expected, since a number of popular old Spanish surnames bind us together as one large family, linking us to the past. In short, it’s those distinct roots of our family tree that encourages us to affectionately refer to each other as prima, primo, tia, and tio.

In writing history articles, I often mention that our ancestors’ accounts of faith, courage, and determination are second to none. At a minimum, they match any of the human interest storylines of families struggling to survive in popular Old West-based programs we’ve seen on TV for years. Yet, readers themselves often point out (and many wonder why) our stories aren’t better known and accepted as part of U.S. history.

Sadly, stories of endurance involving Spanish Mexican people of early Texas and the Southwest are rare (absent) in mainstream history book pages. That’s true, but that doesn’t mean they’re not real. Worse still is the fact that the movie industry and western paperback books have done grave damage to our beautiful legacy in Texas. Such venues normally dismiss, diminish, and distort our ancestors’ role as pioneers in founding the region now known as Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, and California. To that end, I offer below the true story of my ancestor, Manuel Ramírez Martínez.

Manuel grew up in the early 1800s South Texas brush country; a time when people of Spanish European ancestry on either side of the Rio Grande were few. Rancho families originating in Las Villas del Norte were just beginning to start life on their own in the wild, harsh countryside.

Typical of the ranchos in those days was the one owned by José Luis Ramírez and Basilia Martínez de Ramírez. They were granted land in Porción 5 in the township of Revilla, Nuevo Santander. Manuel’s job was to tend the family’s herds of cattle and goats. At times, looking for sufficient grass for the animals to graze on took the young man miles from his home.

It was during one of those outings that while searching for a lost calf in a thicket, he was hit from behind and knocked unconscious by a Comanche. The band of Comanches quickly tied his hands together and dragged him through the brush. Bloodied and hurting from his wounds, he awoke to discover that he had been thrown across the back of a horse and securely tied to avoid his escape.

For days, the party travelled north. All the while, Manuel only saw the ground because he was still riding face down, bound hand and foot. At night, he was secured to a stake and made to stand or sit. He wasn’t allowed to lie down to sleep. Manuel recalls that it was at night that his captors became his tormentors. They punched, kicked, and taunted him endlessly while being hand-cuffed to the stake. Finally, the group reached their main camp on the Brazos River.

He soon realized that he was one of four white Spanish captives the Comanches had captured. Manuel and the other prisoners continued to be brutalized and made to do menial tasks in the village for many months. Because they were kept separated, Manuel never learned of their fate. Worse, he was then traded to a man leading another group on their way to Natchitoches, Louisiana to take part in a slave auction.

Shortly after arriving at the auction house, a kind man by the name of Mr. Denis noticed Manuel before he was put on the selling platform. This individual observed that Manuel was not black, nor was he a slave of indigenous background. On a hunch, Mr. Denis spoke to him in Spanish. Hearing someone speak to him in his language brought great joy and relief to Manuel, who was finally able to tell his story.

Mr. Denis, a slave trader himself, was overcome with Manuel’s agonizing narrative. So, Mr. Denis bargained with Manuel’s owner and became his new master. However, upon arriving in his plantation nearby, Mr. Denis allowed Manuel to recover from months of distress. Further, he told Manuel that he was free to go back to his home on the Rio Grande whenever he wished. To pay back his new owner, Manuel worked for Mr. Denis for about one year as payment for his freedom. Eventually, he returned to his grief-stricken parents who had given him up for dead.

Manuel left for his descendants a vivid first-person account of his ordeal by using a form of Spanish verse known as “Décimas” (ten-line stanzas). He wrote it when he was eighty years old. The poem records the bravery, anguish, and inner strength of this remarkable man.

Stories such as Manuel’s are just now being rediscovered. No doubt, there’s dozens of such anecdotes sitting in old family trunks (castañas) waiting to see the light of day. The main reason that it’s time to tell our stories is that before the TV show, Little House on the Prairie that records pioneer life in the 1870s-1880s, our early Villas del Norte pioneer ancestors had already experienced real survival ordeals as shown above since the late 1700s to early 1800s. Similarly, our brethren in Nuevo Mexico had done likewise since 1598. It is in recognizing our ancestors’ courageous sacrifice to build a life for us (their descendants) that we must continue to honor their memory by preserving early Texas history. If we don’t do it ourselves, no one else is going to do it for us.

(Note: Special thanks and a hearty “abrazo” in spirit go to my late grand-uncle Mercurio Martínez, Sr., for co-authoring the book, “Kingdom of Zapata.” It is the source for my article.)

 


Hispanic Roots: Series of three articles written 
by (C) 2005 George Farias, M.B.A
First published in San Antonio Lightning Newspaper, and www.//SanAntonioLightning.com    
http://www.sanantoniolightning.com/rootsla.html 

Hispanic Roots, Part I
THE ROYAL CONNECTIONS 
Genealogists Uncover Royal Blood Lines
George Farias, M.B.A. - Copyright 2005

They are the Kin of the Kings. Some Hispanics in Texas and Northern Mexico are becoming increasingly aware of the little known fact that their ancestors, who settled in the New World, had close family ties to the royal houses of Europe linked directly through kinship to Spanish and Portuguese royalty.

Although these familial connections may seem unusual, much well established documentation shows them to be quite prevalent. Hispanic genealogists in the United States and Mexico have recent been uncovering blue blood among their forebears who not only made major contributions to the colonization of Latin America but i the United States as well. San Antonio is fortunate to have a one of these very active grass roots research groups, Los Bexarenos Genealogical Society, founded by Gloria V. Cadena in 1983.
Many club members are some of the best investigators of Spanish Colonial and Mexican documents and records.

Research into the Spanish discovery, conquest, and colonization of the Americas has shown that
the early persons who arrived to take over the government of the newly conquered lands were personally appointed and authorized to emigrate by King Charles V of Spain who also was Charles I, Holy Roman Emperor.  After the amazing conquest of Mexico, the king feared that Hernan Cortes would assume
independent power and establish himself ruler of the newly conquered territory.

Moving quickly to stem this possibility Charles V sent as officials only members of his family, his court, or noble families known and loyal to him. The first four royal officers to arrive were Tesorero (treasurer) Alonso de Estrada, Contador (accountant) Rodrigo de Albornoz, Veedor ( inspector) Pedro Almindez Chirinos, and Factor (business agent) Gonzalo de Salazar. Estrada and Salazar had been members of the king's court and many others like them followed. Cortes, although given great praise credit, and rewards for his achievements, found himself slowly divested of any real authority.

Joel Rene Escobar y Saenz from Pharr, Texas has published a boo titled Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar (El Cid Campeador) & his Descendants (The First 23 Generations) and The Civilizations of Spain (McAllen, Texas 2004, 1st Ed., privately published). Diaz de Vivar, known more familiarly as "El f| Cid," was the invincible knight and warrior who fought for his Castilian Kings, Sancho II, and Alfonso VI, and is considered unequivocally Spain's greatest National Hero.

El Cid's seed spread to the kingdoms of Navarre, Leon, Castile, Asturias, Aragon and Portugal, extending later to the countries of EI cid England, France, Germany and Sicily.  

Escobar notes that with the emigration of Diego de Guevara y de Tovar to Mexico City (c,1530-1535), El Cid's line passed to the New World. With the marriage of Joseph de Trevino de Quintanilla and Leonor Ayala Valverde the line came to Nuevo Leon in Northern Mexico.

Thereby, numerous persons living in Mexico and the United States can claim this legendary knight as their ancestor.

 
Hispanic Roots, Part II
ROYAL REALITIES,  TIES THAT BIND 
Josefa De La Garza, And The Laredo Connection
George Farias, M.B.A. - Copyright 2005 
Another connection to royal lines can be found in the ancestry of Josefa de la Garza, mother of Tomas Sanchez, who founded Laredo, Texas in 1755.  Sanchez, who had eleven children, has thousands of descendants many of whom have stayed close to home over the years, increasingly taking interest in their historic past. 

Perhaps the first major note of their royal ancestry was made by Nuevo Laredo, Mexico historian and genealogist Rodolfo Gonzalez de la Garza when he discussed these connections (La linea de los reyes - The lineage of kings) in his book on surnames Apellidos de Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, Coahuila y Texas, (Nuevo Laredo, Mexico 1980 Ed., privately published).
One connection he discussed was her ancestry to Alonso de Estrada - one of the first four arriving royal officers -- who claimed to be a descendant of Ferdinand, husband of Queen Isabel.

Cari L. Duaine in his book With All Arms, A Study of a Kindred Group, (New Santander Press, Edinburg Texas, 1980 Ed., Austin, Texas 2004 2nd Ed.) used some of Gonzalez de la Garza's research to explain the Ferdinand relationship.
Estrada claimed that he was an illegitimate son of Ferdinand through a liaison with Luisa de Estrada whose father was Fernan, Duke of Estrada.

Duaine referenced as further proof certain information an the Inquisition files. Many historians, however, dispute this story.  While a member of a noble family whose children had famous marriages - Jorge de Alvarado and Francisco Vazquez de Coronado among them - Estrada was not considered a great administrator and was somewhat of a braggart.  Most recently Jose Antonio Esquibel of New Mexico discovered whom he believes are the real parents of Alonso de Estrada, naming them in an article written in the genealogical journal of The California Society of Hispanic and Historical Ancestral Research SHHAR Vol. IV 1998.

In spite of his research the controversy continues over Estrada's parentage. Josefa de la Garza is also a descendant of another of the first four New World administrators, Gonzalo de Salazar. Gonzalo's daughtei through his marriage to Cataiina de ia Cadena, was Catalina de Salazar. She married Ruy Diaz de Mendoza who was a descendant of King Alfonso XI " El Justiciero" ("The Rigid Justice" ), King of Castile and Leon (Josefa's 6th great grandfather).

Alfonso's father was Alfonso X "The Wise" and his father was Ferdinand III - not only king of Spain - but a saint of the Catholic Church, San Alfonso X Fernando.

What a surprise it must be to some of the worshippers at San Antonio's San Fernando Cathedral that they may have direct ancestral ties to one of the patron saints of the city!

The Mendozas were one of the wealthiest and most powerful of the .noble families of Spain. Catalina de Salazar's daughter, Magdaiena de Mendoza, (Josefa de la Garza's 3rd great grandmother) therefore, supplies the direct royal linkage to the American descendants.

Interesting to note, one other of Josefa's ancestors who came to th New World was Andres de Tapia, perhaps Hernan Cortes' most trusted captain, who wrote a brief chronicle pertaining to the Aztec conquest
Another notable aspect of Catalina's life is that she had a famous second marriage when she came with her daughter Magdalena to New Spain/Mexico. She was suspected of bigamy since her first husband, Diaz de Mendoza, was rumored to still be alive in Spain.

She claimed, however, that he was deceased. At any rate, her second marriage was to Cristoba Perez de Onate, one of the founders of Zacatecas, Mexico and its rich silver mines.

Their son was Juan de Onate who led the first colonization of New Mexico mostly financed by his family's huge wealth. 

Captain-General Onate wed Isabel de Tolosa, granddaughter of Cortes and great granddaughter of Moctezuma, the last Emperor oftheAztecs.

Colonel Ernest A. Montemayor, U.S. Air Force, (Retired), of Hispanic American Genealogical Associates, is one of the pioneers of Hispanic genealogy research in the United States having dedicated over fifty years to this effort accumulating in the process an extensive personal library of over 10,000 volumes ancestral
files.

His large collection of books, journals, and other investigative materials of Hispanic families covers the United States, Mexico, Central and South America, The Caribbean, the Philippines, and Spain and Portugal.

Col. Montemayor's wife, Ana Estela Ramirez, as a Tomas Sanchez descendant; and Col. Montemayor is a direct descendant of don Diego de Montemayor, founder of Monterrey, Mexico in 1596.

Diego de Montemayor's wife, Juana Porcallo de la Cerda, purportedly descends from two royal lines. While the lines seem to be well-documented Col. Montemayor, utilizing his high standards requiring exact confirmation of any ancestral ties, is currently conducting his own investigation to verify the connections.
More on these genealogical "detective stories" in Part Three. 

Hispanic Roots, Part III
THE FUSING OF HISPANIC BLOOD
The Many Royal Lines Converge And Grow
George Farias, M.B.A. - Copyright 2005


Other researchers have detailed all of these royal connections ovei many years of investigation and study.  Notable among them is Jesus "Jerry" Benavides of Dallas, Texas;« member of HOGAR, The Dallas Hispanic Genealogical Society.

Jerry, whose wife Gloria Hernandez is also a lamas Sanchez descendant, has spent countless hours entering royal connections into his computer database. he list of Josefa de la Garza's other ancestors is impressive.

Among them are Aethelred II, Saxon King of England, Afonso Enriques, First King of Portugal Bela I, King of Hungary, Boleslaw I "The Brave," King of Poland.

Also, Emperor Charlemagne, King of the Franks, Charles Martel, "The Hammer," King of the Franks, Conrad II, King of Germany and Holy Roman Emperor, Duncan I, King of Scotland, anc Eleanor of Aquitaine (sister of Richard the Lion hearted).

St. Ferdinand III (as previously noted) Frederick I German King and Holy Emperor, Geoffrey V, Plantaganet, Count of Anjou, Abraham Ha-Levi (Sephardic Jewish converse/ New Christian of Jewish background), are also included.

Henry II, King of England, Louis VII, King of France, Pedro III, King of Aragon, Rodrigo Diaz

de Vivar "El Cid" (as noted), Sancho I, King of Aquitaine Portugal, Saint Stephen I, King of Hungary (another Catholic saint) and William I "The Conqueror," have their place, as well.

The roots of Hispanic origins are traced to the early Iberian tribes of the peninsula (whose origins are obscure). They later fused their blood with subsequent conquerors such as the Celts, Phoenicians Romans, Greeks, Visigoths and Moors.

The Spanish conquest of the New World in turn created a new society.

Colin M, McLachlan and Jaime E. Rodriguez O. in their seminal work,  The Forging of the Cosmic Race, A Reinterpretation of Colonial Mexico, (Berkeley, California, 1980 University of California Press 1; Ed.) put forth two central themes: that only in New Spain did a true mestizo society emerge, integrating Indians, Europeans, Africans, and Asians into a unique cultural mix; and that colonial Mexico forged a complex, balanced and integrated economy that transformed the area into the most important and dynamic part of the Spanish empire.

The authors concluded in their introduction that "no other part of the Spanish empire attained a comparable integration of peoples and cultures. And no similar achievement can be found in other regions of the world where different races and cultures met. The blending of four races created a new people - a 'cosmic race' to us Jose Vasconcelos' evocative phrase."

Persons of Iberian descent can take great pride and self-esteem in their multicultural and - in some cases - royal background.

The purpose in presenting these royal connections is to enlighten and not to exalt or elevate anyone.
Rather, as can be seen, Hispanics are even more multicultural in their origins than their Spanish and Portuguese root stock, and can assume an equal station in any assessment of cultural heritage.

These facts further demonstrate the insensible and irrational practice of subordinating one culture to another.

Copyright 2005 By George Farias, M.B.A. Note: Author George Fanas and Colonel E.A. Montemayor
are Partners in Borderlands Bookstore Inc. located on the web at WWW.BorderLandsBooks.com)
SAL, San Antonio Lightning Newspaper, And SanAntonioLightaing.Com Are Trademarks And Services Marks. Ail Rights Reserved Copyright 1999-2006 RG Griffing Publications  ttp://www.sanantoniolightning.com/roots2a.html   12/20/2005

Editor Mimi: Sincere apologies to George Farias, who sent these studies, ten years ago.  
I am finding jewels in my files.

 




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Alphabetical listing of the families in the
Camargo Census of 1750

Census of Camargo, Tamaulipas
May 31 - June 3, 1750

Mimi,
 
I have enjoyed reviewing the Alphabetical listing of the 1750 Census of Camargo, Tamaulipas by Saul Vela, Ph.D. from the Hispanic Genealogy Society that is online.  This census is a great reference in locating information about ancestors who were from South Texas and northern Mexico.  Among the numerous ancestors I have listed it is now known that Jose Julian Flores was 6 years old in 1750. The year of birth of adults are not listed in those censuses. Julian Flores and son Ventura Flores were the original grantees of the San Diego Land Grants.   
Eddie U Garcia 
eddie_u_garcia@yahoo.com 
Father: Juan de Benavides Birth
Mother: Jacoba GARCIA Year
Children: Maria Gertrudis BENAVIDES G 1743
Juan Joseph BENAVIDES GARCIA 1747

Father: Pedro CANTU
Mother: Juana GONZALES
Children: Joseph Aparicio CANTU G 1732
Joseph Ignacio CANTU Gonzales 1734
Joseph Francisco Cantu G 1736
Maria Salome CANTU Gonzales 1738
Maria Zeferina CANTU Gonzales 1740
Pedro Joseph CANTU Gonzales 1745
Joseph de los Santos CANTU G 1749

Father: Joseph de CHAPA
Mother: Margarita de PENA
Children: Francisco CHAPA Pena 1738
Maria Gertrudis CHAPA Pena 1740
Juan CHAPA Pena 1742
Gertrudis CHAPA Pena 1744
baby girl CHAPA Pena 1749

Father: Juan de CHAPA
Mother: Maria RITA
Children: Antonia Gertrudis CHAPA 1749
Maria Joseph CHAPA 1740
Maria Gregoria CHAPA 1743
Joseph Francisco CHAPA 1746

Father: Blas FARIAS
Mother: Luisa SALINAS
Children: Laureano FARIAS 1749
Joseph FARIAS Salinas 1749

Father: Francisco Ignacio FARIAS
Mother: Juana Maria BARRERA
Children: Pedro Ignacio FARIAS Barrera 1739
Martin FARIAS Barrera 1741
Gregorio Valentin FARIAS B 1743
Rosalia FARIAS Barrera 1744
Marcos FARIAS Barrera 1747
Maria Gabriela FARIAS Barrera 1749

Father: Diego FLORES
Mother: Maria de HINOJOSA
Children: Julian FLORES Hinojosa 1744
Juliana FLORES Hinojosa 1747
Manuela FLORES Hinojosa 1749

Father: Juan Antonio FLORES dV
Mother: Leonora CANTU
Children: Joseph Antonio FLORES Cantu 1736
Isabel Maria FLORES Cantu 1739

Father: Diego GARCIA
Mother: Maria VELA
Children: Maria GARCIA Vela 1740
Joseph Salvador GARCIA Vela 1744
Juan Joseph GARCIA Vela 1747
Maria BARRERA (see note) 1748

Father: Francisco Garcia
Mother: Ma Gertrudis GUAJARDO
Children: Xavier GARCIA Guajardo 1723
Juan Joseph GARCIA Guajardo 1727
Joseph Bartolo GARCIA G 1731

Father: Gaspar GARCIA
Mother: Maria Gertrudis de la BARRERA
Children: Maria Gertrudis GARCIA dlB 1746
baby boy GARCIA de la BARRERA 1749

Father: Juan Bautista GARCIA
Mother: Maria RODRIGUEZ
Children: Juana Maria GARCIA Rodriguez 1740
Joseph Antonio GARCIA R 1742
Luis Antonio GARCIA Rodriguez 1747
Maria Gertrudis GARCIA R 1749

Father: Antonio de la GARZA
Mother: Margarita de la Serna
Children: Joseph Fermin de la GARZA dlS 1733
Ildephonso de la GARZA dlS 1734
Agustin de la GARZA dlS 1736
Andrea Xavier de la GARZA dlS 1737
Andrea Roma de la GARZA dlS 1737
Antonia Lucia GARZA dlS 1741
Leonardo de la GARZA dlS 1742
Joseph de la GARZA de la Serna 1745
Gertrudis de la GARZA dlS 1746
Salvador de la GARZA dlS 1750

Father: Blas Maria de la GARZA Falcon
Mother: Maria Joseph de los SANTOS
Children:
Maria Gertrudis de la GARZA d 1734
Joseph Antonio de la GARZA d 1738
Juan Joseph de la GARZA dlS 1741

Father: Francisco de la GARZA
Mother: Maria Josepha CANTU
Children: Justa de la GARZA Cantu 1738
(married to Eugenio RODRIGUEZ)
Maria Gertrudis de la GARZA C 1740
Gabriel de la GARZA Cantu 1745

Father: Francisco de la GARZA
Mother: Josepha GUAXARDO
Children: Maria de la Domiana GARZA G 1743
Maria Theresa de la GARZA G 1746
Maria Gertrudis de la GARZA G 1747
Maria Ignacia de la GARZA G 1748

Father: Lucas GONZALES
Mother: Anna Maria de la GARZA
Children: Joseph Francisco GONZALES dlG 1732
Maria Margarita GONZALES dlG 1733
Maria Lugarda GONZALES dlG 1734
Maria Manuela GONZALES dlG 1735
Antonia GONZALES de la Garza 1743
Joseph Alejandro GONZALES dlG 1744
Maria Gertrudis GONZALES dlG 1745
Xaviera GONZALES de la Garza 1746
Nicolasa GONZALES de la Garza 1747
Joseph Casimiro GONZALES dlG

Father: Xavier GONZALES
Mother: Maria de OLIVARES
Children: Joseph Antonio GONZALES O 1732
Joseph Miguel GONZALES O 1733
Maria Gerarda GONZALES O 1737
Blas Joseph GONZALES Olivares 1738
Joseph Vicente GONZALES O 1739
Juan Joseph GONZALES Olivares 1740
Joseph Joaquin GONZALES O 1741

Father: Tomas GUAJARDO
Mother: Maria Ignacia VILLARREAL
Children: Joseph Antonio GUAJARDO V 1737
Maria GUAJARDO Villarreal 1741
Joseph GUAJARDO Villarreal 1747

Father: Francisco GUERRA
Mother: Josepha de la GARZA
Children: Gerbacio GUERRA 1732
Pedro Regalado GUERRA dlG 1740
Leonor GUERRA de la Garza 1743
Francisca GUERRA de la Garza 1744
Rosa GUERRA de la Garza 1749

Father: Bernardo HINOJOSA
Mother: Nicolasa RENDON
Children: Joseph Xavier HINOJOSA Rendon 1735
Joseph Miguel HINOJOSA Rendon 1745
Anna Maria HINOJOSA Rendon 1733

Father: Crisostomo de HINOJOSA
Mother: Margarita GONZALES
Children: Maria Rita HINOJOSA Gonzales 1734
Juan Joseph HINOJOSA Gonzales 1737
Candida HINOJOSA Gonzales 1739
Bernarda HINOJOSA Gonzales 1742
Ignacia HINOJOSA Gonzales 1744
Gertrudis HINOJOSA Gonzales 1746
Diego HINOJOSA Gonzales 1749

Father: Joseph de HINOJOSA
Mother: Rosa SANCHEZ Zamova
Children: Francisco de HINOJOSA Sanchez 1728
Rita de HINOJOSA Sanchez 1730
Joseph Antonio de HINOJOSA S 1731
Diego de HINOJOSA Sanchez 1734
Juana Maria de HINOJOSA S 1736
Tomas de HINOJOSA Sanchez 1738
Joseph Antonio de HINOJOSA S 1741
Lucas de HINOJOSA Sanchez 1743
Francisco de HINOJOSA 1745
Joseph Joaquin de HINOJOSA S 1747
Joseph Ansencio de HINOJOSA S 1749

Father: Juan Joseph HINOJOSA
Mother: Antonia BENAVIDES
Children: Esmeregilda HINOJOSA B 1745
Maria Ignacia HINOJOSA B 1749

Father: Manuel de HINOJOSA
Mother: Ines de CHAPA
Children: Manuel de HINOJOSA de Chapa 1731
Maria Rosalia de HINOJOSA dC 1735

Father: Diego LONGORIA
Mother:
Children: Antonio LONGORIA 1720
Anna Maria LONGORIA 1730
Juana Rosa LONGORIA 1730
Joseph Vicente LONGORIA 1732
Juana Anastacia LONGORIA 1732
Pedro LONGORIA 1733
Petra LONGORIA 1734

Father: Matias LONGORIA
Mother: Margarita de HINOJOSA
Children: Joseph LONGORIA de Hinojosa 1747
Joseph Ramon LONGORIA H 1749

Father: Francisco LOPEZ de Jaen
Mother: Maria LONGORIA
Children: Maria Francisca LOPEZ dJL 1738
Joseph LOPEZ de Jaen Longoria 1740
Joseph Benito LOPEZ dJL 1741
Joseph Rafael LOPEZ dJL 1742
Joseph Francisco LOPEZ dJL 1743
Joseph Vicente LOPEZ dJL 1744
Juan Joseph LOPEZ dJL 1746
Joseph Fermin LOPEZ dJL 1748
Joseph Santiago LOPEZ 1736

Father: Juan Joseph LOPEZ de Jaen
Mother: Isabel Sanchez
Children: Joseph Vicente LOPEZ dJS 1741
Maria LOPEZ de Jaen Sanchez

Father: Miguel LOPEZ
Mother: Maria de HINOJOSA
Children: Antonio LOPEZ Hinojosa 1725
Luis LOPEZ Hinojosa 1727
Anna LOPEZ Hinojosa 1735
Anna Maria LOPEZ Hinojosa 1738

Father: Miguel LOPEZ de Jaen
Mother: Gertrudis de LONGORIA
Children: Joseph Cayetano LOPEZ dJL 1745
Maria Gertrudis LOPEZ dJL 1746
Joseph Miguel LOPEZ dJL

Father: Antonio MONTALVO
Mother: Maria de la GARZA
Children: Miguel MONTALVO de la Garza 1745
Juana MONTALVO de la Garza 1746
Dorotea MONTALVO de la Garza 1749

Father: Juan MOYA
Mother: Maria de los SANTOS
Children: Estevan MOYA de los Santos 1743
Juan Joseph MOYA dlS 1745
Apolinar MOYA de los Santos 1749

Father: Antonio de OLIVARES
Mother: Maria SALINAS
Children: Rosa OLIVARES Salinas 1727
Josepha OLIVARES Salinas 1735
Joseph Antonio OLIVARES S 1738
Maria Rita OLIVARES Salinas 1742
Nicolas OLIVARES Salinas 1745

Father: Joseph de OLIVARES
Mother: Ma de Jesus GUAJARDO
Children: Joseph Antonio de OLIVARES G 1731
Anna Maria de OLIVARES G 1733
Juan Xavier de OLIVARES G 1739
Maria Margarita de OLIVARES G 1742
Joseph Santiago de OLIVARES G 1743
Francisco de OLIVARES G 1745

Father: Juan Francisco OLIVARES
Mother: Josepha BENAVIDES
Children: Luis Antonio OLIVARES B 1724
Joseph Marcelo OLIVARES B 1728

Father: Joseph PEREZ
Mother: Anna Maria de la GARZA
Children: Miguel PEREZ de la Garza 1731
Maria Josepha PEREZ dlG 1734
Joseph Polonia PEREZ dlG 1735
Dionicio PEREZ de la GARZA 1739
Polinaria PEREZ de la GARZA 1740
Maria Nicolasa PEREZ dlG 1743
Maria Rita PEREZ de la GARZA 1746
Maria Catarina PEREZ dlG 1747
Joseph de los Reyes PEREZ dlG 1749

Husband: Ignacio Quintanilla
Wife: Maria Antonia SALINAS

Father: Juan Joseph QUINTANILLA
Mother: Rita SANCHEZ
Children: baby boy QUINTANILLA Sanchez 1749

Husband: Juan Ramon de QUINTANILLA
Wife: Maria Antonia FLORES

Father: Cristobal RAMIREZ
Mother: Matiana de HINOJOSA
Children: Ignacio RAMIREZ de Hinojosa 1732
Maria Gertrudis RAMIREZ dH 1735
Antonia RAMIREZ de Hinojosa 1738
Joseph RAMIREZ de Hinojosa 1742
Juana RAMIREZ de Hinojosa 1744
Joseph Antonio RAMIREZ dH 1746
Joseph Santiago RAMIREZ dH 1749

Father: Xavier SALINAS
Mother: Maria Rosa LONGORIA
Children: Francisca Xaviera SALINAS L 1738
Francisca SALINAS Longoria 1742
Maria Gertrudis SALINAS L 1736
Ignacia Maria SALINAS L 1738

Father: Nicolasa SANCHEZ de la Barquera
Mother: Ysabel PALACIOS
Children: Joseph Miguel SANCHEZ dlB 1726
Tomas SANCHEZ de la Barquera 1738
Maria Gertrudis SANCHEZ dlB 1739

Father: Juan de los SANTOS Garcia
Mother: Catarina TREVINO
Children: Joseph Antonio de los SANTOS 1738

Husband: Nicolas de los SANTOS Coy
Wife: Anna Maria GUERRA

Father: Domingo Cristobal SORIA
Mother: Maria de la ASENCION
Children: Maria Bartola SORIA 1740
Maria de Jesus SORIA 1742
Joseph Julian SORIA 1743
Maria Gertrudis SORIA 1746
Pedro SORIA 1748

Husband: Francisco Xavier de SORIA Pardo
Wife: Pasquala de los REYES Pardo

Father: Bartolome TREVINO
Mother: Anna Maria GARCIA
Children: Joseph Lorenzo TREVINO Garcia 1737
Nicolas TREVINO Garcia 1740
Miguel TREVINO Garcia 1742
Maria Josepha TREVINO Garcia 1747
Maria Theresa TREVINO Garcia 1749

Father: Pedro de VARGAS
Mother: Maria Margarita
Children: Matias de VARGAS 1743
Gertrudis de VARGAS

Father: Baltazar VELA
Mother: Maria MARTINEZ
Children: Joseph Ventura VELA Martinez 1736
Ynes VELA Martinez 1737
Maria Gertrudis VELA Martinez 1741
Maria Antonia VELA Martinez 1743
Juana VELA Martinez 1744
Joseph Nicolas VELA Martinez 1747
Josepha Lucrecia VELA M 1749

Father: Cristobal VELA
Mother: Juana de VILLARREAL
Children: Joseph Manuel VELA Villarreal 1742
Maria VELA Villarreal 1743
Maria Jacoba VELA Villarreal 1747
Joseph Julian VELA Villarreal 1748
Joseph Basilio VELA V 1749

Father: Domingo VELA
Mother: Maria de las CASAS
Children: Maria Gertrudis VELA dlC 1743
Maria Antonia VELA dlC 1745
Joseph Antonio VELA dlC 1748

Father: Joseph VELA
Mother: Felipa de SEVERA
Children: Francisco VELA de Severa 1733
Marcela VELA de Severa 1735
baby girl VELA de Severa 1749

Father: Juan VELA
Mother: Felipa RODRIGUEZ
Children: Joseph VELA Rodriguez 1738
Gertrudis VELA Rodriguez 1748

Father: Nicolas VELA
Mother: Maria de LERMA
Children: Rita VELA Lerma 1744
Guadalupe VELA Lerma

Father: Salvador VELA
Mother: Agueda LOGORIA
Children: Juan Joseph VELA Longoria 1738
Maria VELA Longoria 1740
Maria Olaya VELA Longoria 1742
Maria Joseph VELA Longoria 1743
Joseph Gregorio VELA Longoria 1746
Joseph Antonio VELA Longoria 1747
Maria Ignacia VELA Longoria 1749
Joseph Francisco VELA L 1749

Father: Francisco de VILLARREAL
Mother: Petra RODRIGUEZ
Children: Francisco Antonio VILLARREAL
Miguel de VILLARREAL R 1725
Leonarda de VILLARREAL R 1734
Santiago de VILLARREAL R 1735
Joaquin de VILLARREAL Rodriguez 1741
Olaya de VILLARREAL Rodriguez 1742
Pedro de VILLARREAL Rodriguez 1743
Isabel de VILLARREAL R 1746
Lorenzo de VILLARREAL R 1749

Father: Joseph Antonio VILLARREAL
Mother: Maria Caterina de HINOJOSA
Children: Joseph Gregoria VILLARREAL H 1732
Lucas VILLARREAL Hinojosa 1734
Francisco VILLARREAL Hinojosa 1736
Maria Quiteria VILLARREAL H 1738
Maria Joseph VILLARREAL H 1740
Juan Antonio VILLARREAL H 1744

Father:
Mother: Anna Maria GUAJARDO
Children: Joseph de PENA Guajardo 1728
Tadea de PENA Guajardo 1730
Jacinto de PENA Guajardo 1731
Catarina de PENA Guajardo 1734
Joseph de PENA Guajardo 1734

Father:
Mother: Josepha GUAJARDO
Children: Juan Baptista VILLARREAL 1738
Maria VILLARREAL 1741
francisco Antonio VILLARREAL 1743

Father:
Mother: Juana SALINAS
Children: Bruno 1745
Joseph

Father:
Mother: Manuela VELA
Children: Matias 1730
Felipe 1735
Felipa 1738
Maria Gertrudis 1744
baby boy 1749

Father:
Mother: Maria VELA
Children: Josepha Antonia 1725

Father:
Mother: Melchora GARCIA
Children: Emerenciana 1730
Jacinto 1730
Victoriano 1742
Gertrudis 1748


SOLTEROS: Name  / SINGLE MEN:  birth year
         
Manuel BOSQUEZ 1720
Cristobal GARCIA 1725
Bernabe de la GARZA
Ildefonso de la GARZA 1728
Joseph Francisco de la GARZA 1725
Juan Joseph de la GARZA 1724
Joseph Antonio GONZALES 1723
Cristobal GUTIERREZ
Pedro Regalado HINOJOSA 1722
Tomas RODRIGUEZ 1722
Lorenzo SERNA 1717
Blas Antonio TREVINO 1727


New Books in Texas History 
http://utexas.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=af878bb055ac8d7c49a6a1cd7&id=550c64f905&e=91cbc39cea


This Day in History:  
April 1st of 1813
 

On April 1st of 1813 on a cool and brisk spring morning the Republican Army of the North, flying the Emerald Green Flag ofLiberty would march towards San Antonio.In battlefield formation they would wait for the battle to begin or thesurrender of the city. Riding out to meet them under the white flag of trucewould be the governors Manuel Saucedo and Simon Herrera accompanied by a small contingency of soldiers from the Alamo de Parras Company.

 

 Dismounting his horseSaucedo approaches Colonel Kemper whom he assumes is the leader where on Kemperpoints to Gutierrez de Lara. 

Again walking towards De Lara he tries surrendering his sword to Colonel Miguel Menchaca, who points towards de Lara,by now and totally frustrated he approaches Bernardo Gutierrez de Lara andinstead of handing him his sword he plunges it deep into the soil and walks offtotally frustrated, this Spaniard indeed, had style. Little did he know the fate that awaited him.
 
This story is now in the curriculum to be taught in the 7th grade and in2013 the 83rd Texas State Legislature in House Resolution 709 has recognized The First Texas Republic.
Sent by Jose M. Pena  JMPENA@aol.com 

Dan Arellano Author/HistorianPresident Battle of Medina Historical Society512-826-7569danarellano47@att.net

 



JSTOR, Early Journal Content of the Texas State Historical Association

THE QUARTERLY  OF THE TEXAS STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
Vol. VI. JULY, 1902. No. 1. 

http://archive.org/stream/jstor-30242672/30242672_djvu.txt

Full text of "Louis Juchereau de Saint-Denis and the Re-Establishment of the Tejas Missions" Early Journal Content on JSTOR, Free to Anyone in the World 

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Sent by John Inclan  fromgalveston@yahoo.com


MIDDLE AMERICA

Digital Project Offers Access to the History of Free People of Color in Louisiana
Borderlands, Migrant Saints, Sacred Bundles: 
            Latinos and the Remaking of American Religiosity 



Digital Project Offers Access to the History 
of Free People of Color in Louisiana

The award-winning 2013 movie 12 Years a Slave about Solomon Northrup, a free man of color from New York who was sold into slavery in Louisiana, brought unprecedented attention to the history of free people of color in the United States. It is somewhat ironic that Northrup ended up in Louisiana, for it had one of the largest and most significant populations of free people of color. Those interested in exploring the history of this unique population can now do so in a recently-released, free, online resource available at http://www.lib.lsu.edu/special/fpoc/. 

“Free People of Color in Louisiana: Revealing an Unknown Past,” is a collaborative digital project funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities that brings together and provides access to over 30,000 pages of family and personal papers, business records, and public documents from the LSU Libraries’ Special Collections, the Louisiana State Museum Historical Center, the Historic New Orleans Collection, Tulane University’s Louisiana Research Collection, and New Orleans Public Library. LSU Libraries received the $194,152 two-year grant in 2013. 

“Relatively few collections of papers from free families of color survive in archives in Louisiana, nor are they numerous in archives elsewhere in the United States,” said Curator of Manuscripts and Project Co-Director Tara Laver. “The most extensive collections of family papers for free people of color held by Louisiana repositories are, in fact, split across institutions. Digitizing these records has allowed us to reunite them virtually, making these materials accessible in one place for the use of historians, descendants of free people of color, genealogists, students, teachers, and anyone who is interested in this important aspect of our nation’s history.” 

Free people of color were individuals of African descent who lived in colonial and antebellum America and were born free or had escaped the bonds of enslavement before slavery was abolished in 1865. By 1810, free people of color composed 29 percent of New Orleans’s population, a demographic unmatched by any other U.S. city or territory. Baton Rouge, St. Landry Parish, and the Cane River area near Natchitoches, Louisiana also had significant numbers of free people of color. Inhabiting the space between slavery and freedom made their ambiguous and incongruent status one of the most talked about “problems” of the first half of the nineteenth century, yet their history has understandably been largely overshadowed by the harsh story of slavery in America. 

But indeed there are many fascinating stories to be discovered among the documents found in the digital collection. 

· Bellazaire Meullion, daughter of a formerly enslaved son of a French officer and a slave woman, operated a plantation on Bayou Teche and filed claims against the U.S. government for property seized during the Civil War. Her brother Donat and other male family members became active in Republican state politics almost immediately after blacks gained the vote. 

· Successful businessman, barber, diarist, and plantation owner William Johnson of Natchez, Mississippi, was murdered over a property dispute; his wife Ann eventually assumed management of the family’s business interests, and their daughters became teachers in the African American community in Natchez. 

· White New Orleans planter John McDonogh emancipated many of his slaves, who were able to purchase their freedom, and arranged for their settlement in Liberia, from where they wrote him about their lives and experiences in the colony. 

· As architects, builders, and entrepreneurs, the Soulié family contributed to the rich architectural history of New Orleans and helped build and sustain the community of free people of color in the city. 

These individuals’ histories are largely told through family or personal papers. Public records such as emancipation petitions provide insight into individual free people of color’s experiences before they were free and the circumstances around their emancipation. Indenture agreements help understand the participation of free people of color in skilled trades such as masonry and carpentry and the associated and supporting network of sponsors and craft masters, many also free people of color. 

“These are just a few examples of the possibilities to research and explore,” said Project Librarian Jessica Mlotkowski. “Uniting these papers digitally shows how diverse the lives of free people of color truly were—across families, places, and time periods. Most exciting of all, the collection provides access to their own words in an unprecedented way.”

For additional information about the project contact Laver at tzachar@lsu.edu

************************************
Tara Z. Laver, MLIS, CA
Curator of Manuscripts
Special Collections, LSU Libraries
Hill Memorial Library
Baton Rouge, LA 70803
Phone: 225-578-6546  Fax: 225-578-9425
tzachar@lsu.edu
www.lib.lsu.edu/special
  





Borderlands, Migrant Saints, Sacred Bundles: Latinos and the Remaking of American Religiosity 

Lecture was presented at the 
University of Missouri April 7th by Dr. Davíd Carrasco, 
Neil L. Rudenstine Professor of the Study of Latin America at Harvard University.

                                                                    Pre-event press release reads:

"Dr. Carrasco will present an illustrated lecture highlighting the historical encounters between Christianity, Africa and native Mesoamerican religions as well as the migration of hybrid saints, rituals and symbols into the US resulting in a borderlands of religious sensibilities and practices. He will explore how Mexican migrations stimulate changes in public religious expressions. Reflections on Samuel Huntington, Virgilio Elizondo, Cesar Chavez, Gloria Anzaldua, La Virgen de Guadalupe, Days of the Dead, Cristos de Caña and Santeria.

Davíd Carrasco is a Mexican American historian of religions with particular interest in Mesoamerican cities as symbols, and the Mexican-American borderlands. His work has included a special emphasis on the religious dimensions of Latino experience. He is the author of Religions of Mesoamerica: Cosmovision and Ceremonial Centers (1990), Quetzalcoatl and the Irony of Empire (1992), and City of Sacrifice: The Aztec Empire and the Role of Violence in Civilization (2000), among other books. Carrasco has been awarded the Mexican Order of the Aztec Eagle, the highest honor the Mexican government gives to a foreign national, for his contributions to understanding the history and cultures of Mexico."

Event was free, open to the public, reception followed and books were available for purchase.   http://religiousstudies.missouri.edu  



EAST COAST 

Whitney Museum to Feature Prof. Harry Gamboa Jr. CA State Un Northridge 
Sephardic Journeys, on view through June
April 19, 1875  White Horse and a group of followers surrendered at Fort Sill,
Film screening of "Millie and the Lords" Directed by Jennica Carmona

 

                      Decoy Gang War Victim ©1974, by Harry Gamboa, Jr. Performed by Asco, featuring Gronk

When the Whitney Museum of American Art opens its new home in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District next month, among the works featured in its first exhibition will be pieces by California State University, Northridge Chicana/o studies professor Harry Gamboa Jr.

The exhibition, “America is Hard to See,” will inlcude an unprecedented selection of works from the museum’s renowned permanent collection, including pieces by Asco (Spanish for “nausea”), the pioneering Chicano art group co-founded by Gamboa, Gronk, Willie F. Herrón III and Patssi Valdez.

“I’ll be attending the opening reception at the Whitney Museum of American Art where all Americans and the world will find it easier to see Chicano art,” Gamboa said.

“America Is Hard to See,” which opens May 1 and runs through Sept. 27, examines the themes, ideas, beliefs, visions and passions that have preoccupied and galvanized American artists over the past 115 years. Reflecting the way artists think and work, all mediums are presented together without hierarchy. Numerous pieces that have rarely, if ever, been shown before will appear alongside familiar icons, in a conscious effort to challenge assumptions about the American art canon.

When the Asco first hit the streets of Los Angeles 40 years ago, the community did not know what to make of its performance pieces, which tackled the day’s issues, including racism, head on.

The initial reaction to Asco’s work was resistant and political. Over the years, art collectors, museum curators and academics have hailed Asco and its members for presenting the realities of a community that was long ignored and provocatively translating the universality of its experience. The Smithsonian American Art Museum created a special exhibition in 2013 that includes their work, “Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art.” The exhibition is currently on display at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts in Salt Lake City.

For the past four decades, Gamboa has documented and interpreted the contemporary urban Chicano experience through his art, whether in photographs, videos or performance pieces.

Gamboa’s work has been exhibited in museums around the world, including a show currently on display at the Princeton University Art Museum, “The City Lost and Found: Capturing New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, 1960-1980.”

Despite the international acclaim for his work, Gamboa continues to teach four classes in CSUN’s Department of Chicana/o Studies and is a faculty member in the photography and media department at California Institute of the Arts.

CSUN Sunshine Today
http://csunshinetoday.csun.edu/arts-and-culture/whitney-museum-in-new-home-to-feature-work-by-csuns-harry-gamboa-jr/ 
Sent by Dorinda Moreno pueblosenmovimientonorte@gmail.com
For more about Gamboa and his art, visit his website http://www.harrygamboa.com.



Sephardic Journeys
On view through June 2015 in The David Berg Rare Book Room
A new exhibition at the Center for Jewish History 
15 West 16th Street, New York, NY 


The Sephardic Diaspora extends from Shiraz and São Paulo to Salonika, Seattle, and Sheapshead Bay. What unites the beautiful, complex, and diverse mosaic culture of Sephardim is a history of journeys—sometimes by choice, too frequently by force—that have driven Sephardi travelers and traders, publishers and philosophers, scientists and singers to transcend borders and barriers as they pioneered today’s globalized world.  Sephardic Journeys was created by the Center for Jewish History with American Sephardi Federation, and made possible by a generous grant from The David Berg Foundation.  

  


Pictured above: The giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai, Seder HaTikkun Leil Hoshana Rabbah (Venice, 1741)

The rare books and artifacts in this exhibit, Sephardic Journeys, reflect a rich tradition of scholarship and culture shaped by migrations, and they invite, in turn, reflection upon the physical, emotional and spiritual journeys of Jewish history.

Sun, 11:00AM - 5:00PM|  Mon/Wed, 9:30AM - 8:00PM| Tues/Thur 9:30AM - 5:00PM | Fri: 9:30AM - 4:00PM
http://americansephardifederation.us9.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=9ee686c09238e3a1fb7447
ee7&id=accccebff9&e=eb97863b1f
  

Sephardic Journeys was created by the Center for Jewish History with American Sephardi Federation, and made possible by a generous grant from The David Berg Foundation.    

Copyright © 2015 American Sephardi Federation, All rights reserved.


April 19, 1875  White Horse (Tsen-tainte) and a group of followers surrendered at Fort Sill,
On this day in 1875, Kiowa chief White Horse (Tsen-tainte) and a group of followers surrendered at Fort Sill, Indian Territory. White Horse had gained considerable notoriety during the early 1870s for his raids on Texas settlements, and was considered the "most dangerous man" among the Kiowas. He participated in the Warren wagontrain raid in May 1871 and in the second battle of Adobe Walls in June 1874. He was also present in September 1874 at the battle of Palo Duro Canyon, which apparently convinced him that further resistance was futile. White Horse was among those singled out by Kicking Bird for incarceration at St. Augustine, Florida. He died of a stomach ailment in 1892 and was buried on the reservation near Fort Sill.

Texas State Historical Association
Day by Day



Film screening of "Millie and the Lords" Directed by Jennica Carmona
About the film:

This is the story of Milagros Baez, a Puerto Rican woman in Spanish Harlem who longs for a different life. While she spends her days and nights working at a local grocery market, she secretly fantasizes about going to college and becoming a writer. But in her world, this is not a realistic goal. With no one on her side, she is resigned to living in the projects of El Barrio for the rest of her life. With no one to believe in her, Millie doesn't even believe in herself. 

When Millie meets Mateo, a former Young Lord, her life is transformed. As he slowly shares with Millie all of his knowledge and experiences with the Puerto Rican revolutionary group, The Young Lords, she discovers an inner strength and passion that she never knew was there. Mateo's encouragement and belief in Millie give her a new found sense of possibility, and little by little, her life begins to change. Inspired by the model of the Young Lords Party, Millie is able to overcome her fears and become the woman that she was meant to be. 

Film duration: 90 minutes.   Millie and the Lords Official Trailer #1
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iGBVxNFk960  

Sent by Dorinda Moreno  pueblosenmovimientonorte@gmail.com




AFRICAN-AMERICAN

Louis Armstrong: Growing Up Jewish ~ A Wonderful Story
102-year-old former Apollo, Cotton Club dancer sees self on video 
Lena Horne: A Great Lady Who Broke the Color Line
African-American poetry goes digital - Knight Foundation by Julie Edgar
Anna Julia Hatwood Cooper  1858-1964




Growing Up Jewish ~ A Wonderful Story

A Grandson of slaves, a boy was born in a poor neighborhood of New Orleans known as the "Back of Town." His father abandoned the family when the child was an infant, His mother became a prostitute and the boy and his sister had to live with their grandmother. Early in life he proved to be gifted for music and with three other kids he sang in the streets of New Orleans. His first gains were the coins that were thrown to them.

A Jewish family, Karnofsky, who had immigrated from Lithuania to the USA had pity for the 7-year-old boy and brought him into their home. Initially given 'work' in the house, to feed this hungry child. There he remained and slept in this Jewish families home where, for the first time in his life he was treated with kindness and tenderness.

When he went to bed, Mrs. Karnovsky sang him a Russian Lullaby that he would sing with her.  Later, he learned to sing and play several Russian and Jewish songs. Over time, this boy became the adopted son of this family. The Karnofskys gave him money to buy his first musical instrument; as was the custom in the Jewish families. They sincerely admired his musical talent. Later, when he became a professional musician and composer, he used these Jewish melodies in compositions, such as St. James Infirmary and Go Down Moses.

The little black boy grew up and wrote a book about this Jewish family who had adopted him in 1907. In memory of this family and until the end of his life, he wore a star of David and said that in this family he had learned "how to live real life and determination.”

You might recognize his name.  This little boy was called Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong.

Louis Armstrong proudly spoke fluent Yiddish.  

Sent by  Roy Archuleta  archroy1953@gmail.com




102-dancer-alice-barker 

Inspiration: 
102-year-old former Apollo, Cotton Club dancer sees old performance video for first time 
by theGrio | April 22, 2015

 

102-year-old Alice Barker used to dance at the Apollo and Cotton Club and with the likes of Frank Sinatra and Grace Kelly. In her time as a line dancer, she had been in movie commercials and television shows, but she had never seen video of herself dancing until now.

But David Shuff, who met Barker when he brought his therapy dog to her retirement home years ago, decided to look into the matter and see what he could find.

He contacted Mark Cantor, who collected short musical films called “soundies” and discovered that videos of Barker still existed; they had just been filed under the wrong name, “Baker.” They were able to locate three soundies to show to Barker.

Delighted, Barker sang along with the songs she once danced to and lamented the fact that she could not dance anymore.

But now, with the soundies playing in the retirement home’s communal area, Barker is a super star to those she lives with. She says she “feels connected to the world again” knowing that her videos are now online.

She loves to watch herself dance and to connect to that time in her life.

“I used to often say to myself, I am being paid to do something that I enjoy doing and I would do it for free,” she said. “Because it just felt so good doing it, because that music, you know, I just get carried away in it.”

Sent by Dorinda Moreno 
pueblosenmovimientonorte@gmail.com 



Lena Horne: A Great Lady Who Broke the Color Line
by John Lawrence on March 31, 2015 ·

Lena Horne was the first black woman to get a contract with a major Hollywood Studio


Born into a black bourgeoisie family in 1917, Lena Horne was signed up in the NAACP by her grandmother, Cora Calhoun Horne, a college graduate, at the age of two. The Hornes owned a four-story residence in the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn.

The distinguished Horne family included teachers, activists and a Harlem Renaissance poet. Lena’s uncle became dean of a black college. According to James Gavin’s biography of Lena, Stormy Weather, the black bourgeoisie were descendants of favored slaves “privileged blacks who, by virtue of their brains or their sexual allure to their masters, had worked in the house, not in the field. During the decade-long heyday of Reconstruction, they’d used their cachet to start businesses and gain social standing.”

Lena’s grandmother drilled into her respectability at all costs. She was to use proper diction, no dialect allowed, and always present herself as a lady. Cora was a determined fighter for black causes, and, despite her disdain for whites, she married a white man. According to Gavin, Cora’s cafe au lait skin, thin lips and delicate nose betrayed generations of intermingling with whites. Her maiden name, Calhoun, came from her father’s slavemaster in Georgia, Dr. Andrew Bonaparte Calhoun. His uncle was Senator John C Calhoun who championed slavery as God’s will.

Gavin reported, “Cora’s militancy involved deep prejudice. [Lena] would [later say that] she’d ‘been raised to dislike white people intensely.’ Cora forbade her to play with white children, but wouldn’t explain why.”

Lena’s father, Teddy Horne Jr. left the family when Lena was barely a toddler to pursue being a numbers runner, pimp and hustler. According to Gavin, “Whatever their education, only menial jobs – or none at all- tended to await them. Many Negro men thumbed their noses at the system and took to the streets.” Evidently, Teddy Horne Jr. was very good at it because he always lived high on the hog and never went to jail. He later owned a hotel and a restaurant.

Lena’s mother Edna was an aspiring actress, and she dragged Lena all over the south looking for acting jobs which never quite panned out. Going to school in the south Lena discovered that her light skin and perfect diction did not go over so well with other black children. They called her “Yaller! Yaller!” Despite her pedigreed background, Lena’s childhood was far from ideal. She was always being left with caregivers while her mother went looking for acting jobs. She felt abandoned by her father.

Lena learned to read before kindergarten. Reading developed into a life long love. She could always take refuge in books and shut out the cold, cruel world. In the south Edna took Lena shopping for shoes. Her shoes usually didn’t fit right because black people weren’t allowed to try on different pairs to get the right size. The had to buy ill fitting shoes because no white person would buy the shoes after a black person had tried them on.

Back at home for good in Brooklyn in 1929, Lena escaped the violent and racist south. She was enrolled in an integrated girls high school, one of the most prestigious in the city. She joined the Junior Debs, one of a slew of clubs for the black bourgeoisie. Her mother gave up acting, married a white man and became a stage mother.

Edna enrolled Lena in dancing school, a skill that would serve her well when she auditioned for the chorus line at the Cotton Club. The Cotton Club was the most prestigious club in Harlem where an all black revue entertained an all white audience. Blacks weren’t allowed in the audience. White swells wanted to be entertained by blacks, but not necessarily to be in their company. Black entertainers there could not come in or leave by the front door nor could they use the white customers’ rest rooms. The club was run by white mobsters.

Out of hundreds of applicants in 1933, Lena was one of two chosen although she was only 16 and the official age to become a chorine was 18. The Cotton Club was never known to play by the rules. By Lena’s own admission she couldn’t sing or dance. However, she had a drop dead, stunningly gorgeous beautiful face and by all accounts that’s what launched her show business career. “I had no talent; all’s I had was looks,” Horne said, but that was the primary criterion as far as the Cotton Club chorus line was concerned. Gavin said, “Even the most talented chorines would never have gotten that job had they not been ‘high yaller.'”

Lena became the financial support of the family. Her mother coached her with her singing and she continued in dancing school. Around 1935 Edna landed Lena a job with Noble Sissle, a thriving black society bandleader of the day. She was glad to leave the Cotton Club because it embodied all the indignity her grandmother had taught her to revile. Sissle’s band was a class act. It had entertained at highbrow white functions in Paris, London and New York. Sissle sat Horne down and told her that at all times, “You must be a lady!” She must counter every black stereotype. Under Sissle’s tutelage, Horne became a class act.

Despite the high toned sophistication of Sissle’s band in general and Lena Horne in particular, whenever they played at a white ballroom, they invariably had to enter by the back door. It galled Lena that her white stepfather was welcomed at places she could not go to at least by the front door. And they had no idea of where they would be sleeping after the gig. They scouted around for black families that would take a few band members in. The rest ended up sleeping on the bus.

Later Horne got a job as a girl singer with Charlie Barnet’s all white band. In many ballrooms and colleges she wasn’t allowed to sit on the bandstand between numbers. At a prom in a New England girls’ school, she overheard the matronly dean tell Barnet, “We can’t have that colored girl sing here.” Most of the white restaurants where the band ate refused to serve her. Hotels would refuse to let her sleep there until Barnet started introducing her as Cuban.

Her singing lacked even a hint of black musical influence. Her elocution and diction were perfect. Bandleader Artie Shaw said, “She was a white singer.”

In 1941, Hollywood was under pressure from the NAACP to cast a black person in a non-stereotype roll. Up to then a fair number of black people had made a pretty good living playing stereotype blacks in subservient roles as mammies, maids, shiftless drifters, whores, pimps and Pullman porters saying things like Yessuh, Nossuh, Would you like mo pah suh? A friend got Lena an interview with Arthur Freed at M-G-M. Lena Horne had been perfectly groomed to play the role of a non-stereotype black person. She spoke perfect English, not black dialect. She was a well bred and well educated lady through and through, not a tramp or a whore.

She auditioned for Freed and then Louis B Mayer himself. Both were white, Jewish liberals who sincerely wanted to help. But they also had their eye on the bottom line, and that proved the factor that determined Lena’s Hollywood career in the end. In January 1942 M-G-M signed Lena Horne to a seven year contract, the first black to be so signed. She would get $350. a week the first year and $450. thereafter. Her contract stipulated that she would sing in pictures and play legitimate roles not cooks or servants.

At M-G-M Horne had the benefit of the best of the best in terms of the four things that could transform a female into a star: hair, make-up, dress and jewelry. Max Factor came up with a special foundation exclusively for Lena Horne called Light Egyptian. Plus she had expert coaching in singing and dancing. She realized that it was no accident that women appeared so beautiful on screen and this expertise served her well in her later career as a cabaret singer.

She appeared in two films right off the bat: Panama Hattie, a film starring Red Skelton based on a Broadway play with songs by Cole Porter and musical direction by Vincente Minelli, and an all black musical, Cabin in the Sky. Horne’s first scene in Cabin called for her to sing a song while reclining in a bubble bath. After the prerelease the censors got busy demanding cuts in Lena’s scenes of anything suggesting sexiness. Her bubble bath scene was axed. Cabin was released in 1943 and was an instant success with audiences despite critical put downs. M-G-M was having a hard time figuring out non-stereotype roles for Lena Horne. They loaned her out to Twentieth Century Fox for a film called Stormy Weather in which she sang the title song, and that became her theme song in later years. When Cabin opened, black people still had to be seated in the Jim Crow upper balcony.

These three films were successful and established Lena Horne’s reputation. M-G-M, however, conscious of the fact that a third of their revenues came from the deep south and that the south would not screen a movie with a black actress, except one in a subservient role, resorted to just having Horne do cameo appearances in which she sang a couple of songs which could be easily cut out without disrupting the dramatic flow for southern distribution.

According to Gavin: At least Horne could look ahead to the April 1946 premiere of Ziegfield Follies. Once more the critics singled her out. Edwin Scallert of the Los Angeles Times wrote that Horne with her “Love” number, “comes off as the best.”

The film went south to Birmingham, and Hugh Martin, who had composed the music for “Love,” flew there for the premiere. At the Alabama Theatre, Martin – a Birmingham boy – sat proudly with his entire family, eager for them to hear Horne sing his song. “And the number was gone,” he said. Puzzled, he asked the manager what had happened. “He said, ‘Oh, down here we don’t want to see a lot of niggers writhing around.’ I was absolutely horrified.” Storming out with his relatives, he shouted that he would never set foot in that theatre again.

In Durham, North Carolina, the Morning Herald ran an ad for the local premiere. It listed Horne among the players. Scores of black patrons bought tickets for the first showing - and saw a jagged splice where “Love” should have been. Many of them complained angrily and asked for refunds. Within twenty-four hours, Horne’s name had vanished from ads. Word of the scandal reached the Pittsburgh Courier, which tried to investigate. No one would take responsibility.

“Love” got chopped in Knoxville, Tennessee, too. Theatre manager … explained that Horne’s song “might prove objectionable to some people.” Meanwhile, … the excision of “Love” [was reported] in Memphis, the town with the most bigoted censor in the country. The septuagenarian Lloyd T Binford declared: “No film shall appear in a Memphis theater as where a Negro is shown mingling with whites. Unless, of course, the Negro is in the role of maid or butler, and then their every spoken word must be prefaced with ‘Sir’ or ‘Madame’.”

Some southern theaters barred blacks altogether or admitted them only for midnight showings. Others provided a “colored entrance” down a back alley. They had to climb a back staircase and sit in the “Balcony for Colored.”

Lena Horne met her future husband, Lennie Hayton, on the M-G-M lot. Hayton, a white Jewish man, was a very accomplished musical director, maestro and man of the world who mixed a wicked martini. He would go on to win Oscars for his contributions. Because of Louis B Mayer’s strict moral code [no onscreeen kiss could last more than one second] and because both of them were married at the start of their affair, Hayton and Horne employed the device of a ‘beard’ when they went out. Horne would show up at a restaurant or night club in the company of her best black friend, Billy Strayhorn, Duke Ellington’s alter ego and composer of some of the greatest songs in the Great American Songbook. Later Hayton would come in and join them. Thus the gossip columns were averted. With Hayton as maestro, Horne built her career as a cabaret singer as her movie career was going downhill.

The final straw with M-G-M came when they proposed to do a movie version of Show Boat in which a racially mixed, but passing for white, woman, Julie, is married to a white man but sought after by another. The jealous suitor exposed the fact of miscegenation which was illegal at the time. Lena wanted the part very badly; she thought it was perfect for her. At last M-G-M would provide her with a dramatic speaking role as opposed to placing her against a pillar and having her sing two songs which were easily cut for southern distribution. There was one problem. Until 1952 the Hollywood Production Code would not let a racially mixed person such as Lena Horne interact romantically onscreen with a white partner. However, it was OK for a white woman to portray herself as partially black and play the same role. The role went to Lena’s good friend, Ava Gardner, who was “blackened up” to appear as an octaroon, a person one eighth black.

Ava Gardner had to lip synch to Lena Horne’s voice for the movie. Horne quoted Gardner as saying: “Girl, I’m sick to death of you. They’re locking me up in a sound booth all day and making me work my mouth to Lena Horne records so I’ll learn to play Julie the way you would have played it. Why didn’t they just give you the fucking part in the first place?”

Horne stepped up her activism. She championed Malcom X rather than MLK Jr because of his militancy. She wore a Star of David to protest anti-Semitism. She became a fervid speaker. At the Washington rally where MLK Jr delivered his “I have a dream” speech, she spoke … one word: “Freedom!” Horne continued to see Show Boat as the stolen chance of a lifetime. Horne’s 1981 Broadway concert, The Lady and her Music, found her using Show Boat as evidence of M-G-M’s mean and racist treatment of her. She insisted that Mayer was a coward as he used “someone white made up to be me.” The fact that she couldn’t interact with whites on camera made her feel second class.

Horne would go on to sing in exclusive night clubs and cabarets such as the Empire Room and the Copacabana. Her marriage to Hayton would not last. Interestingly enough despite the Horne family’s disdain for white people, four generations of Horne women married white men: Cora, Edna, Lena and Lena’s daughter Gail who would marry famous Hollywood director Sidney Lumet.

Lena Horne died in 2010 at the age of 92. She was a multimillionaire. Unlike her contemporary, Billie Holiday, who died with less than a dollar in her bank account, Horne used her rage against racism in a highly constructive way. It gave an edginess to her performances which only increased her sex appeal. More than one of her band members heard her mouth under her breath “Fuck you, assholes” as she made a sweeping bow after the end of her performance before a white audience.

Unlike Billie, Lena never got hooked on drugs. Unlike Billie, she never got barred from singing in exclusive New York City night clubs due to the loss of a cabaret card. Billie Holiday, who broke the color line herself as the first singer to sing with the all white Artie Shaw band, died in 1959 at the age of 44, a victim of white racism who was vanquished by it even as Lena Horne transcended it. 

John Lawrence graduated from Georgia Tech, Stanford and University of California at San Diego. While at UCSD, he was one of the original writer/workers on the San Diego Free Press in the late 1960s. He founded the San Diego Jazz Society in 1984 which had grants from the San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture and presented both local and nationally known jazz artists. His website is Social Choice and Beyond which exemplifies his interest in Economic Democracy. His book is East West Synthesis. He also blogs at Will Blog For Food. He can be reached at j.c.lawrence@cox.net.

 



A rich library of African-American poetry goes digital - 
Knight Foundation  by Julie Edgar


Amid the social upheaval of the 1960s, when protests were brutally quashed, Detroit’s Broadside Press was quietly turning out the works of African-American poets who were telling universal and particular truths that re-shaped the way people thought of themselves and each other.  Lots of works, in fact.

The good thing is that they’re safely archived in two university libraries, recognized as an important historic and artistic record of the culture’s most astute observers. 
They include works by poets like Gwendolyn Brooks, Nikki Giovanni, Etheridge Knight and Sonia Sanchez. Less well-known poets, like Margaret Walker and Dudley Randall, the founder of Broadside 50 years ago, are a part of the collection too.

A Knight Arts Challenge grant will enable Broadside, the nation’s oldest African-American publishing house, to digitize and share the vast store of poetry.

“Just about everything is out of print and people constantly want to see it. We get requests from universities all over the world that want to reach back into the history,’’ said Chris Rutherford, chairman of Broadside’s board of directors. He works as a program manager at the University of Michigan’s Center for Educational Outreach.

With the $20,000 grant and $20,000 in matching funds, Broadside is about to start the arduous task of copying and cataloguing each and every page. Rutherford is working with the University of Michigan on the details, such as how the books and broadsides will get from Ann Arbor to wherever Broadside will set up the scanning apparatus. He’s also checking out the archives at the University of Massachusetts, which apparently has materials from Broadside. He has no idea why, but a Google search turned up the information.

The grant will also enable Broadside to set up an ecommerce site to sell the work.


RELATED LINKS: "Detroit: Submit your idea to the Knight Arts Challenge" by Mary M. Chapman, 03/16/15

An aside: a “broadside” is a single, 8 ½-by-11 sheet of paper. Rutherford explained that Randall, on a trip to the former Soviet Union, liked how his creative comrades-in-arms printed literature. It was a cheap way to make quality literature available to the masses, and so Broadside used it for some of its collection.

Whatever the medium, what it did in its early years marked Detroit as a center of the Black Arts Movement. It was, says Rutherford, as innovative in a civil rights framework as Motown was to the music business.

“Dudley sought to give voice to the voiceless and did it in a fashion nobody else was doing,” Rutherford says. “He made it a point to expose this wealth of literature that existed in the African-American community that was largely ignored by larger publishers in the U.S.”

It happens that Broadside marks its 50th birthday this year, so the plan is to finish the first phase of digitization and the ecommerce website by a September celebration.

Rutherford sees Broadside’s legacy as bridging a generational divide, showing young people the origins of spoken-word poetry, rap and poetry slams. More importantly, he hopes that exposure to the work inspires them to also speak truth to power.

“Broadside gives them a place to better understand the challenges they daily face. If this person can do it in 1965, they can do it,” says Rutherford.

Julie Edgar is a Detroit-based freelance writer.
http://www.knightfoundation.org/blogs/knightblog/2015/3/23/rich-library
-african-american-poetry-goes-digital/
 
Sent by Dorinda Moreno 
pueblosenmovimientonorte@gmail.com
 


Anna Julia (Haywood) Cooper
1858-1964

Only the BLACK WOMAN can say, ‘when and where I enter, in the quiet, undisputed dignity of my womanhood, without violence and without suing or special patronage, then and there the whole Negro race enters with me. '

— “Womanhood: A Vital Element in the Regeneration and Progress of a Race”

anna haywood cooper

Born a slave late enough in the course of the antebellum era not to have to endure the scourge of that cursed institution for life, Anna Julia Cooper believed that intelligent women's voices brought balance to the struggle for human rights. She manifested her superior intellect and persuasive oratory ability primarily as a Washington D.C. educator, but also worked as a teacher of mathematics, Greek, and Latin at St. Augustine's Normal and Collegiate Institute in Raleigh, North Carolina (1873-81 and 1885-87); teacher of ancient and modern languages, literature, mathematics, and language department head at Wilberforce University in Xenia, Ohio (1884-85); and teacher of languages on a college level at Lincoln Institute in Jefferson City, Missouri (1906-10). As an intellectual, embryonic feminist/womanist theorist and critic, master teacher, and philosopher, Cooper displayed consistent erudition and exactness. A Christian woman of high standards, principles, and moral caliber she seemed to have lived an errorless existence to the point of being faultless. Cooper's experiences with racism and sexism were most likely the impetus that stimulated her to challenge prevailing patriarchal exclusionary practices. She referenced herself as “Black” at a time when the nineteenth century coinage for African Americans was “Negro.”

Racism scarred her as an activist in the North Carolina Teachers Association when she sought salaries for African American teachers that were equitable to White teachers' salaries (1886). Further humiliation of a racist nature occurred in 1892 when railroad personnel ejected her from the waiting room—first class ticket in hand—in her hometown of Raleigh, North Carolina because of color discrimination. Sexism bruised her emotionally as a student at St. Augustine's Normal and Collegiate Institute (1868-73) when she protested against the differences between boys' and girls' curricula and the availability of financial assistance for boys but no matching funds for girls. School officials later admitted her to the Greek course initially set up for men. Cooper came face-to-face with sexism again when she entered Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio in 1881 and discovered that it had a “Ladies” course, an experiment in educational access that was inferior to the classical course offered to men. This practice prevailed although Oberlin faculty had a reputation of being progressive thinkers, and the college was among the first to open its doors to students of African heritage. Nevertheless, university officials returned to the dominant thought of the nation and upheld the norm of racism, segregating dormitories and making admission of qualified African Americans difficult, if not impossible. Ironically, at St. Augustine's Normal and Collegiate Institute Cooper met and married in 1877 the ministerial candidate—the second African American in North Carolina in 1879 to be ordained an Episcopal priest— and professor of Greek, George A. Christopher Cooper of Nassau, Bahamas, British West Indies, only to lose him to death September 27, 1879. As a widow Cooper was free to pursue greater educational opportunities.

After entering St. Augustine's Normal and Collegiate Institute for emancipated African Americans on scholarship in 1868 as a nine and a half-year-old precocious youngster, Cooper began in 1869 at age eleven to tutor students older than she, evidence of her advanced academic ability at a tender age and indication of her future career path. The school's mission was to train future teachers, and Cooper's destiny was established. As a twenty-three-year-old Oberlin College entering freshman in 1881 Cooper selected the more prestigious classical “Gentleman's Course” of study, earning the AB (1884) and MA (1887) degrees, along with Mary Church Terrell (1863-1954) and Ida Gibbs Hunt (1862-1957). Oberlin administrators awarded Cooper the advanced degree based on her college teaching ability. In her career as a public school educator at the Washington High School in Washington D.C. Cooper worked first as a mathematics and science teacher (1887-1902). She then became a Latin teacher and principal of the distinguished M Street High School, established in 1891, formerly the Preparatory High School for Colored Youth. Cooper was the second woman—the first was Emma J. Hutchins—to serve the institution in this male-dominated capacity—(1902-06). This institution produced some of the greatest African American professionals of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Not far from the old M Street High School location a larger edifice on a new site to serve a greater population was completed in 1916 (razed in 1976) and renamed Paul Laurence Dunbar High School. Cooper was an influential force in the new name of the M Street High School, as well as lyrical composer of its Alma Mater (1924), which was set to music by Mary L. Europe, her former student turned colleague.

However, for Cooper the leadership role of principal became daunt, overshadowed with disdain by some school officials who abhorred Cooper's managerial style and record of success rather than the lack of it. Cooper's White supervisor Perry Hughes urged the school board to force Cooper's resignation and relieve her of her position following controversial statements printed in the Washington Post regarding pending restrictions of classical education to African Americans, a controversy precipitated by a speech delivered at the school in 1902 by W. E. B. Du Bois (1868-1963), author of The Souls of Black Folk (1903) and the twentieth century's most esteemed African American intellectual and Atlanta University professor at the time. Hughes objected to Cooper's college preparatory course design and her determination to make African American students competitive with Whites.

A classical course of study gave African American students an advantage to compete for scholarships to prestigious universities, including Ivy League institutions, but business courses were offered at the school as well. Moreover, the academic performances of M Street High School students created a perplexing problem for many Whites regarding stereotypical notions of intellectual inferiority among African Americans. The students proved the stereotype untrue. Hughes was a proponent of Up from Slavery (1901) author Booker T. Washington's (1856-1915) educational philosophy to instruct African Americans in the industrial and vocational trades. Also damaging to Cooper were the claims of student misconduct at the school, teacher immorality, and the rumors of an alleged affair with John Love, a colleague several years her junior who was also relieved of duties as a teacher at the school. More accurately, racist school board members frowned on women in leadership roles and married or widowed professional women guiding youth. An independent thinker and the fortitude to stay the course, Cooper could not be swayed from her vision of superior education and the mastery of high academic content for African American youths. She was also a proponent of higher education for women and compassionate about educational opportunities for the children of former slaves. Although she had the support of the faculty, students, and citizenry, she paid the highest penalty of dismissal. Upon the appointment of a new superintendent Cooper returned to the M Street High School/Dunbar High School in 1910 as a Latin teacher and retired from the institution in 1930.

In the summer of 1911 Cooper enrolled at à la Guilde Internationale à Paris, returning in the summers of 1912 and 1913 to study the history of French civilization with Professor Paul Privat Deschanel, French literature, and linguistics, earning a Certificate of Honorable Mention. Columbia University in New York City accepted her as a doctoral candidate July 3, 1914 based on her academic achievement in France and certified her language proficiency in French, Greek, and Latin. She began a doctoral thesis in French but was unable to meet Columbia's mandatory one-year residency rule. In the summer of 1924, the decade of the 1920s considered the height of the Harlem Renaissance, Cooper transferred her Columbia equivalency status credits to Université Paris—Sorbonne where she completed her doctoral requirements at the age of sixty-five, becoming the fourth African American woman affiliated with the M Street High School/Dunbar High School to earn a PhD. The others were Georgiana Rose Simpson, Eva Beatrice Dykes, and Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander. She also was the fourth African American woman in the United States to earn a PhD. Cooper was also the first woman and the first African American woman resident of Washington D.C. to earn a PhD from the Sorbonne, as well as the first African American woman born a slave to do a doctoral defense at the Sorbonne.

In keeping with her standard as the consummate educator, Cooper advocated extension education for employed adults. She devoted long uncompensated hours to Frelinghuysen University in Washington D.C. , founded in 1906 by Dr. Jesse Lawson and his wife Rosetta E. Lawson, serving as one of its teachers and its second president (1930-41), as well as relocating the school to her home at 201 T Street, NW in the LeDroit Park community to hold classes when university authorities faced eviction from the main campus building. Today Cooper's home is part of the African American Heritage Trail and the Historical Society of Washington D.C. Struggling economically through the depression and losing its charter in 1937, the financially strapped establishment became Frelinghuysen Group of Schools for Employed Colored Persons in 1940, and Cooper served as registrar (1940-50), continuing her loyal commitment to the edification of African Americans even as an elderly educator.

Cooper was a tireless community, political, and social activist. She was one of three African American teachers (Parker Bailey and Ella D. Barrier) who participated in a Toronto, Canada cultural exchange program arranged by the Bethel Literary and Historical Association (1890s). She also addressed the Convocation of Black Episcopal Ministers in Washington D.C. (1886) and the Convocation of Clergy of the Protestant Episcopal Church the same year on the topic of “Womanhood A Vital Element in the Regeneration and Progress of a Race”; read her essay “The Higher Education of Women” at the American Conference of Educators in Washington D.C. (1890); shared the podium with Booker T. Washington at the Hampton Conference (1892)in Virginia; was one of three women (Fannie Jackson Coppin and Fannie Barrier Williams) to explicate poignantly at the Women's Congress in Chicago which coincided with the World's Columbian Exposition (1893); was one of three women (Helen A. Cook and Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin) to address the National Conference of Colored Women (1895) in Boston, spoke at the National Federation of Afro-American Women (1896) in Washington D.C. ; was one of two women (Anna Jones) to represent African American views at the Pan-African Conference in London (1900); and lectured at the Biennial Session of Friends' General Conference in Asbury Park, New Jersey (1902).

Moreover, she helped to organize the Colored Woman's League (1892), founded the Colored Women's Young Women's Christian Association—Phyllis Wheatley YWCA—(1904) and its chapter of Camp Fire Girls (1912), and was one of the founders of the social services organization The Colored Settlement House (1905). She was women's editor of The Southland magazine (1890), possibly the first African American magazine in the United States devoted to keeping readers informed of issues and progress. Impressively, Cooper was the lone female invited to membership in the elite American Negro Academy, an African American intelligentsia organization founded by Rev. Alexander Crummell March 5, 1897. Officials of the organization included W. E. B. Du Bois (1868-1963), president and Rev. Francis J. Grimké, treasurer. Members included the father of Black History Week/Month Carter G. Woodson and co-founder of the Negro Society for Historical Research Arthur A. Schomburg (1874-1938) whose collection of Africana documents would culminate into the New York Public Library's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

Cooper was born Annie Julia—named for the woman for whom her mother was leased out to work as a nanny—August 10th to Hannah Stanley Haywood (1817-99), a slave woman with minimal reading and writing skills. She paid homage to her mother by naming a division of Frelinghuysen University the Hannah Stanley Opportunity School, designed for the purpose of educating adults with limited opportunity for advanced schooling. Her father was George Washington Haywood, brother of her mother's owner Dr. Fabius J. Haywood, Sr. , a wealthy entrepreneur who amassed a fortune through family enterprises involving the acquisition of land, assumption of loans and promissory notes, leases and rentals, merchandising, partnerships, pharmaceuticals, and slaves. Her siblings were musician and bandleader Rufus Haywood (1836?-92) and Spanish-American War veteran Andrew Jackson Haywood (1848-1918). Andrew married Jane Henderson McCraken in 1867. They adopted a son, John R. Haywood who married Margaret Hinton whose untimely death led Cooper to assume guardianship of their children—Regia, John, Andrew, Marion, and Annie—at a time when she pursued higher education and assumed a mortgage to house her burgeoning family (1915). Their ages ranged from six months to twelve years. The infant Annie, her namesake and future heir, died from pneumonia at the youthful age of twenty-four, a devastating blow to Cooper and her hope of a successor. She was also foster mother to Lula Love Lawson, an 1890 graduate of the M Street High School, and her brother John, orphaned by the death of their parents. Cooper's maternal grandfather, the slave Jacob Stanley, was skilled in the building trades and was instrumental in the planning and construction of the North Carolina State Capitol.

In 1925 under the guidance of Professor Alexander (French history and language) of Columbia University Cooper published her Columbia University thesis, Le Pélerinage de Charlemagne: Voyage à Jérusalem et à Constantinople (The Pilgrimmage of Charlemagne: Journey to Jerusalem and to Constantinople), a translation into modern French of an eleventh-century French epic that became a standard classroom text. Her Université Paris—Sorbonne dissertation, “L' attitude de la France à l'égard de l'esclavage pendant la Révolution” (The Attitude of France towards Slavery during the Revolution), also written completely in French, was the culmination of her formal education leading to the doctorate. Cooper's French instructors at the Sorbonne were sociology professor Célestin Bouglé, political history professor Charles Seignobos, and literature and American civilization professor Charles Cestre. The French Embassy in the United States was instrumental in Cooper's receiving her diploma. District Commissioner William Tindall, the French ambassador to the United States, the American ambassador to France Emile Daeschner, and a representative from Columbia University presented the PhD diploma to her at Howard University's Rankin Chapel on December 29, 1925 in a ceremony hosted by Xi Omega chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority and Dr. Alain Locke (1886-1954), Howard University philosophy professor, first African American Rhodes scholar, articulator of the New Negro Movement which became the Harlem Renaissance, and speaker for the occasion.

Cooper's dissertation is an inquiry into French president Raymond Poincare's (1860-1934) attitude regarding racial equality. She also examines the 1896 French-Japanese Treaty and French naturalization laws as they pertain to Japanese, Hindu, and Black people. The Society of Black Friends is explored. Cooper also analyzes a speech given by Alphonse de Lamartine (1790-1869), French poet and politician, and a speech delivered during the French revolution at the National Assembly. Cooper discusses, too, a March 1842 banquet regarding slavery abolishment.

Over the span of a few years the flame of Cooper's early feminist/womanist thinking exploded into a full fire. The result is the seminal publication A Voice from the South, By a Black Woman of the South (1892), a compilation of various speeches and lectures that she delivered on public platforms. The book's recurrent themes are education and feminism. Cooper espouses a non-confrontational approach to issues of race, class, and gender and the domination and oppression of women by both Black and White men and encourages women to expose and attack injustice wherever it exists. She gears the essays to a learned audience, not to the emancipated slaves who were mostly illiterate, though she champions their cause. The book is for the teachers of this deprived population who have the responsibility and the authority to introduce new ideas and challenge minds, especially women in the profession, all women in general and African American women in particular. Her genre is the formal essay. She uses it to explain her philosophical stance, combining facts, theory, and sincere purpose. Her essays are classical in form, structure, and style, but they are also autobiographical and introspective narrative, incorporating her perspectives of life's experiences. She uses the language of Christian doctrine to examine, support, and specify her ideas, quoting relative scriptural texts that illustrate her views. She considers scriptural references manna for living the right kind of life. She also uses poetry within her essays to emphasize important points. Her essays are discussions of political topics to inspire change by appealing to the consciences of reasonable readers who may be empowered to act. The book is indicative of the cultural value of the essay as a political tool for nineteenth-century African American women.

Cooper feels that the “woman's era” (1890s) when women activate their voices in the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs and woman suffrage is an excellent time to “examine the feminine half of the world's truth.” Her book contains two sections of four essays each. The first section, “Soprano Obligato,” focuses on women's issues, nineteenth century women facing the new era of the twentieth century in which they will have vital impact. The next section, “Tutti Ad Libitum,” analyzes the race problem and its negative effects in American society. Both sections address the human condition and how best to improve the status of those relegated to the lowly places in life. In Cooper's opinion America failed to provide mechanisms of uplift to all its citizens, for any society that dooms any of its members to a permanent low caste will never achieve the fullness of its possibilities. The period in which Cooper writes, the 1890s, is an era in which women, African American and White, tear down barriers that prohibited them from becoming productive and meaningful contributors to society. However, society at this time is more receptive to White women although mass protests are the channels used to gain them this tolerance. The 1890s also mark a backlash in African American progress, and it is a climate that tolerates an increase in lynching. Cooper feels that the time is suitable for the “voiceless Black Woman of America” to explain in detail America's problems, and the relevance of the time in which African Americans are twenty-seven years out of chattel slavery.

The first essay in the book, “Womanhood a Vital Element in the Regeneration and Progress of a Race,” identifies two sources responsible for perpetuating images of women, the Feudal System and Christianity. The former initiated honor and respect and the latter reverence, but, according to Cooper, both are unrealized. Cooper believes that women's past is not their doing, but the future is theirs to control if they reject ignorance and accept higher goals, i.e. , acquiring higher education. She warns that intellectual weaknesses in the nineteenth century are attributable to patriarchs of the institution of slavery but a century later will be used as proof of innate inferiority. She recapitulates some of the myths surrounding women and intelligence in “The Higher Education of Women,” which includes a section that addresses “The Higher Education of Colored Women.” She maintains that higher education does not reduce women's eligibility for wifehood or motherhood or nullify their domestic ability; men and women can approach matrimony as equals educationally and economically, for their higher knowledge qualifies them even more in the managing of households and in the training of children. For African American women she espouses intellectualism with the balance of Christian virtues, indicating that a strong moral fiber must accompany in-depth knowledge of arts, sciences, business, and social work. The essay “Woman Versus the Indian” highlights dedication to the survival and wholeness of all people, but its title is misleading. She posits a theory that all avenues of social life are under the auspices of women, e.g. , a national standard of courtesy—“like mistress, like nation.” She believes that women are the moral conscience of the nation, practitioners of good manners and the Golden Rule, which if women apply universally would shake the foundations of racism and the stronghold that men have on society. “The Status of Woman in America” pays homage to women's strength and to the celebration held in Chicago of the “fourth centenary” of the continent's discovery. Since the nation's founding Cooper believes that women have been in training to assume leadership positions, to effect change in the twentieth century, and to recognize the contributions of African American women to America.

“Has America a Race Problem; If So, How Can It Best Be Solved?” is the lead essay of the second section. Cooper elaborates on issues of race and class and identifies two kinds of peace, the kind that comes from suppression and the kind that evolves from adjustment. Her preference is the latter, that compromise, reciprocity, and tolerance are the only survival tools of the nation. Cooper assumes the role of literary and social critic in “One Phase of American Literature.” Her commentary centers on economic self-determination, reparations for African Americans, and love and appreciation for the folk, the “silent factor,” the producers of true American literature (folklore and folk songs). “What Are We Worth?” examines the economic ramifications that form African American civilization since Emancipation. She writes that the world benefits from inventions by African Americans but is unaware of the role played by them in making lives easier. She pays tribute to individuals whose contributions and inventions improved the lot of humanity, calling this litany of names a “noble army” and “roll of honor.” In “The Gain from a Belief” Cooper has a spiritual focus and explores absolute and eternal truth, knowledge, and virtue, necessary in the building of faith. Her view is that people need something in which to believe, and “faith means treating the truth as true.” She believes that faith benefits the newly freed African American nation to persevere and drum up the gumption to get to the next century and beyond.

Cooper delivered many of her lectures in African American churches and perhaps for that reason the essays have a Christian emphasis. She also introduced her ideas before learned societies and community organizations. She uses the lecture circuit as a political platform to postulate her theories of educational access and social action and responsibility. Cooper's critical expressions are idealistic, philosophical, and practical. Her theories are not just ideas of the imagination but something more fundamental, the incorporation of consciousness into what might be perceived as thinking in the abstract. She considers each and every thought and concludes that cognizance and consciousness are inseparable. The experiences of the new African American nation do not occur independently of what goes on in the mind. She believes if individuals can think things, then people can achieve things. Her theories differ from traditional Eurocentric theories because they are not merely academic exercises to be discussed in academic circles. They are aesthetic and practical; they are for the masses, not just the cultural elite, although she stresses that an educated African American class with the capacity to lead must implement the theories. Cooper basically states tactics of survival. She encourages people to do as nature does, take examples from nature's book of fair play. Hers are theories in conflict resolution, a prototype which stresses never to give up the struggle against misconceptions regarding race, class, gender, politics, education, and economics. She remained an academic motivator until her death from cardiac arrest at the age of 105, concerned with the educational development of women and the underrepresented. Cooper felt that her work in the progression of higher education of women was unfinished. She ran out of time, but she left a powerful legacy.

Sent by Dorinda Moreno 
pueblosenmovimientonorte@gmail.com

INDIGENOUS

What Killed the Mayas: War or Weather?
Native Americans have West Eurasian origins

 



What Killed the Mayas: War or Weather?


Scholars have long agreed that the Mayan empire that existed for 1,000 years was a splendid culture, a civilization that developed calendars of immense precision as well as a sophisticated form of hieroglyphic writing.  But experts have never agreed on what caused the empire to collapse.  A new report in the journal Nature puts the blame on a familiar culprit: the weather University of Florida scientists analyzed 15 feet of sediment in Lake Chinchancanab in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula and reported finding evidence of  a sharp decrease in rainfall between the years 800 and 1000 - roughly the era of Mayan decline. "It was one of the most severe climate aberrations in the past 10,000 years," said Scott Stine, a paleoclimatologist at California State University at Hay-ward, who cited recent findings that the drought extended as far north as California. "A number of cultures crashed at about the same time."

But a dig in northern Guatemala offers a different view of the Mayan downfall. In monographs soon to be published, a 45-member team led by Vanderbilt University's Arthur Demarest pinpointed the date of the Mayan collapse at 820—which is only at the beginning of the drought claimed by the Florida team. His scholars found burned cities, villages and fields, and mounds of decapitated heads of young men. Within 50 years, Demarest said, the Mayan population dropped to 5 percent of its previous level. "The collapse," he said, "was due to Bosnia-like endemic warfare."

Science & Society, US News & World Report, June 12, 1995



Study: Native Americans have West Eurasian origins
Contradicts common belief indigenous peoples descended from East Asians who crossed Bering Sea land bridge
November 21, 2013 

Native Americans As much as 35 percent of the genome of Native Americans is linked to the Middle East, Eurasia, and Europe.  

Adrees Latif/Reuters

 

Native Americans have closer genetic ties to people in Eurasia, the Middle East and Europe than previously believed, according to new research on a 24,000-year-old human bone.

Genome sequencing on the arm bone of a 3-year-old Siberian boy known as the "Mal'ta Boy," the world's oldest known human genome, shows that Native Americans share up to one-third of their DNA with people from those regions, said Kelly Graf, a research assistant professor at the Department of Anthropology at Texas A&M University and a member of the international research team.

The team is led by researchers at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. The study was published in the journal Nature this week.

The results add a new dimension to earlier beliefs that Native Americans were mostly descended from East Asians who crossed the land bridge from Siberia to North America some 14,000 years ago, Graf said on Thursday.

Native Americans still have genetic connections to East Asians, Graf said, but the new sequencing shows that a "significant part" of their genome, as much as 35 percent, is linked to the Middle East, Eurasia and Europe.

"The Mal'ta people who had this DNA were part of a group that ranged anywhere from Lake Baikal (Siberia) into Central Europe," she said. "This is part of a group that is genetically related to each other."

They are not genetically related to the East Asians, however, so the question remains how DNA from these two peoples both ended up in the genetic code of Native Americans. "Native American ancestry is very complicated and very complex," Graf said.

One theory, she said, is that the two distinct peoples crossed the land bridge separately and met up in North America.

"There will, hopefully, be other sites between southern Siberia and Alaska to tell us when these people were available to colonize the Americas," Graf said.

Scientists have generally believed that the clearly European features of some Native Americans derived only from their intermingling with Europeans after the 15th century.

Several tribes living in what is now the United States, most notably the Mandan tribe that is native to the Dakotas, had strikingly European-looking features, including blond hair, when they were first met by French traders in the 18th century.

That has given rise to a range of theories, both scientific and fringe, including the idea that the Welsh, Scottish or Viking explorers, or even one of the Lost Tribes of Israel, had pre-Columbian contact with Native Americans.

But Graf said the new finding shows that those "European" traits are actually native to those tribes.

"What this study is telling us is that those Europoid-looking signatures, those features, came with them over the land bridge from Siberia, and were present in people who lived in Siberia 24,000 years ago," she said.

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/11/21/study-native-americanshavewesteurasianorigins.html 

Sent by John Inclan fromgalveston@yahoo.com 

 

SEPHARDIC

Texas Mexican Secret Spanish Jews Today, by Anne deSola Cardoza
Spain Expected to Offer Citizenship to 2 Million Jews
Pepper, Silk & Ivory: Amazing Stories about Jews and the Far East

 



Texas Mexican Secret Spanish Jews Today, 
by Anne deSola Cardoza

Jewish food, oral traditions, culture, and secret, religious customs are showing up today in the folklore, habits and practices of the descendants of early settlers in southern Texas and the surrounding areas of Mexico. In northern Mexico and what today is Texas, the Jews of Nuevo Leon and its capital, Monterrey, Mexico, lived without fear of harrassment from the Holy Office of the 1640's and beyond. Many of the leading nonªJewish families today of that area are descended from secret Jewish ancestors, according to scholar, Richard G. Santos. Santos states there are hundreds, if not thousands of descendants of Spanish and Portuguese Jews living today in San Antonio, Texas, USA and throughout South Texas. Not all are aware of their Jewish heritage. Santos is a renowned San Antonio, Texas scholar in ethnic studies of South Texas secret Spanish Jewry.

He presented a paper to the Interfaith Institute at the Chapman Graduate Center of Trinity University on May 23, 1973 on secret Sephardic Jewish customs in today's Texas and nearby Mexican areas.

Here's how we know a lot of Tex-Mex Hispanics today are of Jewish ancestry. It's a well accepted fact that the founding families of Monterrey and the nearby Mexican border area, "Nuevo Reyno de Leon" are of Sephardic Jewish origin. If we go back to The Diccionario Porrua de Historia Geografia y Biografia, it states that Luis de Carvajal y de a Cueva brought a shipload of Jews to settle his Mexican colony - with some Jews being converts to Catholicism fron Judaism and others "openly addicted to their (Jewish) doctrine".

According to the late Seymour Liebman, a scholar on Mexican colonial secret Jews, in his book "Jews in New Spain", explained why Jews settled in areas far away from Mexico City in order to escape the long arm of the Inquisition in the sixteenth century. There's an old, universally known anti-Semitic Mexican joke, one-liner that says, "la gente de Monterrey son muy judios ... son muy codo". In English it translates, "The people of Monterrey are very Jewish ... very tightwad".

Secret Jews colonized the states of Nuevo Leon, Coahuila, Tamualipas and good old Texas, USA in the 1640's-1680s and thereafter. The majority of Texas's Spanish-speaking immigrants came from Nuevo Leon, Tamaulipas, and Coahuila (the old Neuvo Reyno de Leon) beginning in the 1680s.

Seventeenth century secret Jews who settled in what is today southern Texas, particularly around San Antonio took with them their Jewish foods, particularly what they call "Semitic bread" or pan de semita ...

Sephardic Jewish foods in old Texas

Why do Mexican Americans in Texas and in the Mexican province of nearby Monterrey eat "Semitic bread" on Passover/Lent? According to scholar Richard G. Santos, Tex-Mex pastries such as pan dulce, pan de semita, trenzas, cuernos, pan de hero, and pan de los protestantes (Protestant's bread) are similar to familar Jewish pastries eaten by Sephardic Jews today in many other parts of the world.

Pan de semita was eaten in pre-inquisition Spain by a Jew or an Arab Moor. Today, its popular in Texas and in that part of Mexico bordering Texas. It translates into English as "Semitic bread". It's a Mexican-American custom in the Texas and Tex-Mex border area today to eat pan de semita during Lent which occurs on or around the Jewish Passover.

You bake pan de semita by combining two cups of flour, one half to two-thirds cup of water, a few tablespoons of butter or olive oil, mix and bake unleavened. Even among the devout Catholic Mexicans pork lard is never used, that's why it's called Semitic bread. Pan de semita is really the receipe for 17th century secret Jewish Matzoh, and it's eaten by all Mexicans today in the north Mexican/Texas border area, regardless of religion.

Only in Texas and along the Texas-Mexican border is a special type of pan de semita baked, according to Dr. Santos, who himself is descended from secret Spanish Jews of the area who've lieve in that part of Texas and Monterrey since colonial times.

The special Texas pan de semita of the border has special ingredients : only vegetable oil, flour raisins, nuts, and water. The raisins, pecans, and vegetable oil were identified, according to Dr. Santos, as selected ingredients of secret Jews of New Spain.

You take two cups of flour, a cup or less of water, a handful olive oil and mix with a half cup to two thirds cup each of raisins and pecans. Then you knead and bake at 350 degrees until lightly browned and easty to chew.

This pan de semita is only found in the Texas/Mexico border area and in Texas. Pastry bakers from Mexico claim this type of pan de semita is unknown in central Mexico. Other pan de semitas are
found in Guadalahara made from wheat (Semita de trigo) in which milk is substituted for the water. In Texas and also in Guadalahara, one also finds Semita de aniz (anis). However, semita de trigo and semita de aniz never include raisins and pecans, and to use pork lard is forbidden. Only olive oil or butter can be used to make semitic bread.

In addition to the Mexican matzo makers of Texas and Monterrey, Mexico, chicken is slaughtered in a special way. In Nuevo Leon, Tamualipas, Coahuila, and among Mexican Americans in Texas, two
ways of butchering fowl is performed. Chickens can only be slaughtered by either wringing the neck by hand or by taking the head off with only one stroke of a sharp knife, and immediately all blood must be removed from the chicken into a container. The fowl is next plunged into hot water to get rid of any blood.

This method is the same today as the crypto Jews performed in the 17th century in Mexico as described by scholar Seymour Liebman. The secret Jews of Mexico in the 1640s decapitated their chickens and hung them on a clothesline so the blood would drain into a container of water. Then the fowl was soaked in hot water and washed long enough to remove all the blood.

In the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, there's a ritual today of using this method of butchering chickens with an added gesture of drawing a cross on the ground and placing the chicken at the center of intersecting lines.

Eating cactus and egg omelets is a custom during the Passover week/Lent of secret Jews of the 17th century and of Mexican Americans from Texas and northern Mexico today. The omelets are
called nopalitos lampreados. It's a custom to eat only this food during Lent. Is this and old Passover rite of secret Jews as well?

No other bread except pan de semita was allowed during Lent, and pan de semita is unleavened and contains the same ingredients as Matzoh.

Rural Mexican Americans in Texas also drink mint tea, fruit juices, or chocolate during Easter week. There's much evidence in the foods that these people were also observing Passover in addition to Lent and Easter, although many didn't know it until it was pointed out that they were eating traditional 16th century Sepahrdic foods, especially the bitter herbs added to the meal.

Mexican Americans in Texas cast the first piece of the 'masa' (dough, sounds like Matzoh) into the fire - before cooking up a batch of corn tortillas or bread. These same people also do not
eat pork on Fridays. Some Mexican Americans don't eat pork after6 p.m. or sundown on Friday.

Another Lenten/Passover food is 'capirotada'. It's wheat bread(pilon-cillo) to which raw sugar, cinnamon, cheese, butter,pecans, peanuts and raisins are added. These are identical ingredients to those used by secret Spanish Jews in the New Spain of 1640 to make their breads and cakes. Even the ingredients and recipes have been recorded by the Holy Office of the Inquisition and saved to this day in the archives.

Mexican Americans from Texas don't practice abstaining from meat on Fridays, long before the Catholic church relaxed the rule of not eating meat on Fridays. Also older women cover their hands while praying in the same manner as Jewish women cover their heads. The Holy Office never extended its long arm to the area known today as Texas. Descendants of Canary Islanders, 16 families who came to Texas in 1731 established the township of San Fernando de Bexar which today is San Antonio. These families intermarried wit the local population of nearby Nuevo Reyno de Leon, many of whom were Spanish and Portuguese secret Jews who moved to the area specifically because the Holy Office of the Inquisition didn't operate in 18th century 'Texas'. All Mexicans of the area today are not of Sephardic descent.

However, a large number still use the oral traditions which are eminently of Sephardic origin. Historical exposure to and intermarriage with Sephardic secret Jews has occurred in the parts of Mexico that were "safer havens" for secret Jewish settlement, and those havens happen to be southern Texas and the surrounding Mexican border and adjacent areas. Today, Texans in the San Antonio area are giving celebration to the secret Jewish origin of some of their foods, culture, and oral traditions.

Anne deSola Cardoza is a fulltime book author specializing in writing psycho-suspense novels involving Sephardic Jewish subjects or characters and is the author of 33 books, both fiction and nonfiction, and filmscripts. She also writes a weekly business opportunities career column for a national newspaper.

Sent by Gloria Candelaria   
candelglo@gmail.com



Spain Expected To Offer Citizenship To 2 Million Jews” 

By Here & Now, National Public Radio
http://hereandnow.wbur.org/
It’s been more than 500 years since the Spanish Inquisition, but now, more than 2 million Jews may have the chance to return home. The Sephardic Ancestry Bill is the Spanish government’s latest attempt to offer citizenship to the descendants of those exiled for their religious beliefs.

The executive director of the American Sephardi Federation, Jason Guberman, explains to Here & Now’s Jeremy Hobson what impact the bill would have if passed, how it’s different from legislation that came before it and what it means for Sephardic Jews around the world.

Guest: Jason Guberman, executive director of the American Sephardi Federation




“Ancient Chinese Community Celebrates Its Jewish Roots, and Passover”
By Becky Davis, New York Times

What was featured on this year’s Passover Seder menu in Kaifeng, China? “Soups with bamboo and huge chunks of fresh tofu, steamed fish and platters of crisp greens in mustard sauce.” Eight of the city’s clans claim to descend from Sephardim who assimilated and disappeared into local society at the end of the 19th century. Today, there is a mini-revival of interest in Judaism.

Tzuri (Heng) Shi, a member of the community who converted to Judaism and made aliyah, returned to Kaifeng from his Jerusalem home to lead this year’s seder (Photo courtesy of Shavei Israel)


Pepper, Silk & Ivory: Amazing Stories about Jews and the Far East

April 20th at 7:00PM
Center for Jewish History 
15 West 16th Street, New York, NY 


Join the American Sephardi Federation and Consulate General of Japan in New York for a discussion with Rabbi Marvin Toyaker and Ellen Rodman, co-authors of Pepper, Silk & Ivory, a new book exploring the colorful and captivating history of Jews in Asia.

Pepper, Silk & Ivory relates, frequently for the first time, little known yet fascinating stories of beauty queens, feisty primates, sacred texts, and state secrets:

Beate Sirota Gordon, the only woman in the room when the Japanese Constitution was being drafted, argued (and won) inclusion of rights for women and children 

“Two-Gun” Cohen, the “uncrowned Jewish King of China,” served as a general in the Chinese Army 
A Burmese synagogue boasted 126 Torah scrolls 

Emily “Mickey” Hahn, the brilliant, eccentric writer introduced China to the West with the help of an ever-present pet gibbon at her side 

Garcia d’Orta, a Sephardi physician in Portuguese India during the 1500s, pioneered pharmacology before his remains and effigy were burned as part of the Inquisition
 
Elected the first Chief Minister of Singapore, David Marshall, former president of the Jewish community, advocated for independence from the British 

The Iraqi-Jewish Kadoorie and Sassoon families are legendary for their foresight, business acumen, and generosity, all of which improved the quality of life for residents of Hong Kong and Shanghai 


RABBI MARVIN TOKAYER served as a U.S. Air Force chaplain before becoming the rabbi of the Jewish Community of Japan, a position he held for eight years before being named Lifetime Honorary Rabbi. He was vice president of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Southeast Asia and the Far East, a delegate to the World Conference of Religion & Peace, a delegate to the First International Conference of Science, Philosophy & Religion, and a board member of the Sino-Judaic Institute. Co-author (with Mary Swartz) of The Fugu Plan: The Untold Story of the Japanese and the Jews During World War II, Rabbi Tokayer has written 20 books on Judaica in Japanese, multiple articles for the Encyclopedia Judaica, and was a contributor to the PBS documentary, “Sugihara: A Conspiracy of Kindness.”

ELLEN RODMAN, Ph.D., is a writer/producer and president of LN Productions LLC, a production and media consulting company based in New York. She previously served as an executive at NBC, where she launched the first missing children’s campaign in connection with the broadcast of the made-for-television movie “Adam,” and at Group W, where she accepted a DuPont Columbia Award for “Whispering Hope,” the company’s programming and community outreach on Alzheimer’s Disease. She has written or co-authored numerous books and articles, and was the family entertainment reviewer for The New York Times.

Pictured above: Torah Ark, Congregation Ohel Shelomoh: The Jewish Community of Kansai, Kobe, Japan (Photo courtesy of Erin Okabe-Jawdat/Diarna Geo-Museum). 

http://diarna.org/exhibits  

 

 

 

ARCHAEOLOGY

Incredible New Artifacts Found In 2,000-Year-Old Mexican Tunnel 
Discovery Links Man to Americas for 36,000 Years by Thomas H. Maugh II
Oldest Human DNA Reveals Mysterious Branch of Humanity
DNA Analysis of the Paracas Skulls Proves They Are Not Human


Incredible New Artifacts Found In 2,000-Year-Old Mexican Tunnel

Incredible New Artifacts Found In 2,000-Year-Old Mexican Tunnel
George Dvorsky

 

For the past year, archaeologists have been working in a 2,000-year-old tunnel at the ancient Mexican city of Teotihuacan. The dig has yielded thousands of new relics and the discovery of three chambers that could hold more important finds. 

First, a little bit of history. Established around 100 B.C., the city of Teotihuacan dominated central Mexico until 750 A.D. At its height, around the first half of the first millennium AD, it was the largest city in the pre-Columbian Americas, with a population estimated at 125,000 — making it the sixth largest city in the world at the time. It began as a religious center, and came to be the most vibrant city in the New World. It's known for its architecturally significant Mesoamerican pyramids and its complex, multi-family residential compounds.

Today, it is an important archaeological site on the outskirts of Mexico City where researchers are still learning about this remarkable ancient city and its people. 

 

Incredible New Artifacts Found In 2,000-Year-Old Mexican Tunnel Incredible New Artifacts Found In 2,000-Year-Old Mexican Tunnel
Sergio Gomez and his team recently reached the end of a 340-foot (103 meter) long tunnel that was sealed some 2,000 years ago. They meticulously worked their way down its length, collecting relics like statues, seeds, pottery, sea shells, and animal bones. 
A large offering was found near the entrance, some 59 feet (18 meters) below the Temple of the Plumed Serpent. The archaeologists suspect it could be a tomb of the city's elite. It's there where the rules acquired divine endowment allowing them to rule on the surface, say the researchers. Archaeologists have yet to find any remains belonging to Teotihuacan's rulers.
Incredible New Artifacts Found In 2,000-Year-Old Mexican Tunnel Incredible New Artifacts Found In 2,000-Year-Old Mexican Tunnel
A large offering was found near the entrance, some 59 feet (18 meters) below the Temple of the Plumed Serpent. The archaeologists suspect it could be a tomb of the city's elite. It's there where the rules acquired divine endowment allowing them to rule on the surface, say the researchers. Archaeologists have yet to find any remains belonging to Teotihuacan's rulers.
"We have not lost hope of finding that, and if they are there, they must be from someone very, very important," Gomez noted in a statement.

To date, the team has only excavated only about two feet (60 cm) into the newly discovered chambers. Further exploration will require another full year.

 

Sent by John Inclan fromgalveston@yahoo.com 



Discovery Links Man to Americas for 36,000 Years
by Thomas H. Maugh II, Times Science Writer

Excavations on an Army base in southeastern New Mexico have provided dramatic new evidence that humans may have lived on the North American continent for at least 36,000 years, more than three times as long as many researchers now believe, a Massachusetts researcher said Wednesday.

Although other archeologists have reported evidence for such early colonization of the Americas, Richard MacNeish of the Andover Foundation for Archaeological Research said the new site--a cave--provides the most convincing evidence yet.

MacNeish uncovered a veritable condominium of human history--24 levels, complete with fireplaces, ranging from 39,000 years old on the first floor to 10,000 years old at the top. The site was dated by scientists from UC Riverside and UCLA.

Among the evidence extracted from the cave is the 24,000 year-old toe bone of a horse with an arrow point embedded in it and a clay fireplace, complete with what appears to be a human thumbprint, dating from 36,000 years ago.

"This is the earliest well-documented site in America," MacNeish said in a telephone interview. "We have found the first American Indian."

If the new date for man's arrival on the continent is correct, it means that humans would have traversed the Bering Strait from Asia under very severe climatic conditions--when the world was in an ice age. That suggests that early humans were an exceptionally hardy species able to cope with a broad range of adversity.

It also means that humans would have occupied North America during a period of at least 15 centuries in which sheets of ice extended over much of the continent, producing conditions grossly different than those of 12,000 years ago.

But the claim is likely to undergo severe criticism and intensive analysis before it is broadly accepted, other researchers said. Archeologists are sharply divided over when North American colonization occurred.

"This is one of the great controversies in science," according to archeologist Brian Fagan of UC Santa Barbara. "It raises great passions and lots of people don't speak to each other."

"It's something that at least half the archeologists in America will resist, despite the fact that MacNeish has excellent credentials," said anthropologist Russell Barber of Cal State San Bernardino.

The new site is 14 miles east of Orogrande, N.M., on the McGregor Firing Range, part of the Ft. Bliss (Tex.) Military Reservation. MacNeish was digging in the cave looking for pollen and other plant remains because of his interest in documenting the beginnings of agriculture in the Southwest.

"But when we got about a meter down, we began to hit extinct animal bones," he said. The researchers subsequently excavated 24 different floors, each distinguished by burned charcoal from the fire pits. "The stratigraphy is as (convincing) as anyone has dug anywhere," he said.

"The bottom 14 floors have extinct animals, including horses, camels, tapirs, llamas, and dire wolves," he noted. Among the 24 levels, each of which is separated by two to five inches of dust and dirt, they have found 11 hearths, apparently dug by humans.

"We have checked the logs in them and four have logs more than four inches in diameter," indicating they were too big to have been brought in by animals, he said.

The clay lining appears to bear a human thumbprint, he said. The researchers have sent a copy of it to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police forensics laboratory to determine whether it is a human print, he said.

MacNeish and his colleagues have also found 275 artifacts that they believe to be tools used by the early inhabitants of the cave. "Of the 200, 90 are of foreign materials (from outside the cave), some from geological formations more than 10 miles away," he said.

Before MacNeish's discovery, the most convincing evidence for early colonization of North America came from the Meadowcroft Rockshelter near Pittsburgh, which might have been occupied more than 19,600 years ago. Other sites in Mexico and Chile have been reported to be as much as 33,000 years old, but many archeologists remain unconvinced of their authenticity.

It seems likely that MacNeish's results will be similarly challenged. "That's the way the scientific game is played," said geographer Ronald Dorn of Arizona State University, who has himself reported early habitation in the Southwest. "It's just good clean fun."

http://articles.latimes.com/1991-05-02/news/mn-1459_1_north-america 



Oldest Human DNA Reveals Mysterious Branch of Humanity
By April Holloway, December, 2013


A new landmark study has revealed the oldest known human DNA ever to be found, dating back approximately 400,000 years – substantially older than the previous earliest human DNA from a 100,000-year-old Neanderthal. Initial analysis on the DNA reveals a complex and confusing interbreeding of species which took place in our ancient past, and scientists are still scratching their heads over exactly what kind of species the DNA belonged to.

The genetic material came from the bone of a hominin found in Sima de los Huesos, the “bone pit”, which is a cave site in Northern Spain that has yielded the world’s largest assembly of hominin fossils from the Middle Pleistocene, consisting of at last 28 skeletons.

Until now, it has not been possible to study the DNA of these unique hominins, however, scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology were able to use novel techniques to extract the DNA and have determined an almost complete mitochondrial genome sequence of a 400,000-year-old representative of the Homo genus.

The researchers then compared the DNA with Neanderthals, Denisovans, present-day humans and apes, and found that the individual shared a common ancestor with the Denisovans, a relatively newfound relative of humans who are thought to have lived in the vast expanse from Siberia to Southeast Asia. This was unexpected since the skeletal remains carry Neanderthal-derived features. In addition, this fossil was uncovered in Europe and not eastern Asia where it was believed the Denisovans lived. 

"This opens up completely new possibilities in our understanding of the evolution of modern humans, Neanderthals and Denisovans," said study lead author Matthias Meyer, a molecular biologist.

The researchers suggest a number of possible explanations for these findings. First, this specimen may have been a close relative of the Denisovans. However, this seems unlikely because it would mean they lived alongside Neanderthals without having close genetic ties to them.

Second, the Sima de los Huesos humans may be related to the ancestors of both Neanderthals and Denisovans, but they would then have to explain how two very different DNA lineages stemmed from one group, one leading to Denisovans, the other to Neanderthals.

Third, the humans found at the Sima de los Huesos may be a lineage distinct from both Neanderthals and Denisovans that later perhaps contributed DNA to Denisovans. However, this suggests the group was distinct from Neanderthals but also independently evolved several Neanderthal-like features.

Fourth, the investigators suggest a currently unknown species brought Denisovan-like DNA into the Pit of Bones region, and possibly also to the Denisovans in Asia. This is the second study this month which has found evidence of a species currently unknown to science which bred with ancient human ancestors.

"The story of human evolution is not as simple as we would have liked to think," Meyer said. "This result is a big question mark. In some sense, we know less about the origins of Neanderthals and Denisovans than we knew before."

The scientists detailed their findings in the Dec. 5 issue of the journal Nature.
By April Holloway
http://www.ancient-origins.net/news-evolution-human-origins/oldest-human-dna-reveals-mysterious-branch-humanity-001090 



paracas-e1425223602244.jpeg (650×206)

DNA Analysis of the Paracas Skulls Proves They Are Not Human
March 2, 2015


On the southern coast of Peru lies the desert peninsula of Paracas. This barren landscape is where Peruvian archaeologist Julio Tello made an astounding discovery in 1928. His efforts uncovered a massive and complex graveyard buried under the sand and rocks.

In these tombs Tello found some of the most controversial human(?) remains in history. The bodies had the largest elongated skulls in the world and have since been called the Paracas skulls. Tello found a total of more than 300 skulls and they have been dated at around 3,000 years old. A recent DNA analysis performed on some of those skulls has presented amazing results that could challenge the current perspective of the human evolutionary tree.

Several other cultures have practiced skull elongation or deformation but the techniques they used produced different results. Certain South American tribes used to bind infants’ skulls in order to change their shape. Binding the head between pieces of wood modified the appearance of skulls by applying constant pressure over a long period of time. This type of cranial deformation changed the shape but it did not alter the size, weight or cranial volume; these are all standard characteristics of a regular human skull.

The Paracas skulls are different. Their craniums are 25% larger and 60% heavier than regular human skulls which led researchers to believe they couldn’t have been modified through binding. They are also structurally different and only have one parietal plate as opposed to the two normally found in human skulls. These differences have deepened the decade-old mystery around the Paracas skulls and researchers haven’t been able to explain their origins.

The director of the Paracas History Museum has sent samples from 5 skulls to undergo genetic testing. The samples consisted of hair, skin, teeth and fragments of skull bones. The genetic laboratory was not informed about the samples’ origins in order to avoid biased or influenced results. The results were fascinating.

The mitochondrial DNA (inherited from the mother) presented mutations unknown to any man, primate or any other animal. The mutations suggested we are dealing with a completely new human-like being, very distant from Homo sapiens, Neanderthals or Denisovans. The Paracas individuals were so biologically different from humans they wouldn’t have been able to interbreed. “I am not sure it will even fit into the known evolutionary tree”, one geneticist added.
The implications of this discovery are huge. Who were the mysterious Paracas people? Did they evolve here on Earth on a path so different from us that they ended up looking drastically different? If not, where did they come from? Are any of them left?

This breakthrough brings up more questions than it answers but counts as another piece of evidence suggesting that we are not alone.

http://topinfopost.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/paracas-e1425223602244.jpeg 
Sent by John Inclan  fromgalveston@yahoo.com


 

   


MEXICO

Cook Islands: A Comic Strip Star by Galal Kernahan, 2/20/1984Monasteries of Mexico: Dominican priory of San Juan Bautista Coixtlahuaca in Oaxaca
Facebook with Mexico's Northern Mexico Researchers
José Antonio Serrano Ortega, Nuevo Presidente del COLMICH
Restos hallados en exconvento sí son de Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz
Defunción de Doña Josefa Sanchez Viuda del Exmo. Don Juan O Donojú
Defunción de Don Mariano Ramos Arizpe y Valdez
Nombramiento del Licenciado Gómez de Santillán
El Soldado Abanderado, Porfirio Morales
Diligencias Matrimoniales, leídas en tres dias festivos las moniciones
Matrimonio de Don Ygnacio de Urrutia y Doña Rosa Sanchez Navarro
Murieron Hace 100 Anos, las imágenes de los registros de las defunciones.
Nombres Antiguos y Modernos de Las Villas


COOK ISLANDS: 
A COMIC STRIP STAR 
by Galal Kernahan, TIEMPO, 2/20/1984

During the 1970s, Mexicans were enraptured by, suffered with and shared the thrills of beautiful Queen Rarotonga in the illustrated pages of the weekly TEARS, LAUGHTER AND LOVE and movies filmed not in the South Seas 
but Guatemala.
On poster and screen, a gorgeous, sexy, semi-savage danced under a full moon while men dueled with bullwhips for a night of her love. This creature, as full-bodied and exquisite as fictitious, was the creation of Guillermo de la Parra Loya, president of the "Editorial Argumentos del Grupo Vid" company.

She was a huge hit. Circulation topped a million making Rarotonga "one of the firm's greatest successes." A company report issued four years ago noted the series "had an impact studied by psychologists and sociologists. It involved a hyped-up, imaginary character that cast such a spell on the public, especially young people, that many adopted her personality. Her hairdo became famous al over Mexico."

As portrayed on screen by showgirl "Gloriella," the Rarotonga story was literally .. .unreal. TIEMPO Correspondent Galal Kernahan recently returned from Rarotonga, capital island of the Cook Islands 5000 kilometers south of Hawaii. In this corner of the Pacific, there are three queens not one. All are well brought-up and committed to their Polynesian culture. Doings of their "Mexican sister" startle or amuse them. They are grandmothers, who look with indulgent curiosity at this strange, wild "Rarotonga" who so fascinates inhabitants of faraway Mexico.

A Paradise in the Pacific. The Cook Islands is an independent 15-island country in Free Association with New Zealand. It has a population of 17,000, its own flag and national anthem. It mints coins and issues postage stamps. Visitors arrive at a modern international airport.

It is progressive, has signed the Treaty of the Law of the Seas, and communicates with the rest of the world by satellite. Almost all its citizens are bilingual in English and Maori.

Rarotonga nobles are called "ariki." The country is governed by a bicameral legislature made up of a popularly elected Parliament and the House of Ariki, which brings to the attention of the lawmakers the counsel and recommendations of the traditional aristocracy. The queen of Rarotonga's Takitumu District, "Pa Ariki," is current president of the Legislature's upper house as well as wife of the Prime Minister, world-famous scientist Sir Thomas Davis, medical director for the inaugural Project Mercury series of U.S. manned space flights.

A Long Road to Nobility. "Pa Ariki" told TIEMPO's correspondent that she grew up in New Zealand, where she hoped to be an executive secretary and "modern." "I had no desire to return to Rarotonga and even less to take on the responsibilities of being an 'ariki,' which I considered old-fashioned. However, despite my rebelliousness, other 'ariki' and my own Takitumu people patiently waited for me to mature and recognize the importance of my ancestral calling." The island aristocracy, she explained, exercises social and moral influence, not political power. "Our people consult us about a great variety of matters from landholding to traditional ethical issues. Out of affection and respect, they make sure we are aware of everything going on in our communities."


According to "Pa Ariki," her people are proud and protective of what ancestral nobility means for their society. She recounted that on the eve of the announcement her husband was to be knighted by Queen Elizabeth II "my people thought about it and said it would be inappropriate for me to end up known as 'Lady Davis.' Their reasoning was that "the Queen could bestow a title on a farm animal, which would hold it until it died." Advisors to "Pa Ariki" solved the protocol problem by reasoning that use of the title 'Lady Pa' might be permissible on certain occasions and that some Maori noble title might be granted the •Prime Minister, which would make him a subject of'Pa Ariki.'"


She wound up the interview comparing herself with Mexico's fictional character. "As you see, 1 do not have green eyes, nor an Afro hairdo, nor am I of Negro-Dutch descent, as is my Mexican sister. And in spite of the wonderful adventures of this other 'Rarotonga,' I prefer to be what I am: "A 20th century woman rooted in a rich and worthy culture."

(At the time this was published by TIEMPO in Mexico City, it also appeared in English in the PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY in Suva, Fiji.)

 



Major Monasteries of Mexico
Dominican priory of San Juan Bautista Coixtlahuaca in Oaxaca

\
Arts of Colonial Mexico
http://colonialmexico.blogspot.com

Now a sparsely populated village, in prehispanic times Coixtlahuaca was an important religious center. According to tradition, and as Coixtlahuaca's place name suggests, this was the site of a celebrated temple devoted either to Quetzalcoatl, the Plumed Serpent, or the regional motif of Entwined Serpents.
  
 When the Dominicans arrived here in the 1540s, they appropriated the ancient site for their new monastic complex. Fray Antonio de Serna and Fray Francisco Marin, the architects of Yanhuitlan, drew up the plans and by the end of the decade construction was under way.

http://colonialmexico.blogspot.com/2015/03/coixtlahuaca-priory-of-san-juan-bautista.html 
Richard Perry



Facebook with Mexico's Northern Mexico Researchers

https://www.facebook.com/SociedadGenealogicaydeHistoriaFamiliardeMexico
Benicio Samuel Sánchez García
Genealogista e Historiador Familiar

Email: samuelsanchez@genealogia.org.mx
Website: http://www.Genealogia.org.mx  y http://www.GenealogiaDeMexico.com
Celular Monterrey :  044  811 191 6334  
Otras Ciudades de Mexico : 045 81 1 191 6334
USA 01152+1+81+1191 6334)

 




José Antonio Serrano Ortega, Nuevo Presidente del COLMICH


Zamora, Michoacán, 14 de abril, 2015.- El Dr. José Antonio Serrano Ortega, profesor investigador del Centro de Estudios Históricos de El Colegio de Michoacán, (COLMICH), tomó posesión como Presidente de esa Institución.

En reunión extraordinaria sesionó el día de hoy la Junta Académica del COLMICH y, posteriormente, en Ceremonia de toma de protesta, el Dr. Salvador Emilio Lluch, Director de Coordinación Sectorial de Conacyt, en representación del Dr. Enrique Cabrero Mendoza, Director General de Conacyt, dio posesión al nuevo Presidente del COLMICH para el periodo comprendido del 14 de abril de 2015 al 14 de abril de 2021. 

El Dr. Lluch Cota, reconoció la gestión del Dr. Martín Sánchez Rodríguez por su desempeño al frente de la institución, así como la participación de los tres aspirantes a la presidencia.

Por su parte, el Dr. José Antonio Serrano, agradece a todos los que participaron de una u otra forma el proceso de selección, auscultación, y toma de decisión, para el nuevo cargo. Pensar, reflexionar y criticar, fueron las líneas de trabajo que se fijaron los tres candidatos a la presidencia, y que ahora el Dr. Serrano pondrá en marcha. Su lema será “El todos siempre va a estar presente”. Es decir, estará en contacto con todo el personal, tanto académico como administrativo. Y para finalizar, pide que haya esperanza para lograr juntos el objetivo deseado. 

El Dr. José Antonio Serrano Ortega, es Licenciado en Historia por la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México y Doctor en Historia por El Colegio de México. Ha editado y publicado varios libros sobre la historia política, militar y fiscal de México en el siglo XIX y acerca de las guerras de independencia en la América española. Actualmente desarrolla la investigación “Indios laboríos y pueblos de indios en Guanajuato, 1690-1850”. Sistema Nacional de Investigadores Nivel 2

Recientemente y en paralelo a su labor de profesor-investigador, el Dr. Serrano Ortega se ha desempeñado en algunos cargos administrativos dentro del COLMICH, como Coordinador Académico del Doctorado en Ciencias Sociales, Coordinador Académico del Centro de Estudios Históricos y del Doctorado en Historia.

Proceso de selección

El pasado 26 de marzo se llevó acabo la Auscultación Interna, los doctores Gustavo López Castro, (Centro de Estudios Rurales), Efraín Cárdenas García (Centro de Estudios Arqueológicos) y José Antonio Serrano Ortega (Centro de Estudios Históricos) del COLMICH, aspirantes a la Presidencia de la Institución, expuesieron ante la Comunidad Colmichiana sus programas de trabajo para el periodo 2015-2021. Con ello concluyó la etapa de auscultación interna para la selección del nuevo Presidente. El 7 de abril, los aspirantes se reunieron con el Grupo de Auscultación Externa; el pasado 9 de abril, los aspirantes se entrevistaron con el Director General del Conacyt, Dr. Enrique Cabrero Mendoza, y el día de hoy, en sesión extraordinaria de la Junta Directiva del COLMICH, se dio a conocer el nombramiento del Dr. José Antonio Serrano Ortega como nuevo Presidente del COLMICH.

Para mayor información: 
L.I.A. Eva Alcantar Muñoz
Área de Producción Multimedia
El Colegio de Michoacán, A.C.
Martínez de Navarrete No. 505
Fracc. Las Fuentes
59699 Zamora, Michoacán.
Telefono: 01 351 51 571 00 ext 1765
Cerro de Nahuatzen 85, Fracc. Jardines del Cerro Grande,59379, 
La Piedad, Michoacán, México
Teléfono: 01(351) 51 571 00 ext 1765
multimedia@colmich.edu.mx
www.colmich.edu.mx
 

Benicio Samuel Sánchez García
Genealogista e Historiador Familiar
Email: samuelsanchez@genealogia.org.mx 
Website: http://www.Genealogia.org.mx  y http://www.GenealogiaDeMexico.com  
Celular Monterrey : 044 ?811 191 6334 
Otras Ciudades de Mexico : 045 81 1 191 6334
USA 01152+1+81+1191 6334)



Restos hallados en exconvento sí son de Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz
Estilo de Vida: Redaccion Sdpnoticias.com, March 14, 2015


Expertos del INAH corroboraron que los restos encontrados en los años 70 en las excavaciones del extemplo de San Jerónimo son de la Décima Musa.

México.- Los restos de la Décima Musa fueron descubiertos por el antropólogo físico Arturo Romano Pacheco en 1974, en medio de los trabajos de excavación en la iglesia del exconvento de San Jerónimo, hoy Universidad del Claustro de Sor Juana.

La rectora de la Universidad del Claustro de Sor Juana, Beatriz López-Portillo aseguró que la investigación sobre los restos de la Décima Musa está terminada, “hasta que la ciencia avance y pueda desarrollar el método que disipe las mínimas dudas”.

En la presentación de la conmemoración del 320 aniversario de la muerte de Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (1651-1695), López-Portillo aseveró que a la fecha, "existe el 99 por ciento de seguridad sobre la autenticidad de los restos que tenemos como pertenecientes a la escritora y monja jerónima".

Dijo también la identificación de los restos se dio con base a las evidencias de tipo arqueológico y del propio estudio del esqueleto, especialmente el cráneo, a través de la aplicación de técnicas de antropología forense. Así también se estudiaron los restos de varias osamentas encontradas en el lugar de lo que ahora es la Universidad del Claustro de Sor Juana.

En cuanto al estudio integral del esqueleto, los expertos del INAH corroboraron, mediante estudios de antropología forense, la edad de los restos y confirmó que se trataba de una mujer con el mismo número de años de la poeta jerónima al momento de fallecer.

Los cerca de 200 huesos de la osamenta de la Décima Musa serán regresados al Extemplo de San Jerónimo, luego de los estudios que se realizaron.

En el marco de esa celebración, se rendirá homenaje póstumo a los antropólogos físicos del INAH, Arturo Romano Pacheco y María Teresa Jaén.

Con Información de La Jornada y El Universal
http://www.sdpnoticias.com/estilo-de-vida/2015/04/14/restos-hallados-en-exconvento-si-son-de-sor-juana-ines-de-la-cruz 

Information sent by Mercy Bautista Olvera 




Defunción de Doña Josefa Sanchez Viuda del Exmo. Don Juan O Donojú
Envío a Uds. el registro eclesiástico de la defunción de Doña Josefa Sanchez Viuda del Exmo. Don Juan O Donojú ( O´ Donohue y O´Ryan ), acaecida en la Cd. de México el año de 1842. 

Márgen izq. La Exma Señora Da. Josefa Sanches de 
O Donojú Viuda.
Semana del S. Cura Dr. Dn. Manuel Ygn°. de la Orta.
En veinte y uno de Agosto de mil ochocientos cuarenta y dos hechas las exequias en la Capilla de Santa Paula, se le dió sepultura Eclesiastica en el Panteon de dicha al cadaver de la Exma Sa. Da. Josefa Sanches de O Donojú Viuda del Exmo. S. D. Juan O Donojú la que habiendo recibido los Stos. Sacramentos murió hoy Calle del Seminario No. Siete. Dr. Manuel Ygn°. de la Orta.
 

Fuentes. Family Search. Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los últimos Días. 
Investigó. 
Tte. Corl. Intdte. Ret. Ricardo R. Palmerín Cordero.
Miembro de Sociedad Genealógica y de Historia Familiar de México y de la Sociedad de Genealogía de Nuevo León.




DEFUNCION de DON MARIANO RAMOS ARIZPE Y VALDEZ.


LIBRO DE DEFUNCIONES DEL CEDRAL, S.L.P.
 
Márgen izq. S. Juan        D. Mariano Ramos.          Adulto
En la Capilla de la Hacienda de San Juan de Vanegas á veintidos de Junio de mil ochocientos sesenta y siete. Yo el Pbro. D. Jesus Esparza Cura interino de esta Villa dí sepultura eclesiástica a D. Mariano Ramos Arizpe y Valdez, adulto de setenta y siete años, originario de la Villa de Ramos Arizpe en el Estado de Coahuila de Zaragoza, murió de un ataque cerebral el día veintiuno del presente mes deja Viuda a la Sra. Da. Lugarda Valdez, se confesó y Santoleo, lo que firmo para constancia. Jesus Esparza.
 
Investigó. 
Fuentes. Family Search. Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los últimos Días.
Tte. Corl. Intdte. Ret. Ricardo R. Palmerín Cordero.
duardos43@hotmail.com
Miembro de Sociedad Genealógica y de Historia Familiar de México y de la Sociedad de Genealogía de Nuevo León. 




Nombramiento del Licenciado Gómez de Santillán

Mimi,  I found this info on the Spanish portal. I included my own input

Título de la unidad: "Nombramiento del Licenciado Gómez de Santillán" 
Archivo: Archivo General de Indias
Signatura: CONTRATACION,5787,N.1,L.4,F.123-124
Fecha Creación: 1543-3-1 Madrid
Nombramiento del Licenciado Gómez de Santillán como oidor de la Audiencia de México.
Título de la unidad: "EMPLAZAMIENTO AL LICENCIADO SANTILLAN" 
Archivo: Archivo General de Indias
Signatura: PATRONATO,281,N.1,R.68
Fecha Creación: 1551-11-19 Madrid
Real Provisión de emplazamiento al licenciado [Gómez de] Santillán, oidor de la audiencia de México, a Don Diego de Guevara y Gonzalo de las Casas y a sus hijas y herederas en el pleito que tratan con Alvaro Ponce de León. (Copia)

Doctor Goméz de Santillán y Orta, Autor de las «Ordenánzas de Santillán» en Tlaxcala, México (3 Mar 1545) Miembro del Consejo de Indias FUENTE Los Americanos en Las órdenes Nobiliarias por Guillermo Lohmann Villena, Francisco de Solano
Editorial CSIC - CSIC Press, 1997
"Gómez de Santillán Orta, que se traslada temporariamente a México donde tiene una destacada actuación como Oidor, jurista y legislador en la Audiencia real de México y deja, allí familia( a Pedro) para regresar a España y asumir en el Real y Supremo Consejo de Indias desde el 11-03-1572 al 4-03-1586, fecha de su fallecimiento. Este Gómez de Santillán , en España, era Oidor de la real Cancillería de Granada y presidente de la Real Casa de Contrataciones de Sevilla de 1581 a 1584, y otros cargos, en su paso por México lo vemos actuar como oidor en 1556 en el sonado caso de Levantamiento de Tenamaztle, y antes como alcalde de la ciudad de México en los tiempos del Virrey Hurtado de Mendoza" El Legado de un Símbolo por Pedro A. Pernigotti Olmedo . Santiago del Estero 2012 .

El dotor se caso/married con Maria de Barrios-Suarez, hija/daughter de Conquistador Andres de Barrios y Leonor Suarez-de-Avila-y-Pacheco.
Otra/another hija/daughter de Andres y Leonor, Isabel de Barrios-y-Suarez se caso/married con Regidor de Mexico, Diego de Guevara-y-Tovar
La hija/the daughter de Diego de Guevara y Isabel Barrios, Mariana de Guevara-y-Barrios, ella se caso/married con Juan Alonso (Sosa) de Estrada, Segundo Tesorero Real de Mexico. (My maternal ancestors via the Sanchez/Cavazos family of Laredo, Texas & Reynosa, Mexico)

Sincerely, Johnny Inclan
fromgalveston@yahoo.com




El Soldado Abanderado, Porfirio Morales


Hace 100 años murió el Soldado Abanderado del Noveno Regimiento Porfirio Morales, perteneciente a la Brigada Ricaut del Ejército Constitucionalista, era originario de Progreso, Coahuila.


Envío y transcribo el Acta Número 83 del Registro Civil de la Cd. de Laredo, Tamps.


En la Ciudad de Laredo de Tamaulipas á los (7) siete días del mes de Abril de (l,915) mil novecientos quince y á horas que son las (5) cinco de la tarde ante mí Abraham E. Tamez, Juez del Registro Civil de esta municipalidad, compareció el Señor Atanacio Robles, de (21) veintiun años de edad, soltero, soldado del (9°) Noveno Regimiento del Ejército Constitucionalista de la Brigada Ricaut, originario de la Hacienda de Hermanas, Coahuila, y vecino de esta y manifestó: que en el Hospital Militar de esta Ciudad, á las (3) tres de la mañana de hoy, falleció el Señor Porfirio Morales, de (18) diez y ocho años de edad, soltero, Soldado Abanderado, perteneciente al (9°) Noveno Regimiento de la Brigada Ricaut, originario de la Villa de Progreso, Coahuila, y vecino que fué de esta, hace (6) seis meses, hijo legítimo de los Señores Antonio Morales y Cristina, cuyo apellido dice el exponente, no acordarse de él, vecinos del citado punto de Progreso; agregando el exponente: que el fallecimiento del expresado soldado, fué á consecuencia de herida en los intestinos con arma de fuego, segun el certificado del médico que exhibe y queda archivado en este Juzgado. I á solicitud del exponente se le dará sepultura al cadáver, en el (4°) cuarto tramo, del Cementerio de esta Ciudad, mañana á las (7) siete de la mañana. Todo lo que hice constar por la presente acta, que levanté en presencia de los testigos Señores Sabás Ramirez y Matías Martinez, mayores de edad, casados, empleados, y ambos de esta vecindad, quienes de conformidad con su contenido, leída que les fué, la firmaron conmigo el Juez solamente los testigos, no haciéndolo el declarante porque dijo no saber. Doy Fé. Abraham E. Tamez- Matías Martinez.- Sabás Ramirez.- Rubricas. Es copia sacada de su original. Ciudad Laredo, Tamaulipas, (7) siete de Abril de (1,915) mil novecientos quince. Doy Fé. Abraham E. Tamez. 


Fuentes. Family Search. Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los últimos Días.
Investigó: Tte. Corl. Intdte. Ret. Ricardo R. Palmerín Cordero.
Miembro de Sociedad Genealógica y de Historia Familiar de México y de la Sociedad de Genealogía de Nuevo León.



Diligencias Matrimoniales, leídas en tres dias festivos las moniciones

Genealogistas e Historiadores, Con mi agradecimiento a nuestro Primo Mr. John D. Inclan, por enviar los datos para localizar estos registros de importantes familias de nuestras tierras del Noreste: Santiago, N.L.  Fuentes. Family Search. Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de Los últimos Días.

           ~Tte. Corl. Intdte. Ret. Ricardo R. Palmerín Cordero.

En esta Parroquia de Santiago en onze de Noviembre de 1835, practicadas las Diligencias Matrimoniales, leídas en tres dias festivos las moniciones que previene el Santo Concilio de Trento, y no habiendo resultado otro impedimento distinto á mas del de tres parentescos de consanguinidad, dos en tercer grado ygual y otro en quarto grado ygual, de los que fueron dispensados por el Sor. Dn. José Ygnacio Sanchez Navarro Cura propio de la Ciudad de Leona Vicario, y Gobernador de esta Sagrada Mitra por el Ylustrisimo Señor Don Fray José María de Jesús Belaunzarán Dignisimo Obispo de Monterrey; Casé y Velé infacie eclesie y en tiempo habil a Dn. Ygnacio Salazar, hijo legmo. de Dn. Gabriel Salazar ( finado ) y de Da. Ygnacia Escamilla: con Da. Ma. de la Luz Escamilla, ambos de esta feligresía, hija legma. de Dn. Rafael Escamilla y de Da. Ma. Antonia Morales, fueron testigos matrimoniales Dn. Francisco Garza y Dn. Froylán Cabázos y para constancia firmé.  José Ma. Nuin
En esta Parroquia de Santiago en diez y ocho de Enero de 1836: practicadas las Diligencias Matrimoniales, leídas en tres dias festivos las moniciones que previene el Concilio de Trento, y no habiendo resultado otro impedimento distinto, á mas del de un parentesco de consanguinidad en quarto grado igual, del que fueron dispensados por el Sor. Dn. José Ygnacio Sanchez Navarro Cura propio de la Ciudad de Leona Vicario, y Gobernador de esta Sagrada Mitra, por el Ylmo. Sor. Don Fray José María de Jesús Belaunzarán Dignisimo Obispo de Monterrey; Casé y Velé á Dn. Tomás Caballero hijo legmo. de Dn. José María Caballero y de Da. Tereza Flores ( ambos finados ): con Da. Secundina Saldivar, ambos de esta feligresía, hija legma. de Dn. Juan José Saldivar, y de Da. Ygnacia Gomez ( finada ): fueron testigos matrimoniales Dn. Victoriano Flores y Dn. Froylán Cabázos. y para que conste lo firmé. José Ma. Nuin. 

Nota. La Ciudad de Saltillo, Coah. en esa época llevó el nombre de Leona Vicario, en Honor de la Exma. Heroina forjadora  de la Independencia de México, de quien envío el registro eclesiástico de su defunción investigado por el suscrito.
 
Márgen izq. La Exma. Da. Maria Leona Vicario. casada
" En veinte y cinco de Agosto de mil ochocientos cuarenta y dos, hechas las exequias en la Capilla de Santa Paula, se le dió sepultura Eclesiástica en el Panteon de dicha al cadaver de la Exma Señora Doña Maria Leona Vicario, casada que fué con el Exmo. Sor. Ministro de la Alta Corte Don Andres Quintana Roó la que habiendo recibido los Santos Sacramentos murió la noche del día veinte y uno del corriente en la Calle de los Sepulcros de Santo Domingo Núm° dos".  Dr. Manuel Ygn°. de la Orta.
Tte. Corl. Intdte. Ret. Ricardo R. Palmerín Cordero.
Miembro de la Sociedad Genealógica y de Historia Familiar de México y de la Sociedad de Genealogía de Nuevo León.

 




Matrimonio de Don Ygnacio de Urrutia y Doña Rosa Sanchez Navarro

Genealogistas e Historiadores.  Con mi agradecimiento a nuestro Primo Mr. John D. Inclan, por los datos enviados para localizar este documento.

Envío la imagen del registro del matrimonio de Don Ygnacio de Urrutia y Doña Rosa Sanchez Navarro, efectuado en la Yglesia Parroquial de la Villa de Santiago del Saltillo el año de 1747.

Fuentes. Family Seach. Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los últimos Días.

" En la Yga. Parrochial de la Villa de Santiago del Saltillo, en diez y seis dias del mes de Octubre de setecientos y quarenta y siete a. Case y vele Infacie Eclesie en tiempo devido a Dn Ygn° de Urrutia español originario y vezino de esta villa, hijo legitimo del Capitan Dn Joseph de Urrutia, y de Da Rosa Flores de Baldes, con Da Rosa Sanchez Navarro española originaria y vezina de esta villa hija legitima de Dn Pedro Sanchez Navarro, y de Da Petronila Gomez; haviendo presedido todas las diligencias en derecho dispuestas de las que no resulto impedimento alguno confesaron y comulgaron y fueron testigos a la celebracion de dho Matrimonio Dn Joseph Bentura Sanchez Navarro y D Franc° Gomez y muchos otros mas y lo firmé ". Phelipe Suarez de Estrada.
Tte. Corl. Intdte. Ret. Ricardo R. Palmerín Cordero.  duardos43@hotmail.com 
Miembro de Sociedad Genealógica y de Historia Familiar de México y de la Sociedad de Genealogía de Nuevo León.




MURIERON HACE 100 AÑOS.
Envío las imágenes de los registros de las defunciones.
los Revolucionarios del Ejército Constitucionalista

El año de 1915 murieron y fueron sepultados en la Cd. de Laredo, Tamps, los Revolucionarios del Ejército Constitucionalista: General de Brigada Maclovio Herrera Cano, Teniente Coronel Ricardo Ayala y Capitán 2° Saturnino Chavez asistente del Gral. Herrera; registros efectuados por el Sr. D. Abraham E. Tamez Juez del Registro Civil de dicha Ciudad de acuerdo con la solicitud hecha por el Tte. Corl. D. González del Juzgado Instructor Militar para que se les diera sepultura en el Cementerio.

A continuación transcribo sus datos personales y las causas de las defunciones.
19 de Abril de 1915. Registro de la defunción del General de Brigada del Ejército Constitucionalista Maclovio Herrera, muerto el diez y siete, á las once de la mañana al poniente de la Cd. en las lomas que estan al norte del rastro: murió de una herida de arma de fuego y por lesiones que sufrió al caer del caballo en que montaba. los datos de su filiación: nació en San Juanico, Distrito de Parral Chih. el 15 de Noviembre de 1879, General de Brigada del Ejército Constitucionalista, casado con María Galindo, que vive en Parral, Chih. de cuyo matrimonio dejó como hijos á : Maclovio, Eva, Adan y David, todos menores de 14 años, e hijo legítimo de José de la Luz Herrera y de Florencia Cano que viven en Parral Chih., el cadáver será sepultado en el lugar día y hora que sus deudos designen y disposición de quienes quedó el cadáver embalsamado que fué. ( Márgen izq. hoy 25 de Abril de 1915 se libró la orden para que el cadáver del Gral. de Bgda. Maclovio Herrera fuera sepultado en el Cementerio de Laredo en el primer tramo a las dos de la tarde, a solicitud del Señor Zeferino Herrera hermano del difunto ).

19 de Abril de 1915. Registro de la defunción del Tte. Cor. Ricardo Ayala del Ejército Constitucionalista, muerto hoy a consecuencia de heridas recibidas en el combate de Huizachito, los datos de su media filiación son : casado de 29 años de edad, originario de San Luis Potosí, perteneciente a la Brigada Garza. será inhumado en el primer tramo del Cementerio de esta Ciudad hoy a las seis de la tarde.

 


17 de Abril de 1915. Registro de la defunción del Capitán 2° Saturnino Chavez, asistente del General Herrera de 24 años de edad y originario de Parral, Chih., la inhumación de este cadáver deberá verificarse hoy en el cuarto tramo del Cementerio a las seis de la tarde, murió por heridas de armas de fuego.
Fuentes. Family Search. Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los últimos Días.
Investigó. Tte. Corl. Intdte. Ret. Ricardo R. Palmerín Cordero.
Miembro de Sociedad Genealógica y de Historia Familiar de México y de la Sociedad d Genealogía de Nuevo León.




NOMBRES ANTIGUOS Y MODERNOS DE LAS VILLAS

ANTIGUO:               MODERNO:

NTRA. SRA.DE GUADALUPE DE LAS SALINAS. ....... SALINAS VICTORIA, N.L.
NTRA. SRA.DE GUADALUPE (MI5ION). GUADALUPE, N.L.
NTRA. SRA.DE LA CONCEPCION » . . AGUALEGUAS,  N.L. 
NTRA. SRA.DE LAS CALDAS. .... ALTAMIRA, TAM.
NTRA. SRA.DE LOS DOLORES DE LA PUNTA DE LAMPAZOS. . . . LAMPAZOS DE NARANJO, N.L.
NTRA. SRA.DE LORETO. ...... BURGOS, TAM.
NTRA. SRA.DEL PUEBLITO ..... HIDALGO, N.L.
NTRA. SRA.DEL REFUGIO DE.AGUAYO. CD. VICTORIA, TAM. 
NTRA. SRA.DEL REFUGIO (CONGREG.) MATAMOROS, TAM. 
NTRA. SRA.DEL ROSARIO SANTILLANA ABASOLO, TAM. 
NTRA. SRA.DEL ROSARIO (VILLA). . JUAREZ, N.L. 
NUEVA TLAXCALA DE NTRA.SRA. DE GUADA LUPE DE HORCASITAS. . GUADALUPE, N.L.
 NUEVO ALMADEN. ......... MONCLOVA, COAH.
NUEVO REYNO DE LEON. ...... Estado de NUEVO LEON.

PABLILLO (HACIENDA). ...... GALEANA, N.L.
PALCUAY (CONGREGACION) ..... QUINTERO, TAM.
PASO DEL CANTARO ........ MIER, TAM.
PASO DEL ZACATE. ........ DR. COSS, N.L.
PESQUERIA CHICA. ........ PESQUERIA, N.L.
PESQUERIA GANDE. ........ VILLA DE GARCIA, N.L.
PILON (VALLE DEL). ....... MONTEMORELOS, N.L.
POTRERO DE LAS NUECES. ..... SAN CARLOS, TAM.
PRESAS DEL KEY (VILLA) ..... ALDAMA, TAM.
PUERTO DE SAN JUAN ....... CADEREYTA, N.L.(ORIGINAL)
PUNTA DE LAMPAZOS. ....... LAMPAZOS DE NARANJO, N.L.
PUNTIAGUDO (RANCHO DEL). .... GENERAL TREVINO, N.L.
PURISIMA CONCEPCION (HACIENDA) . DR. ARROYO, N.L.

RAMOS (HACIENDA DE)....... DR. GONZALEZ, N.L.
RANCHO DE CHINA. ........ CHINA, N.L.
RANCHO DEL TORO. ........ GRAL. BRAVO, N.L.
REFUGIO (CONGREGACION) ..... MATAMOROS, TAM.
REAL DE BORBON ......... VILLAGRAN, TAM.
REAL DE LOS INFANTES ...... BUSTAMANTE, TAM.
REAL DE SAN CARLOS ....... VALLECILLO, N.L.
REAL DE SAN PEDRO. ....... VILLALDAMA, N.L.
REAL DE SANTIAGO ........ SABINAS HIDALGO, N.L. 
REPARO (RANCHO DEL). ...... ALLENDE, N.L.
REVILLA. ............ GUERRERO, TAM.
RIO BLANCO ........... ARRAMBERRI, N.L.
RIO BLANCO (SAN JOSE )..... ZARAGOZA, N.L.
RIO GRANDE (PRESIDIO)...... GUERRERO, COAH.

SAN PEDROS (HACIENDA DE). . . . . ITURBIDE, N.L.
SAN AGUSTIN (HACIENDA DE). . . . GUADALUPE, N.L.
SAN ANTONIO (CONGREGACION) . . . RAYON, TAM.
SAN ANTONIO DE MEDINA. ..... MIER Y NORIEGA, N.L.
SAN ANTONIO DE LOS LLANOS. ... HIDALGO, TAM.
SAN ANTONIO DE LOS MARTINEZ. . . MARIN, N.L. 
SAN ANTONIO DE PADILLA ..... PADILLA, TAM.
SAN ANTONIO DE RAYON ...... RAYON, TAM.
SAN CARLOS (REAL DE) ...... VALLECILLO, N.L.
SAN CARLOS DE MARIN. ...... MARIN, N.L.
SAN CRISTOBAL DE LOS GUALAGUISES ......HUALAHUISES, N.L. 
SAN ESTEBAN DE LA NUEVA TLAXCALA ......SALTILLO, N.L. 
SAN FELIPE DE JESUS DE CHINA ......CHINA, N.L. 
SAN FELIPE DE LINARES. ..... LINARES, N.L.
SAN FRANCISCO (LABOR O HACIENDA) APODACA, N.L. 
SAN FRANCISCO DE CANAS ..... MINA, N.L.
SAN FRANCISCO DE GUEMES. .... GUEMES, TAM.
SAN FRANCISCO DE LOS PATOS ... SAN GREGORIO (REAL Y MINAS DE)
SAN GREGORIO DE CERRALVO .... CERRALVO. N.L.
SAN IGNACIO DE LOYOLA DE REVILLA .....
SAN ISIDRO DE LAS PALOMAS. ...
SAN JOSE (HACIENDA). ...... JUAREZ, N.L.
SAN JOSE DE CAPADERO ...... LOS RAMONES, N.L.
SAN JOSE DEL RIO BLANCO...... ZARAGOZA, N.L.
SAN JUAN BAUTISTA DE CADEREYTA ......CADEREYTA ,N.L.
SAN JUAN BAUTISTA DE HORCASITAS ......MAGISCATZIN, TAM.
SAN JUAN BAUTISTA DE HORCASITAS DE LOS LAMPAZOS ..... LAMPAZOS DE NARANJO, N.L.
SAN JUAN BAUTISTA DE PESQUERIA GRANDE (HACIENDA)..... VILLA GARCIA, N.L.
SAN JUAN BAUTISTA DEL RIO GRANDE ......GUERRERO, COAH.
SAN LUIS (VILLA DE)....... MONTERREY, N.L.
SAN MATED (VAQUERIA DE). . . . . MONTEMORELOS, N.L.
SAN MATEO DEL PILON. ...... MONTEMORELOS, N.L. 
SAN MIGUEL DE AGUAYO DE LA NUEVA
TLAXCALA....... BUSTAMANTE, N.L.
SAN MIGUEL DE LA NUEVA TLAXCALA....... BUSTAMANTE, N.L.
SAN MIGUEL DE CASILLAS ..... RAYONES, N.L.
SAN MIGUEL EL GRANDE ...... SAN MIGUEL ALLENDE, GTO,
SAN MIGUEL DEL TASAJAL ..... RAYONES, N.L.
SAN NXCOLAS DE CAPELLANIA.... RAMOS ARIZPE, CO AH.
SAN NICOLAS DE GUALEGUAS .... AGUALEGUAS, N.L.
SAN NICOLAS DEL GUAJUCO. .... SANTIAGO, N.L.
SAN NICOLAS DEL TOPO DE LOS AYALA GRAL. ESCOBEOO, N.L.
SAN NICOLAS OBISPO ....... HIDALGO, N.L.
SAN NICOLAS TOLENTINO. ..... SAN NICOLAS DE LOS GARZA NL
SAN NICOLAS TOLENTINO (HACIENDA) HIDALGO, N.L.
SAN PABLO DE GALEANA ...... GALEANA, N.L.
SAN PABLO DE LOS LABRADORES...... GALEANA, N.L.
SAN PEDRO (HACIENDA DE)...... ITURBIDE, N.L.

SAN PEDRO (VALLE DE) ...... GARZA GARCIA, N.L.
SAN PEDRO BOCA DE LEONES .... VILLALDAMA, N.L.
SAN PEDRO DE LOS NOGALES (HDA.). GARZA GARCIA, N.L.
SAN PEDRO DE VILLALDAMA. .... VILLALDAMA, N.L.
SAN PEDRO DEL CANON. ...... ITURBIDE, N.L.
SAN VICENTE EL ALTO. ...... ABASOLO, N.L.
SAN SALVADOR (MISION)...... TAMPICO, TAM.
SANTIAGO DE GUAJUCO. . . . . . . SANTIAGO, N.L.
SANTIAGO DE LAS SABINAS. .... SABINAS HIDALGO, N.L.
SANTA ANA DE CAMARGO ....... CAMARGO, TAM.
SANTA ANA DE TAMAULIPAS. .... TAMPICO, TAM.
SANTA BARBARA. .......... OCAMPO, TAM.
SANTA BARBARA DE LAS HIGURAS . . HIGUERAS, N.L.
SANTA CATALINA (HACIENDA). . . . SANTA CATARINA, N.L.
SANTA CRUZ (HACIENDA DE LA). . . GUADALUPE, N.L.
SANTA ELENA (PUESTO O HACIENDA). GRAL. ZUAZUA, N.L.
SANTA LUCIA (PUEBLO DE) . . . . . MONTERREY, N.L.
SANTA MARIA DE LLERA ...... LLERA, TAM.
SANTA MARIA DE LAS PARRAS. ... PARRAS, COAH.
SANTA MARIA DE LOS ALDAMAS . . . LOS ALDAMAS, N.L.
SANTA MARIA DE LOS ANGELES . . . ARAMBERRI, N.L.
SANTA ROSA DEL SACRAMENTO. . . . MUZQUIZ, COAH.
SANTA TERESA DE LAS HIGUERAS . . HIGUERAS, N.L.
SANTANDER DE LOS 5 SENORES . . . JIMENEZ, TAM.
SANTIAGO DEL ALAMO ....... VIESCA, COAH.
SANTILLANA ........... ABASOLO, TAM.
SANTO DOMINGO DE HOYOS ..... HIDALGO, TAM.
TASAJAL (EL) .......... RAYONES, N.L.
VALLE DE LAS LABORES ...... RAMOS ARIZPE, N.L.
ZACATE (PASO DEL). ....... DOCTOR COSS, N.L.


CARIBBEAN/CUBA

Havana Curveball: Documentary About Healing the World
Puerto Ricans at the Dawn of the New Millennium 
War Against All Puerto Ricans by Nelson A. Denis
Condolences to Dr. Sarai Lastra and Family


HavanaCurveball

HAVANA CURVEBALL
Documentary About 
Healing the World

Screened in San Diego
 in April


Mica, is a classic young teen. Enthusiastic. Idealistic. Dreaming baseball. At 13, he is studying for his Bar Mitzvah, the Jewish coming of age rite. An earnest kid, he takes to heart his Rabbi’s requirement to help “heal the world.” Imagining himself a savior of sorts, he launches a grand plan to send baseballs to Havana, Cuba, a country with a mysterious pull. He knows only that Cubans are poor and love baseball-and that Cuba saved his grandpa’s life. On a hunch, his award-winning filmmaker parents pick up their camera. They know the U.S. embargo with Cuba-and the complications of growing up-will throw him a curveball.

Havana Curveball (April 11-15) A Documentary About Healing the World
Sent by Dorinda Moreno  pueblosenmovimientonorte@gmail.com 




Puerto Ricans at the Dawn of the New Millennium 
by Center Puerto Rican Studies  
Editor: Edwin Melendez  

 

A new millennium, with new realities. The demographic and socioeconomic profile of Puerto Ricans has changed dramatically. In less than a decade, the Puerto Rican population living in the U.S. has surpassed those living in Puerto Rico. The migration wave of the past decade rivals the magnitude of the Great Migration of the 1950s. Even among Puerto Ricans on the mainland, the patterns of migration have changed significantly. With over a million Puerto Ricans crossing state lines over the past decade, a rate of mobility far exceeding that of the U.S. population as a whole, the traditional centers of Puerto Rican community in the US are changing.

Florida is on its way to eclipsing New York State as the major stateside location of Puerto Ricans. At the same time, the Puerto Rican community has endured the effects of the Great Recession of 2008 in distinct ways. Economic hard times spurred migration to the mainland, as the recession brought unemployment and poverty to a great many Puerto Ricans. Yet, stateside, Puerto Ricans recovered faster and fared better overall than other ethnic groups. By 2011, Puerto Ricans workers had improved when compared to average earnings of non-Hispanic white workers. Puerto Rican women show the most significant gains in earnings during this period, in both absolute and relative terms. The depictions that emerge from this book are tales of resiliency amid declining opportunity and the enduring challenges faced by those still caught in the trough of the recession. The book is also a story about those who left the island for the mainland United States in search of economic opportunities and about the social contexts of the new communities throughout the United States in which they have settled.

Sent by Dorinda Moreno pueblosenmovimientonorte@gmail.com 


WAR AGAINST ALL PUERTO RICANS by Nelson A. Denis

WAR AGAINST ALL PUERTO RICANS

Revolution and Terror in America’s Colony

Filmmaker, former editorial director of El Diario and New York State Assemblyman Denis seethes at the injustices inflicted on the small island protectorate of Puerto Rico since it was seized from Spain during the Spanish-American War of 1898 and relegated to being a base for President Theodore Roosevelt’s “big stick” policy in the Caribbean.

Kirkus Review

Scathing examination of American colonial policy in Puerto Rico, culminating in the violent, brief revolution of 1950 and its brutal suppression.

 According to the prevalent racial policy of the time, Puerto Ricans were considered too ignorant and uncivilized for self-rule. Massive sugar cane–grinding mills run by American corporations would soon dot the tropical landscape, and the impoverished inhabitants were enlisted in the backbreaking labor of cutting and processing the cane for pennies a day. In 1922, the U.S. Supreme Court declared the island a territory, not a state, and thus the U.S. Constitution did not apply, denying the workers any fair labor policies enjoyed by U.S. citizens. A Nationalist Party was formed at the same time, closely followed and infiltrated by the FBI, according to documents the author secured. The Ponce massacre of March 1937—when the police opened fire on unarmed cadets marching through the town square, killing 19 and wounding over 200 people—galvanized unrest and rebellion. In telling this gruesome and little-recorded history, Denis concentrates on the personalities involved: the corrupt governor Luis Muñoz Marín; the Harvard-educated Nationalist leader Pedro Albizu Campos; the documentarian of the Nationalist cause, Juan Emilio Viguié; and the humble barber Vidal Santiago Díaz, whose Salón Boricua became the fulcrum of dissent and political organization. The 1950 rebellion concluded horrifically in violent death or imprisonment at San Juan’s notorious La Princesa prison. Denis produces compelling evidence of U.S. government–sponsored radiation and other medical experiments inflicted on prisoners.  A pointed, relentless chronicle of a despicable part of past American foreign policy.

Pub Date: April 7th, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-56858-501-7
Page count: 400pp
Publisher: Nation Books/Perseus
Review Posted Online:
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1st, 2015

Sent by Joe Sanchez 
bluewall@mpinet.net
 

 

CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA

Beginning to Understand Brazil, a Unique and Engaging Giant by Galal Kernahan
Archbishop Óscar Romero’s Last Sermon: March 14, 1980
Argentine archaeologists find secret Nazi lair in jungle By Harriet Alexander



Beginning to Understand Brazil, a Unique and Engaging Giant 
by Galal Kernahan

The Republic of Brazil is a giant among the twenty-one members of the Organization of American States (OAS). It is almost as large as the United States.

Reflecting the variety of its citizenry, Brazil also belongs to international organizations that further understanding and collaboration between European, African and Asian nations.

There are Brazilian descendants of persons from all parts of the world. They include surprising numbers of Japanese. They have by now learned Portuguese, the national language. Tucked in its western jungle mountains and valleys are Brazilians who speak tribal languages.

My visits to this giant one-of-a-kind country were brief. Several were simply shore days on ships that called at Rio de Janeiro. That was when and after it was the Nation's Capital. Once I came by air to see friends in Belo Horizonte. This offered brief tastes of what I am sure is a feast.

Since then I have turned to many library books in order to better understand this huge and gloriously diverse nation. It has its quota of places that may remind U.S. visitors of our great places, like Niagara Falls. But their Iguazu falls are very different. And Brazil's present deep-in-the-interior modern Capital looks more imaginative than Washington, D.C. (where I spent my childhood).

I wonder whether overseas books written about the United States are as diverse as what we find in our public and university collections about Brazil. Surely they must be. So Far, those I have read about Brazil seem to emphasize themes ranging from grinding poverty to glorious tourism.

So I have come to the conclusion that books written out of one culture about another must be read with caution. Is there a solution to bookish biases about our neighbors? The beginning of my appreciative beginning insight into the "Brazilian World" took about 12 hours. It began at closing time at the Rio de Janeiro Air Terminal. I had just missed my plane to Belo Horizonte.

I decided to wait there to take the first morning flight. Airport personnel had no problem with that. Some young Brazilian men and the friend, who brought them, dashed in to discover they were late for their flight to Brasilia. I suspect the airport clerk told them I'd missed my plane as well.

They came over and introduced themselves. They explained that they were late for their flight as well. They were stuck til morning, too. Our conversation became a little comic because they were speaking Portuguese and I Spanish. The situation came down to this: they had some bar-hopping in mind to pass the night before their morning departure. I was invited to come along.

"Thanks," I told them in Spanish "I appreciate your kind invitation but I don't drink." "Really? That's wonderful! Our driver doesn't drink either, thank God. Now he can enjoy some sober company" they explained in Brazilian Portuguese.

So away we went. The driver and I talked the night away. He enjoyed explaining things. I learned much about Rio in particular and Brazil in general. That's how it was through midnight hours. We were back at the airport by dawn. All made their planes, I had discovered what was for me important. 

When all is said and done, SOMOS PRIMOS. WE'RE COUSINS.




Archbishop Óscar Romero’s Last Sermon: March 14, 1980

Ten days before he was assassinated while saying Mass and consecrating the Eucharist, Archbishop Óscar Romero of El Salvador gave the following sermon on March 14, 1980.  The full text is below, but of all his words, the following are the ones that will resonate forever with us:
"I would like to make a special appeal to the men of the army, and specifically to the ranks of the National Guard, the police and the military. Brothers, you come from our own people. You are killing your own brother peasants when any human order to kill must be subordinate to the law of God which says, “Thou shalt not kill.” No soldier is obliged to obey an order contrary to the law of God. No one has to obey an immoral law. It is high time you recovered your consciences and obeyed your consciences rather than a sinful order. The church, the defender of the rights of God, of the law of God, of human dignity, of the person, cannot remain silent before such an abomination. We want the government to face the fact that reforms are valueless if they are to be carried out at the cost of so much blood. In the name of God, in the name of this suffering people whose cries rise to heaven more loudly each day, I implore you, I beg you, I order you in the name of God: stop the repression.   This clip contains partial audio of Romero’s final message. It is a variation of what he said on March 14, 1980.

Here is the full text of the sermon:  

Let no one be offended because we use the divine words read at our mass to shed light on the social, political and economic situation of our people. Not to do so would be unchristian. Christ desires to unite himself with humanity, so that the light he brings from God might become life for nations and individuals.

I know many are shocked by this preaching and want to accuse us of forsaking the gospel for politics. But I reject this accusation. I am trying to bring to life the message of the Second Vatican Council and the meetings at Medellin and Puebla. The documents from these meetings should not just be studied theoretically. They should be brought to life and translated into the real struggle to preach the gospel as it should be for our people. Each week I go about the country listening to the cries of the people, their pain from so much crime, and the ignominy of so much violence. Each week I ask the Lord to give me the right words to console, to denounce, to call for repentance. And even though I may be a voice crying in the desert, I know that the church is making the effort to fulfill its mission….

Every country lives its own “exodus”; today El Salvador is living its own exodus. Today we are passing to our liberation through a desert strewn with bodies and where anguish and pain are devastating us. Many suffer the temptation of those who walked with Moses and wanted to turn back and did not work together. It is the same old story. God, however, wants to save the people by making a new history….

History will not fail; God sustains it. That is why I say that insofar as historical projects attempt to reflect the eternal plan of God, to that extent they reflect the kingdom of God. This attempt is the work of the church. Because of this, the church, the people of God in history, is not attached to any one social system, to any political organization, to any party. The church does not identify herself with any of those forces because she is the eternal pilgrim of history and is indicating at every historical moment what reflects the kingdom of God and what does not reflect the kingdom of God. She is the servant of the Kingdom of God.

The great task of Christians must be to absorb the spirit of God’s kingdom and, with souls filled with the kingdom of God, to work on the projects of history. It’s fine to be organized in popular groups; it’s all right to form political parties; it’s all right to take part in the government. It’s fine as long as you are a christian who carries the reflection of the kingdom of God and tries to establish it where you are working, and as long as you are not being used to further worldly ambitions. This is the great duty of the people of today. My dear Christians, I have always told you, and I will repeat, that the true liberators of our people must come from us Christians, from the people of God. Any historical plan that’s not based on what we spoke of in the first point-the dignity of the human being, the love of God, the kingdom of Christ among people-will be a fleeting project. Your project, however, will grow in stability the more it reflects the eternal design of God. It will be a solution of the common good of the people every time, if it meets the needs of the people…. Now I invite you to look at things through the eyes of the church, which is trying to be the kingdom of God on earth and so often must illuminate the realities of our national situation.

We have lived through a tremendously tragic week. I could not give you the facts before, but a week ago last Saturday, on 15 March, one of the largest and most distressing military operations was carried out in the countryside. The villages affected were La Laguna, Plan de Ocotes and El Rosario. The operation brought tragedy: a lot of ranches were burned, there was looting, and-inevitably-people were killed. In La Laguna, the attackers killed a married couple, Ernesto Navas and Audelia Mejia de Navas, their little children, Martin and Hilda, thirteen and seven years old, and eleven more peasants.

Other deaths have been reported, but we do not know the names of the dead. In Plan de Ocotes, two children and four peasants were killed, including two women. In El Rosario, three more peasants were killed. That was last Saturday.

Last Sunday, the following were assassinated in Arcatao by four members of ORDEN: peasants Marcelino Serrano, Vincente Ayala, twenty-four years old, and his son, Freddy. That same day, Fernando Hernandez Navarro, a peasant, was assassinated in Galera de Jutiapa, when he fled from the military.

Last Monday, 17 March, was a tremendously violent day. Bombs exploded in the capital as well as in the interior of the country. The damage was very substantial at the headquarters of the Ministry of Agriculture. The campus of the national university was under armed siege from dawn until 7 P.M. Throughout the day, constant bursts of machine-gun fire were heard in the university area. The archbishop’s office intervened to protect people who found themselves caught inside.

On the Hacienda Colima, eighteen persons died, at least fifteen of whom were peasants. The administrator and the grocer of the ranch also died. The armed forces confirmed that there was a confrontation. A film of the events appeared on TV, and many analyzed interesting aspects of the situation.

At least fifty people died in serious incidents that day: in the capital, seven persons died in events at the Colonia Santa Lucia; on the outskirts of Tecnillantas, five people died; and in the area of the rubbish dump, after the evacuation of the site by the military, were found the bodies of four workers who had been captured in that action.

Sixteen peasants died in the village of Montepeque, thirty-eight kilometers along the road to Suchitoto. That same day, two students at the University of Central America were captured in Tecnillantas: Mario Nelson and Miguel Alberto Rodriguez Velado, who were brothers. The first one, after four days of illegal detention, was handed over to the courts. Not so his brother, who was wounded and is still held in illegal detention. Legal Aid is intervening on his behalf.

Amnesty International issued a press release in which it described the repression of the peasants, especially in the area of Chalatenango. The week’s events confirm this report in spite of the fact the government denies it. As I entered the church, I was given a cable that says, “Amnesty International confirmed today [that was yesterday] that in El Salvador human rights are violated to extremes that have not been seen in other countries.” That is what Patricio Fuentes (spokesman for the urgent action section for Central America in Swedish Amnesty International) said at a press conference in Managua, Nicaragua.

Fuentes confirmed that, during two weeks of investigations he carried out in El Salvador, he was able to establish that there had been eighty-three political assassinations between 10 and 14 March. He pointed out that Amnesty International recently condemned the government of El Salvador, alleging that it was responsible for six hundred political assassinations. The Salvadorean government defended itself against the charges, arguing that Amnesty International based its condemnation on unproved assumptions.

Fuentes said that Amnesty had established that in El Salvador human rights are violated to a worse degree than the repression in Chile after the coupe d’etat. The Salvadorean government also said that the six hundred dead were the result of armed confrontations between army troops and guerrillas. Fuentes said that during his stay u l El Salvador, he could see that the victims had been tortured before their deaths and mutilated afterward.

The spokesman of Amnesty International said that the victims’ bodies characteristically appeared with the thumbs tied behind their backs. Corrosive liquids had been applied to the corpses to prevent identification of the victims by their relatives and to prevent international condemnation, the spokesman added. Nevertheless, the bodies were exhumed and the dead have been identified. Fuentes said that the repression carried out by the Salvadorean army was aimed at breaking the popular organizations through the assassination of their leaders in both town and country.

According to the spokesman of Amnesty International, at least three thousand five hundred peasants have fled from their homes to the capital to escape persecution. “We have complete lists in London and Sweden of young children and women who have been assassinated for being organized,” Fuentes stated….

I would like to make a special appeal to the men of the army, and specifically to the ranks of the National Guard, the police and the military. Brothers, you come from our own people. You are killing your own brother peasants when any human order to kill must be subordinate to the law of God which says, “Thou shalt not kill.” No soldier is obliged to obey an order contrary to the law of God. No one has to obey an immoral law. It is high time you recovered your consciences and obeyed your consciences rather than a sinful order. The church, the defender of the rights of God, of the law of God, of human dignity, of the person, cannot remain silent before such an abomination. We want the government to face the fact that reforms are valueless if they are to be carried out at the cost of so much blood. In the name of God, in the name of this suffering people whose cries rise to heaven more loudly each day, I implore you, I beg you, I order you in the name of God: stop the repression.

The church preaches your liberation just as we have studied it in just as we have studied it in the holy Bible today. It is a liberation that has, above all else, respect for the dignity of the person, hope for humanity’s common good, and the transcendence that looks before all to God and only from God derives its hope and its strength.

http://www.latinorebels.com/2013/03/24/archbishop-oscar-romeros-last-sermon-march-14-1980/
?shared=email&msg=fail
 

(SOURCE: From The Church and Human Liberation, March 14, 1980.)





Argentine archaeologists find secret Nazi lair in jungle 
By Harriet Alexander

Stone structures in the remote region of Misiones are thought to be the ruins of a hideout build by Nazis, in case their leaders needed to flee Germany


View of the Rio Parana from Teyu Cuare park in San Ignacio, Misiones, Argentina 
Photo: Alamy   http://www.telegraph.co.uk/journalists/harriet-alexander/ 


A team of Argentine archaeologists investigating a series of ruins in the jungle, close to the border with Paraguay, believe they have discovered a secret Nazi lair.

The cluster of stone structures, now covered by thick vines and accessible only when using a machete to cut through the undergrowth, contain stashes of German coins from the late 1930s, fragments of "Made in Germany" porcelain, and Nazi symbols on the walls.

"We can find no other explanation as to why anyone would build these structures, at such great effort and expense, in a site which at that time was totally inaccessible, away from the local community, with material which is not typical of the regional architecture," said Daniel Schavelzon, leader of the team.

Mr Schavelzon, from the University of Buenos Aires, spent months exploring the site in the Teyu Cuare provincial park, in the Misiones region of northern Argentina. Local legend told that a house in the forest belonged to Martin Bormann – Hitler's right-hand-man, who took his own life in May 1945 – but Mr Schavelzon said there was no evidence to support what he called "an urban myth".

Instead, the buildings were planned as a refuge for the leaders of the Third Reich, commissioned in case they needed to flee Germany.

"Apparently, halfway through the Second World War, the Nazis had a secret project of building shelters for top leaders in the event of defeat – inaccessible sites, in the middle of deserts, in the mountains, on a cliff or in the middle of the jungle like this," Mr Schavelzon told Argentine newspaper Clarin. He said that his findings were not yet definite, but he was convinced of their veracity.

"This site also has the bonus of allowing the inhabitants to be in Paraguay in less than 10 minutes. It's a protected, defendable site where they could live quietly."

Ultimately, though, the hideout wasn't needed, because after the fall of the Nazi regime their leaders were welcomed to Argentina and allowed to live openly.

Thousands of Nazis, Croatian Ustasha fascists and Italian fascists arrived with the blessing of president Juan Peron, who led the nation from 1946 to 1955 and again briefly in the 1970s. An estimated 5,000 Nazis eventually ended up in Argentina.

In 1960, Nazi Adolf Eichmann, who helped organise the Holocaust, was captured in Buenos Aires by an Israeli commando team and tried in Israel where he was executed. Josef Mengele, whose grotesque experiments on prisoners at Auschwitz earned him the title "Angel of Death", also fled to Argentina.

"When the war was over some useful Germans helped us build our factories and make the best use of what we had," said Peron, who died in 1974. "And in time they were able to help themselves too."

Sent by Jose M. Pena   JMPENA@aol.com



 

PHILIPPINES

Hispanic Songs in the Philippines  by Eddie AAA Calderón, Ph.D.
The Subject of Love by Eddie AAA Calderón, Ph.D. 


The Subject of Love 
by Eddie AAA Calderón, Ph.D. 

I have been thinking of this subject matter for a long time to write in Somos Primos and it would be an appropriate topic for the month of February as the 14th of that month is the day of love and the Valentine's Day.
 
But love is a universal language and a treasure to everyone regardless of differences in culture, languages, traditions, geographical locations. Please refer to these two famous American songs in the 50's.
      1) My Funny Valentine as the last words say  Each Day Is Valentine's Day. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Are-c0BLyIg &
      2) Love Makes the World Go Round in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTRzy7h6C6Q
The topic of love can therefore be discussed and written any time of the day, the month, and the year. 
 
To say love or I love you takes either one expresssion or more depending on the languages being spoken or referred to. In my country, the Philippines, the word love and/or I love you, speaking of Tagalog in particular, the national language, take almost a dozen different expressions. In other Philippine languages and dialects, one can't say them  in many unique expressions as much as the Tagalog language. 
 
The same is true with other foreign languages. In the language of Don Miguel de Cervantes, love means amor. But to say I love you, we can say yo te amo, yo te adoro, and yo te quiero. In the language of Monsieur Guy de Maupassant, we say amour (love) and je t'aime/je vous aime and je t'adore/je vous adore (I love you) In the language of Kaiser Wilhelm, we say liebe for love and ich liebe dich/sie for I love you. We also say amore (love) and ti amo (I love you) in the language of Dante Alleghieri. The word  lyubit and ya lyublyu tebya in the language of Tsar Nikolai  mean love and I love you just to cite examples of the languages that I am familiar.
 
But the Tagalog language has many words and expression for love and I love you. For love, we say pag-ibig, pagsinta, pag-irog, paggiliw, pagliyag, pagsuyo, pagmamahal, paghirang, and for divine love it is pagkasi. To say I love you in Tagalog, we say the following: ini-ibig kita, minamahal kita, ginigiliw kita, sinisinta kita, hinihirang kita, nililiyag kita, ini-irog kita, and susuyu-in kita for I will love you. 
 
However each love word in Tagalog has special and different meaning when being used in a particular circumstance. The word ini-ibig kita can only be said by a boyfriend to his girlfriend, a husband to his wife, and  vice  versa. Other verbs do  not have this meaning. Also that verb ibig  means and can also mean  "desire" or " like". If we say ibig kong kumain or me gusta comer in Spanish, the word ibig in this specific instance is not all related to the word "love" between a man and a woman. The other Tagalog love verbs do not have this same meaning.
 
The same is true with the rest except that the expression minamahal kita. Minamahal  kita or minamahal ko ikaw/kayo can be said to anyone  very dear and even to a country. To say I love my country in Tagalog we can only use the word mahal and the verb minamahal as  in minamahal ko ang aking bayan (I love my country). To use the other love words and expressions other than mahal and minamahal  kita will sound very awkward.
 
The same is true with the word giliw. It also has its own unique way of expressing feelings other than talking directly of love. I remember my mother telling me and my sister when we were children as we returned home after spending the whole summer vacation in our maternal grandmother's hometown. Mga anak kogiliw na giliw na akong makapiling kayong dalawa; Oh my two precious children, I have been yearning/pining/longing and anxious to see you back home. Hence the word giliw when spoken in its proper context can also mean yearnings, longings, etc which are not true with the rest of the Tagalog love expressions.
 
Sweetheart in Tagalog (amor/amorcito in Spanish) are sinta, also kasintahan, giliw, liyag, irog, mahal, and kasuyo. The word pagsuyo takes a different meaning when we say nakikisuyo po ako or makisuyo lang po ako and it pertains to a favour that we are asking from someone.
 
In talking about love, one may say that Tagalog speakers are probably the most romantic people on earth because we have the most words and phrases to describe love and our feelings of love.  This special feeling  is shown for a particular example  when young swains gather together at night to serenade a woman which I discussed in my Harana articles at Somos Primos.
                       http://somosprimos.com/sp2012/spfeb12/spfeb12.htm#THE PHILIPPINES
                                   1)  Harana in the Philippines, a Personal Experience
                       http://somosprimos.com/sp2014/spmar14/spmar14.htm#THE PHILIPPINES
                                   1)  The Harana Article, An Update  
 
But the truth is that when love comes in, anyone can be very romantic regardless of whether love carried with it one or two different expressions. The Spanish speaking people are very romantic and you can just see it from the many beautiful romantic songs they have, the movies, their writings, and their courtships. The readers can find samples of very romantic songs in Spanish. I have discussed this subject matter in my article entitled Quiereme Mucho in:     http://somosprimos.com/sp2012/spmar12/spmar12.htm#THE PHILIPPINES
The same is true with the Italian people and others when you hear their songs and see their movies. 
 
It is not unusual to hear from people, generally speaking, in many Third World countries especially those living or have lived in the USA and other Western nations their observation that Western people are generally speaking cold or unromantic. But if we go back to the past and see their movies and listen to their songs especially American songs, this present observation is not accurate. The language of Cupid or Eros was very much a part of their lives as you see in their movies, literature, and their songs. I remember many romantic American songs from  the 30's as I heard from radio, old phonograph records,  those taught to me by my parents, especially my father, and later songs as I was growing up.
 
One example of a beautiful song in the 1940's I remember as a child was You'll Never Know (just how much I miss you) by Vera Lynn first sung 1943.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZtWNlCTc6o; and in the early 50's the song My Heart Cries For You by Guy Mitchell (1950) in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPeK2hj02Xo is a particular example. 
 
When the topic of love came to the presence of Cole Porter, a famous American composer and songwriter,  it received its French influence when he wrote the song C'est Magnifique  in 1953 in that famous musical called Can-Can. The song starts: When loves comes  and takes you for a spin, ooh, la, la, la, c'est magnifique. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzyOMmvhx3o.  Of course in the late 50's Elvis Presley became popular and he sang many romantic songs in his repertoire other than his rock and roll songs. 
 
In the early 60's, I remember the song Till  --https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3bisSto7Wc-- which is definitely very romantic. However, the song More also in the early 60's comes to my mind especially with this very romantic and very unique statement: I only live to love you more each day.    See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=equs_4O_C-U. And of course I can't forget the songs Making Believe You're Here in  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNGN-PAS27o  and Fly Me to the Moon  -- refer to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQR0bXO_yI8  and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKK9JUWDU1Q
 
In 1974-75, the romantic song Feelings came, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxhwM06lLUs    But the romantic expressions in American songs by the end of the 1970's have seemed to meet its final appearance.  Starting in the 1980's a very dramatic change in the romantic contents of American songs has appeared. I did discuss this in my Somos Primos Article entitled: Reminiscing The Days of Yore in
                                    http://somosprimos.com/sp2012/spnov12/spnov12.htm#THE PHILIPPINES
 
I guess for myself, I will always remain romantic even though I am now in the autumn of life and reminiscing those days of yore when the so called "Knighthood is in Flower" era  will remain in me for the rest of my life.

 



Hispanic Songs in the Philippines

by Eddie AAA Calderón, Ph.D.

 

When I was growing up in the Philippines, I heard lots of music that were Hispanic in origin. Some of them were from Spain such as El Relicario to mention a few. But I found out later that most of them were from Latin America. As this magazine is a Latin-American magazine extending its influence to its Hispanic cousins including my country and the rest of the world , I would like to focus this article more on Latin American music I heard from my country before I left for the USA in 1964. I did mention Spanish songs in my Somos Primos article entitled Quiereme Mucho in http://somosprimos.com/sp2012/spmar12/spmar12.htm#THE PHILIPPINES
 
I rendered the songs with my Hispanic friends when I moved to the USA starting in California and then to Minnesota as I began to learn new Spanish songs. I would not be able to include in this article all the Spanish songs I learnt back home from the radios, from my father, and others but I will emphasize here those that I have remembered to this date. And I could not guarantee that I can recall all of them.  It was at the age of three when I remember hearing and singing  Spanish songs. 

I found out later as I went through high school and studied Spanish that  some Spanish songs were rendered in our own language. When  I moved to the USA and associated myself with Spanish speaking friends and acquaintances from the schools I went to and other places, I began to know more of the Spanish lyrics. My first date with a very beautiful 19 year old maiden from Tamaulipas, Mexico who was a sophomore student at the Pasadena City College,  gave me that opportunity. I also began learning new songs as she did lend  me her Mexican disc records and the written lyrics of the songs after learning that I liked Spanish songs. I  later sang to her with full of emotion those lovely Mexican songs with guitar accompaniment which she appreciated very much. 

In the Philippines, I first  heard the song  LA PALOMA  over the radio as a child which was rendered in the vernacular tongue (Tagalog). I found out later that it was a Cuban song written by a Spaniard from Cuba in the 1860's as I started researching the origin of that song. Many of my countrymates in cyberspace thought all along that it was a Philippine song until I told them of its origin.
 
We had many Hispanic songs I heard when I was a child in the rhythm of  guaracha and they were from Cuba. The songs I remember are the following:  SE MURIó  MI GALLO TUERTO, TUMBANDO CAñA, EL BOBO DE LA YUCA, which I mentioned in the March, 2015 issue of the Somos Primos  (http://somosprimos.com/sp2015/spmar15/spmar15.htm#THE PHILIPPINES) and other music without words whose names I did not get to know nor remember. I like the guaracha beat on the three above mentioned songs as the guaracha dance was very popular in the Philippines. A lot of Philippine songs and music had guaracha rhythm. There were many guaracha music/songs brought to my country starting in the 40's and since many of them had no lyrics, I was not able to remember their names. The cha cha music came  in the 50's and it  became popular in the Philippines as that song  VACILON QUE RICO VACILON along with others came to our country. Everybody was dancing  cha cha  including myself as it was and still is my  favourite dance other than the lindy which we call boogie in our country and the Austrian waltz. We learnt all the Latin American dance such as rhumba, samba (which is Brazilian), mambo, conga (Brazilian also),  in addition to the Spanish flamenco dance, pasadoble, etc. 
But the rest of song  which I found out during my childhood and immediately after the  Second World War were mostly Mexicans. To give a few examples, they were ALLA EN EL RANCHO GRANDE, PREGUNTA A LAS ESTRELLAS, USTED, LA ULTIMA NOCHE, BESAME MUCHO, SOLAMENTE UNA VEZ, MUñEQUITA LINDA, QUIEREME MUCHO, SOMOS DIFERENTES, PERFIDIA, MARIA ELENA, CIELITO LINDO, DONDE ESTáS CORAZóN (not the song sang and composed by Shakira from Colombia in 1995), QUIZAS, QUIZAS, QUIZAS, GRANADA, again VACILON QUE RICO VACILON , etc. 

The song PREGUNTA A LAS ESTRELLAS  had Tagalog (the national language of the Philippines) lyrics and it was sung by a famous Philippine actor, Leopoldo Salcedo, in a movie in the very early 50's or late 40's. The lyrics start: ITANONG MO SA MGA TALA, KUNG HINDI SA GABI'Y LUMULUHA (Ask the stars if not  the night that is weeping (to indicate the love I have for a maiden). The song USTED is PAG-IBIG AY HALAMAN (love is like a plant) in Tagalog rendition which is not a translation of the Mexican lyrics. The vernacular rendition speaks of love given to a plant which needs a tender care to make it bloom for always. 
 
The song ULTIMA NOCHE, however, did not have wordings in Tagalog but a Filipino writer wrote the English lyrics. The name of this Philippine version is UNTIL TOMORROW. This song was popular especially among serenaders and I remember this song sung when my sister was being serenaded. The song was the last song being rendered as the serenaders were bidding adieu after my sister had opened the window and looked at the serenaders. Let me cite the last lyrics of this song:

                        Until tomorrow, I'll see you sweetheart
                        Good night and be good after we part
                        If we are faithful, then faith would guide us
                        Until tomorrow, good night my love
 


The songs BESAME MUCHO and SOLAMENTE UNA VEZ came to our country in their original Spanish lyrics. They were, however, introduced to the Philippines by American singers in English which became more popular to us than the original Spanish versions. BESAME MUCHO kept its name, but SOLAMENTE UNA VEZ was known to us as YOU BELONG TO MY HEART.
 
For the BESAME MUCHO song, I changed the wordings of Que tengo miedo perderte, perderte despues  to Que tengo miedo TENERTE (instead of perderte)    perderte despues when I was with the Latin American foreign students during a whole week trip on a bus sponsored by the Pasadena Rotary Club to different places in California and others states and returning home. The phrase sounds much even romantic than the original phrase. My Latin American friends loved it so much that they did in fact change the wordings. When I moved to Minnesota for the Ph.D., I shared this change to my Latin American friends both students and friends and they too loved it that they decided to sing the song per the change I made. And when I traveled to Chile in 1968 and the 1970 world tour which included Spain and Latin America, I did share this change to my friends and acquaintances there.

Another amusing saga recounting the song BESAME MUCHO was when I was again on the trip with the Latin American students in California. There was this Brazilian male student  who also spoke Spanish and sang Spanish music with us. When the Latin American students took a rest from singing momentarily, the Brazilian male student started to sing. One Colombian female student made an interruption and told him BESAME MUCHO. The Brazilian student got up from his seat heading towards the Colombian student to give him that kiss. But the Colombian student told him this: NO, NO. QUISIERA QUE TU CANTASES BESAME MUCHO PARA NOSOTROS. We all heard it and we burst into laughter and so did the Brazilian student.

The MUñEQUITA LINDA song which came to our country in its original Spanish rendition was also introduced to our country by the American singer as MAGIC IS THE MOONLIGHT but without the introduction in the original Mexican song. The song QUIEREME MUCHO was known to our country for its English version entitled YOURS but again with no introduction in its original oversion.  But later the original Spanish version came and it became overwhelmingly popular to us. I learnt the full Spanish lyrics of this song from that Mexican maiden from Tamaulipas, Mexico.

 
I could not forget the song GRANADA that was sung magnificently by Mario Lanza in a movie and I thought the song was from Spain because of the name and the music and rhythm appeared very Spanish. I found out later that it was Mexican composed by that famous composer Agustin Lara. The cha cha rhythm also became popular in the Philippines as that song  VACILON QUE RICO VACILON came to our country. As I began to learn how to speak and write in Spanish while at home, I also began to sing the above songs in their original Spanish lyrics.
 
Ah! and of course, no podria olvidarme de la canción  se llama María Elena which was very popular in the Philippines.  That occasion came when I was at the University of Minnesota's (U of M) Latin American student party held at the Newman Centre of the U of M. As we all know Latin students love to have dances and singing on every party. My Latino friends told me to sing a Spanish song. They provided me with a guitar to accompany myself. I did and chose to serenade a Chilean graduate student and I sang  the song María Elena on my knees. Her name happened to be María Elena. After rendering that beautiful song, the Chilean maiden was misty-eyed. She thanked me for serenading her and later told the group that the song  was indeed preciosísima. The María Elena guitar rendition of Los Indios Tabajaras from Brazil which I first heard from my Ivory Coast roommate while attending Occidental College in California was "out of sight."

Then starting in the late 50's towards my coming to the USA in late 1964, came the Trio Los Panchos with their amazing songs, Lucho Gatica, a Chilean, famous for his song HISTORIA DE UN AMOR  which has also Tagalog lyrics and many other Spanish songs from Latin America.
 
These are of course many Spanish songs from Latin America that came to my country even  before I was born. I am again only mentioning in this article those that I remember quite so well. There are again other Hispanic music without lyrics that were popular back home but I do not remember their names. Below is the list of Spanish songs I learnt while growing up in the Philippines. I again began to know more beautiful Spanish songs while living in the USA and my last statements on this article may make me stray away from the above subject matter as I mention a beautiful Castillian song I learned in 1970. But I still feel it can be  related to the subject matter. 
 
The song is Clavelitos (Tulips). I can't never forget this very beautiful Castillian song which I first heard in Portugal in early May, 1970 from Spanish senior high school students. The students were from  from Ceuta, the last Spanish enclave located in northern Morocco. The Spanish students were on a vacation break and the place they stayed which I also stayed was a quaint and very scenic seaside resort by Lisbon, Portugal. As the students became aware of my proficiency in speaking Spanish, they invited me to all of their social gatherings each night and their trip to Fatima, Portugal to visit the place where the Virgin Mary appeared. I thought that the song Clavelitos (Tulips) which is indeed a very beautiful and lively song has become the unofficial national song of Spain. It has also become very popular in the Philippines,  Mexico and the rest of Latin America. 
 
I could not forget the trip with the Spanish high school student to Fatima as they sang all the way until we reached the place reminding me of my many school social trips with Latin-American students to many places in California and other states during school breaks. The Latin-American students from California also sang during the entire  trips we had.  I also mentioned this in my Somos Primos article entitled the Miss Universe of 2015 and the memories of my days with my Hispanic friends in  http://somosprimos.com/sp2015/spmar15/spmar15.htm#THE PHILIPPINES. See also http://somosprimos.com/sp2012/spmar12/spmar12.htm#THE PHILIPPINES
 
As a final note, I   did sing that famous Mexican song Cielito Lindo I learnt from my country and others to the Spanish high school students from Ceuta during an evening social gathering with them. The students thanked me very much for singing the beautiful songs from Latin America. I did mention my meeting with the Spanish senior high students in my Somos Primos article entitled Remembering My Ist Trip Around the World Part 1 in http://somosprimos.com/sp2012/spjul12/spjul12.htm#THE PHILIPPINES  
 
I am also happy to be invited by my Latin-American friends to be a member of their student organizations in all the college and universities that I attended.
  
El Relicario by Sarita Montiel fromSpain
Se 
Murió mi Gallo Tuerto
Tumbando Caña  
El Bobo de la Yuca 
by Daniel Santos
La Paloma 
by Plácido Domingo
Alla en el Rancho Grande 
Besame Mucho
by Luis Miguel 
   in English by Dean Martin 
Usted
by Trio Los Panchos   (TLP)     
Historia de Un Amor
by Lucho Gatica 
Solamente Una Vez
by Julio Iglesias
   in English by Dora Luz  
Reloj
by Trio Los Panchos
La Ultima Noche
by Eydie Gorme &TLP
Muñequita Linda
by Placido Domingo
    in English by Dean Martin 
Preguntale a las Estrellas
  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJCe8yY3ARI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YK8fOBfVigw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CX0l7X6G9ko    

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Odi8Su4IIs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8gLDihFduw
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4ecjq6mKsU
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSO9P8LgC-o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9MdTJh6m-U

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AKHiPhKG3M

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzLqoDAhn9U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t16n-HT5-cQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snJPsbTxYrU    
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUwRYUdErHc
     
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RCAAWylzCs
       
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdAcP-tbmVw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqntbTFGIz8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vldDGINJznI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7WNTiOpI3Q

The hymn here is not exactly what I learnt back home as sung by Leopoldo Salcedo in a Philippine movie in the late 40' back home.      The current Philippine rendition which is not exactly the same as the one I heard when I was growing up is found in: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPR0tRQtvXk  
and I can't find the old Filipino rendition in Utube.                                                                    

Somos Diferentes  Javier  Solis https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4gekrRd1hY 
      by Antonio Machin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTe8N_sPqY4
Perfidia    by Andrea Bocelli https://vimeo.com/62612408
Quiereme Mucho Trio los Panchos  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0E2xcGIIXs
     Filipino/ Spanish Harana Pinoy  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzEr-HCUKy8&feature=related 
Maria Elena by Helmut Lotti    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dptcTAXXkdA
     By Los Indios Tabajaras (instrum)  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZqWY6M1Ovg
Clavelitos  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpKoJnRczA8
     by Tuna Cayetano Heredia, Spain https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6TRYfSyYwQ&hl=es-419&gl=CO
     Tuna Universitaria de San Marcos, MX   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdDtO3sItSE
     Tuna de Santiago de Campostela, Spain https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoyPEZCeNZw
Granada by Mario Lanza https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B88YRtu2gEE 
Quizas, Quizas,Quizas  by Andrea Bocelli 
      & Jennifer Lopez 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8t4Xkf_1KE
Cielito Lindo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5e2dAI0c9Y
Vacilon Que Rico Vacilon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKNW602jIBk
Donde Estás Corazón https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NaFI8zzOXs
I tried to google this song, the older version and not that of 
Shakira from Colombia, but it is nowhere to be found.

 


SPAIN

Touching the Prado
Spain and New Spain
Expedicion Malaspina


Touching the Prado

Latina Lista: News from the Latino perspective Latina Lista: News from the Latino perspective - News from the Latino perspective. Spain’s Prado Museum opens doors to blind visitors with special “touch” exhibit by Latina Lista

LatinaLista — Museums have always been a refuge from the hustle of everyday life where visitors, at their own pace, contemplate the masterpieces that surround them. It’s a privilege that, unfortunately, excludes those who can’t see. Aside from the peace and quiet, museums offer little else to the blind — until now.

One of the most famous museums in the world, the Prado Museum in Spain, opened a very special exhibit in January that caters specifically to the sightless.

Christened “Touching the Prado,” the exhibit features six 3-D replicas of some of the most famous paintings by such artists as Francisco de Goya, Leonardo da Vinci and El Greco.

However, unlike the other masterpieces hanging within the famed walls of the Prado, visitors are encouraged to run their fingers over the paintings in this exhibit. Each replica is printed with special technology developed by the Spanish printing studio Estudios Durero that after a 40-hour process creates paintings with such texture that the paintings’ details guide the blind visitors’ hands helping them understand the composition.

The exhibit runs through June 28.

Sent by Dorinda Moreno  
pueblosenmovimientonorte@gmail.com
 



SPAIN and NEW SPAIN

Editor Mimi: As I read this brief over-view of the transition of control, and then loss of control, by Spain of the Americas, I keep reminding myself, my lineage includes those from Europe and those indigenous to these lands.  My grandmothers and grandfathers in those times and circumstances, were all struggling to live and survive, caught up in the wars and society into which they were born.    

At the height of the Spanish Empire (17th Century), the Spanish Empire was the largest empire in the world and included the following modern countries and territories: Bahamas, Belize, Canada (British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan), Cayman Islands, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Federated States of Micronesia, Guam, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Trinidad and Tobago and the United States (California, Oregon, Washington, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Arizona, Missouri, Iowa, Arkansas, Louisiana, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Nebraska, Alaska).

New Spain was a viceroyalty, or administrative unit of the Spanish colonial empire. Its capital was Mexico City, formerly Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec Empire. New Spain was established following the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire in 1521.

The creation of a viceroyalty in the Americas was a result of the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire (1519 to 1521). The lands and societies brought under Spanish control were of unprecedented complexity and wealth, which presented both an incredible opportunity and a threat to the Crown of Castile. The societies could provide the conquistadors, especially Hernán Cortés, a base from which to become autonomous, or even independent, of the Crown. As a result the Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain, Charles V created the Council of the Indies in 1524.

A few years later the first mainland Audiencia was created in 1527 to take over the administration of New Spain from Hernán Cortés. An earlier Audiencia had been established in Santo Domingo in 1526 to deal with the Caribbean settlements. The Audiencia was charged with encouraging further exploration and settlements under its own authority. Management by the Audiencia, which was expected to make executive decisions as a body, proved unwieldy. Therefore in 1535, King Charles V named Antonio de Mendoza as the first Viceroy of New Spain. After the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire in 1532 opened up the vast territories of South America to further conquests, the Crown established an independent Viceroyalty of Peru there in 1540.

Upon his arrival, Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza vigorously took to the duties entrusted to him by the King and encouraged the exploration of Spain’s new mainland territories. He commissioned the expeditions of Francisco Vázquez de Coronado into the present day American Southwest in 1540–1542. The Viceroy commissioned Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo in the first Spanish exploration up the Pacific Ocean along the western coast of the Las Californias Province in 1542–1543. He sailed above present day Baja California (Vieja California), to what he called ‘New California’ (Nueva California), becoming the first European to see present day California, U.S. The Viceroy also sent Ruy López de Villalobos to the Spanish East Indies in 1542–1543. As these new territories became controlled, they were brought under the purview of the Viceroy of New Spain.

During the 16th century, many Spanish cities were established in North and Central America. Spain attempted to establish missions in what is now the Southern United States including Georgia and South Carolina between 1568 and 1587. Despite their efforts, the Spaniards were only successful in the region of present day Florida, where they founded St. Augustine in 1565.

Seeking to develop trade between the East Indies and the Americas across the Pacific Ocean, Miguel López de Legazpi established the first Spanish settlement in the Philippine Islands in 1565, which became the town of San Miguel. Andrés de Urdaneta discovered an efficient sailing route from the Philippine Islands returning to Mexico. In 1571, the city of Manila became the capital of the Spanish East Indies, with trade soon beginning via the Manila-Acapulco Galleons. The Manila-Acapulco trade route shipped products such as silks, spices, silver, and gold, and enslaved people to the Americas from Asia.

Products brought from East Asia were sent to Veracruz México, then shipped to Spain, and then traded across Europe. There were attacks on these shipments in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea by British and Dutch pirates and privateers, led by Francis Drake in 1586, and Thomas Cavendish in 1587. In addition, the cities of Huatulco (Oaxaca) and Barra de Navidad in Jalisco Province of México were sacked. Lope Díez de Armendáriz was the first Viceroy of New Spain that was born in the ‘New World’ (Nueva España). He formed the ‘Navy of Barlovento’ (Armada de Barlovento), based in Veracruz, to patrol coastal regions and protect the harbors, port towns, and trade ships from pirates and privateers.

Luis de Velasco, marqués de Salinas gained control over many of the semi-nomadic Chichimeca indigenous tribes of northern México in 1591 for awhile. This allowed expansion into the ‘Province of New Mexico’ or Provincia de Nuevo México. In 1598, Juan de Oñate pioneered ‘The Royal Road of the Interior Land’ or El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro between Mexico City and the Tewa village of ‘Ohkay Owingeh’ or San Juan Pueblo. He also founded the settlement (a Spanish pueblo) of San Juan on the Rio Grande near the Native American Pueblo, located in the present day U.S. state of New Mexico. In 1609, Pedro de Peralta, a later governor of the Province of New Mexico, established the settlement of Santa Fe in the region of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains on the Rio Grande. Missions were established for conversions and agricultural industry. The territory’s Puebloan peoples resented the Spaniards denigration and prohibition of their traditional religion, and their encomienda system’s forced labor. The Pueblo Revolt ensued in 1680, with final resolution including some freedom from Spanish efforts to eradicate their culture and religion, the issuing of substantial communal land grants to each Pueblo, and a public defender of their rights and for their legal cases in Spanish courts. In 1776 the Province came under the new Provincias Internas jurisdiction. In the late 18th century the Spanish land grant encouraged the settlement by individuals of large land parcels outside Mission and Pueblo boundaries, many of which became ranchos.

In 1602, Sebastián Vizcaíno, the first Spanish presence in the ‘New California’ or Nueva California region of the frontier Las Californias Province since Cabrillo in 1542, sailed as far upcoast north as Monterey Bay. In 1767 King Charles III ordered the Jesuits, who had established missions in the lower Baja California region of Las Californias, forcibly expelled and returned to Spain.[15] New Spain’s Visitador General José de Gálvez replaced them with the Dominican Order in Baja, and the Franciscans to establish the new northern missions. In 1768, Visitador General José de Gálvez received the following orders: “Occupy and fortify San Diego and Monterey for God and the King of Spain.” The Spanish colonization there, with far fewer recognized natural resources and less cultural development than Mexico or Peru, was to combine establishing a presence for defense of the territory with a perceived responsibility to convert the indigenous people to Christianity. 

The method was the traditional missions (misiones), forts (presidios), civilian towns (pueblos), and land grant ranches (ranchos) model, but more simplified due to the region’s great distance from supplies and support in México. Between 1769 and 1833 twenty one Spanish missions in California were established. In 1776 the Province came under the administration of the new ‘Commandancy General of the Internal Provinces of the North’ (Provincias Internas) to invigorate growth. 

The crown created two new governments in Las Californias, the southern peninsular one called Baja California, and the northern mainland one called Alta California in 1804. The issuing of Spanish land grants in California encouraged settlement and establishment of large California ranchos. Some Californio rancho grantees emulated the Dons of Spain, with cattle and sheep marking wealth. The work was usually done by displaced and relocated Native Americans. After the Mexican War of Independence and subsequent secularization (“disestablishment”) of mission lands, Mexican land grant transactions increased the spread of ranchos. The land grants and ranchos established land-use patterns that are recognizable in present day California and New Mexico.

The forts, pueblos (civilian towns) and the misiones (missions) were the three major agencies employed by the Spanish crown to extend its borders and consolidate its colonial holdings in these territories.

The town of Alburquerque (present day Albuquerque, New Mexico) was founded in 1660. The Mexican towns of: Paso del Norte (present day Ciudad Juárez) founded in 1667; Santiago de la Monclova in 1689; Panzacola, Tejas in 1681; and San Francisco de Cuéllar (present day city of Chihuahua) in 1709. From 1687, Father Eusebio Francisco Kino, with the marqués de Villapuente’s economic help, founded over twenty missions in the Sonoran Desert (in present day Mexican state Sonora and U.S. state Arizona). From 1697, Jesuits established eighteen missions throughout the Baja California Peninsula. In 1668 Padre San Vitores established the first mission in the Mariana Islands (now Guam). Between 1687 and 1700 several Missions were founded in Trinidad, but only four survived as Amerindian villages throughout the 18th century. In 1691, explorers and missionaries visited the interior of Texas and came upon a river and Amerindian settlement on June 13, the feast day of St. Anthony, and named the location and river San Antonio in his honor.

Immersed in a low intensity war with Great Britain (mostly over the Spanish ports and trade routes harassed by British pirates), the defenses of Veracruz and San Juan de Ulúa, Jamaica, Cuba and Florida were strengthened. Santiago de Cuba (1662), St. Augustine Spanish Florida (1665) or Campeche 1678 were sacked by the British. The Tarahumara Indians were in revolt in the mountains of Chihuahua for several years. In 1670 Chichimecas invaded Durango, and the governor, Francisco González, abandoned its defense. In 1680, 25,000 previously subjugated Indians in 24 pueblos of New Mexico rose against the Spanish and killed all the Europeans they encountered. In 1685, after a revolt of the Chamorros, the Marianas islands were incorporated to the Captaincy General of the Philippines. In 1695, this time with the British help, the viceroy Gaspar de la Cerda attacked the French who had established a base on the island of Española.

Early in the Queen Anne’s War, in 1702, the English captured and burned the Spanish town St. Augustine, Florida. However, the English were unable to take the main fortress (presidio) of St. Augustine, resulting in the campaign being condemned by the English as a failure. The Spanish maintained St. Augustine and Pensacola for more than a century after the war, but their mission system in Florida was destroyed and the Apalachee tribe was decimated in what became known as the Apalachee Massacre of 1704. Also in 1704 the viceroy Francisco Fernández de la Cueva suppressed a rebellion of the Pima Indians in Nueva Vizcaya.

Diego Osorio de Escobar y Llamas reformed the postal service and the marketing of mercury. In 1701 under the Duke of Alburquerque the ‘Court of the Agreement’ (Tribunal de la Acordada), an organization of volunteers, similar to the ‘Holy Brotherhood’ (Hermandad), intended to capture and quickly try bandits, was founded. The church of the Virgin of Guadalupe, patron of Mexico, was finished in 1702.

The new Bourbon kings did not split the Viceroyalty of New Spain into smaller administrative units as they did with the Viceroyalty of Peru. The first innovation, in 1776, was by José de Gálvez, the new Minister of the Indies (1775–1787), establishing the Commandancy General of the Provincias Internas known as the Provincias Internas (Commandancy General of the Internal Provinces of the North, (Spanish: Comandancia y Capitanía General de las Provincias Internas). He appointed Teodoro de Croix (nephew of the former viceroy) as the first Commander General of the Provinicas Internas, independent of the Viceroy of New Spain, to provide more autonomy for the frontier provinces. They included Nueva Vizcaya, Nuevo Santander, Sonora y Sinaloa, Las Californias, Coahuila y Tejas (Coahuila and Texas), and Nuevo México.

The prime innovation introduction of intendancies, an institution borrowed from France. They were first introduced on a large scale in New Spain, by the Minister of the Indies José de Gálvez, in the 1770s, who originally envisioned that they would replace the viceregal system (viceroyalty) alltogether. With broad powers over tax collection and the public treasury and with a mandate to help foster economic growth over their districts, intendants encroached on the traditional powers of viceroys, governors and local officials, such as the corregidores, which were phased out as intendancies were established. The Crown saw the intendants as a check on these other officers. Over time accommodations were made. For example, after a period of experimentation in which an independent intendant was assigned to Mexico City, the office was thereafter given to the same person who simultaneously held the post of viceroy. Nevertheless, the creation of scores of autonomous intendancies throughout the Viceroyalty, created a great deal of decentralization, and in the Captaincy General of Guatemala, in particular, the intendancy laid the groundwork for the future independent nations of the 19th century.

In 1780, Minister of the Indies José de Gálvez sent a royal dispatch to Teodoro de Croix, Commandant General of the Internal Provinces of New Spain (Provincias Internas), asking all subjects to donate money to help the American Revolution. Millions of pesos were given.

The focus on the economy (and the revenues it provided to the royal coffers) was also extended to society at large. Economic associations were promoted, such as the Economic Society of Friends of the Country Governor-General José Basco y Vargas established in the Philippines in 1781. Similar “Friends of the Country” economic societies were established throughout the Spanish world, including Cuba and Guatemala.

A secondary feature of the Bourbon Reforms was that it was an attempt to end the significant amount of local control that had crept into the bureaucracy under the Habsburgs, especially through the sale of offices. The Bourbons sought a return to the monarchical ideal of having outsiders, who in theory should be disinterested, staff the higher echelons of regional government. In practice this meant that there was a concerted effort to appoint mostly peninsulares, usually military men with long records of service (as opposed to the Habsburg preference for prelates), who were willing to move around the global empire. The intendancies were one new office that could be staffed with peninsulares, but throughout the 18th century significant gains were made in the numbers of governors-captain generals, audiencia judges and bishops, in addition to other posts, who were Spanish-born.

The first century that saw the Bourbons on the Spanish throne coincided with series of global conflicts that pitted primarily France against Great Britain. Spain as an ally of Bourbon France was drawn into these conflicts. In fact part of the motivation for the Bourbon Reforms was the perceived need to prepare the empire administratively, economically and militarily for what was the next expected war. The Seven Years’ War proved to be catalyst for most of the reforms in the overseas possessions, just like the War of the Spanish Succession had been for the reforms on the Peninsula.

In 1720, the Villasur expedition from Santa Fe met and attempted to parley with French- allied Pawnee in what is now Nebraska. Negotiations were unsuccessful, and a battle ensued; the Spanish were badly defeated, with only thirteen managing to return to New Mexico. Although this was a small engagement, it is significant in that it was the deepest penetration of the Spanish into the Great Plains, establishing the limit to Spanish expansion and influence there.

The War of Jenkins’ Ear broke out in 1739 between the Spanish and British and was confined to the Caribbean and Georgia. The major action in the War of Jenkins’ Ear was a major amphibious attack launched by the British under Admiral Edward Vernon in March, 1741 against Cartagena de Indias, one of Spain’s major gold-trading ports in the Caribbean (today Colombia). Although this episode is largely forgotten, it ended in a decisive victory for Spain, who managed to prolong its control of the Caribbean and indeed secure the Spanish Main until the 19th century.

Following the French and Indian War/Seven Years War, the British troops invaded and captured the Spanish cities of Havana in Cuba and Manila in the Philippines in 1762. The Treaty of Paris (1763) gave Spain control over the New France Louisiana Territory including New Orleans, Louisiana creating a Spanish empire that stretched from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean, but Spain also ceded Florida to Great Britain to regain Cuba, which the British occupied during the war. Louisiana settlers, hoping to restore the territory to France, in the bloodless Rebellion of 1768 forced the Louisiana Governor Antonio de Ulloa to flee to Spain. The rebellion was crushed in 1769 by the next governor Alejandro O’Reilly who executed five of the conspirators. The Louisiana territory was to be administered by superiors in Cuba with a governor onsite in New Orleans.

The 21 northern missions in present-day California (U.S.) were established along California’s El Camino Real from 1769. In an effort to exclude Britain and Russia from the eastern Pacific, King Charles III of Spain sent forth from Mexico a number of expeditions to the Pacific Northwest between 1774 and 1793. Spain’s long-held claims and navigation rights were strengthened and a settlement and fort were built in Nootka Sound, Alaska.

A Spanish army defeats British soldiers in the Battle of Pensacola in 1781. In 1783 the Treaty of Paris returns all of Florida to Spain for the return of the Bahamas.

Spain entered the American Revolutionary War as an ally of France in June 1779, a renewal of the Bourbon Family Compact. In 1781, a Spanish expedition during the American Revolutionary War left St. Louis, Missouri (then under Spanish control) and reached as far as Fort St. Joseph at Niles, Michigan where they captured the fort while the British were away. On 8 May 1782, Count Bernardo de Gálvez, the Spanish governor of Louisiana, captured the British naval base at New Providence in the Bahamas. On the Gulf Coast, the actions of Gálvez led to Spain acquiring East and West Florida in the peace settlement, as well as controlling the mouth of the Mississippi River after the war—which would prove to be a major source of tension between Spain and the United States in the years to come.

In the second Treaty of Paris (1783), which ended the American Revolution, Britain ceded West Florida back to Spain to regain The Bahamas, which Spain had occupied during the war. Spain then had control over the river south of 32°30' north latitude, and, in what is known as the Spanish Conspiracy, hoped to gain greater control of Louisiana and all of the west. These hopes ended when Spain was pressured into signing Pinckney’s Treaty in 1795. France reacquired ‘Louisiana’ from Spain in the secret Treaty of San Ildefonso in 1800. The United States bought the territory from France in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803.

New Spain claimed the entire west coast of North America and therefore considered the Russian fur trading activity in Alaska, which began in the middle to late 18th century, an encroachment and threat. Likewise, the exploration of the northwest coast by James Cook of the British Navy and the subsequent fur trading activities by British ships was considered an invasion of Spanish territory. To protect and strengthen its claim, New Spain sent a number of expeditions to the Pacific Northwest between 1774 and 1793. In 1789 a naval outpost called Santa Cruz de Nuca (or just Nuca) was established at Friendly Cove in Nootka Sound (now Yuquot), Vancouver Island. It was protected by an artillery land battery called Fort San Miguel. Santa Cruz de Nuca was the northermost establishment of New Spain. It was the first colony in British Columbia and the only Spanish settlement in what is now Canada. Santa Cruz de Nuca remained under the control of New Spain until 1795, when it was abandoned under the terms of the third Nootka Convention. Another outpost, intended to replace Santa Cruz de Nuca, was partially built at Neah Bay on the southern side of the Strait of Juan de Fuca in what is now the U.S. state of Washington. Neah Bay was known as Bahía de Núñez Gaona in New Spain, and the outpost there was referred to as “Fuca”. It was abandoned, partially finished, in 1792. Its personnel, livestock, cannons, and ammunition were transferred to Nuca.
In 1789, at Santa Cruz de Nuca, a conflict occurred between the Spanish naval officer Esteban José Martínez and the British merchant James Colnett, triggering the Nootka Crisis, which grew into an international incident and the threat of war between Britain and Spain. 

The first Nootka Convention averted the war but left many specific issues unresolved. Both sides sought to define a northern boundary for New Spain. At Nootka Sound, the diplomatic representative of New Spain, Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra, proposed a boundary at the Strait of Juan de Fuca, but the British representative, George Vancouver refused to accept any boundary north of San Francisco. No agreement could be reached and the northern boundary of New Spain remained unspecified until the Adams–Onís Treaty with the United States (1819). That treaty also ceded Spanish Florida to the United States.

The Third Treaty of San Ildefonso ceded to France the vast territory that Napoleon then sold to the United States, known as the Louisiana Purchase (1803). Spanish Florida followed in 1819. In the 1821 Declaration of Independence of the Mexican Empire, Mexico and Central America declared their independence after three centuries of Spanish rule and formed the First Mexican Empire. 

After priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla’s 1810 Grito de Dolores (call for independence), the insurgent army began an eleven-year war. At first, the Criollo class fought against the rebels. But in 1820, coinciding with the approval of the Spanish Constitution, which took privileges away from the Criollos, they switched sides. This led to Mexican triumph in 1821. The new Mexican Empire offered the crown to Ferdinand VII or to a member of the Spanish royal family that he would designate. After the refusal of the Spanish monarchy to recognize the independence of Mexico, the ejército Trigarante (Army of the Three Guarantees), led by Agustin de Iturbide and Vincente Guerrero, cut all political and economic ties with Spain and crowned Agustin I as emperor of Mexico. Central America was originally part of the Mexican Empire, but seceded peacefully in 1823, forming the United Provinces of Central America.

This left only Cuba, the Spanish East Indies (including the Philippines and Guam), and Puerto Rico in the Spanish empire until their loss to the United States in the Spanish–American War (1898).
Source: New Spain - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Spain  

Sent by John Inclan  fromgalveston@yahoo.com 




 EXPEDICIÓN MALASPINA

Por su posible interés se acompaña pdf del trabajo y enlace del mismo aparecido en la sección Informes del diario digital www.elespiadigital.com publica el artículo “Capitán de navío Alejandro Malaspina: Un gran marino ilustrado e injustamente represaliado” el domingo 30 de marzo de 2015.

http://www.elespiadigital.com/index.php/informes/8999-capitan-de-navio-alejandro-malaspina 

José Antonio Crespo-Francés
JACrespo-Francés  rio_grande@telefonica.net 

Sent by Juan Marinez marinezj@msu.edu 


INTERNATIONAL

6 Surprising Jewish Communities, Some of the surprising, diverse places
British proposals aimed at combating Islamic extremism
France Declares War on Radical Islam by Soeren Kern
Of Helicopters & Pictures by Alf Cengia 






6 Surprising Jewish Communities
Some of the surprising, diverse places where, against the odds, Jewish life is flourishing 
by Yvette Alt Mille

ASH.COM

“And I will scatter them among the peoples, and they shall remember me in far countries, and they shall live with their children, and they shall return” (Zechariah 10:9). Part of the Jewish people’s unique history is the scattering of Jews to the four corners of the earth. Miraculously, the Jewish people have survived exile over thousands of years, leaving their imprint across the globe.

Today the Jewish people have returned to their ancestral homeland where just over half of world Jewry resides. Here are some of the surprising, diverse places where, against the odds, Jewish life is flourishing.

Gibraltar

Less than two and a half square miles, the rocky outpost of Gibraltar at the edge of Spain is an unusual place. A British territory since the 1700s, Gibraltar uses its own currency – the Gibraltar Pound – and locals speak the dialect Llanito, a mixture of Spanish and English – with some Hebrew influences thrown in. 30,000 people call Gibraltar home – as well as hundreds of Barbary Macaques, the only wild apes in Europe.

Jews have lived on Gibraltar for centuries, dating their presence to 1356, and today enjoy a thriving community of 750, with a remarkably well-developed infrastructure: four synagogues, a mikvah, a kosher coffeehouse, and separate boys and girls religious high-schools. Overwhelmingly Orthodox and Sephardi, Gibraltar’s community is growing by leaps and bounds, increasing over 25% since 2008, when the community started extending loans to potential Jewish immigrants to help them get settled on “The Rock,” as Gibraltar’s sometimes known.   

Interior of Abudarham Synagogue
          Interior of Abudarham Synagogue
Photograph © Jewish Community of Gibraltar

Small in numbers, the community is tightly-knit. “It’s very much a single community where we all feel like one family” explains Gibraltar resident Mark Benady, “where we all join together for joyous occasions and we all join together, unfortunately, for sad occasions as well.”

Botswana

A sparsely-inhabited, land-locked country in southern Africa, Botswana is perhaps best known abroad as setting of the popular Number One Ladies’ Detective Agency series. The largely-desert nation of 2 million is also home to southern Africa’s newest Jewish community, and the only one that is growing in size.

Approximately 100 Jews – many expats from Israel – live in Botswana’s capital, Gaborone, which has grown in recent years as economic reforms have transformed Botswana from one of Africa’s poorest nations into one of its most fast-growing. Shabbat and holiday services are held in people’s homes, and residents import kosher food from South Africa. In 2004, the community organized a governing body, the official “Jewish Community of Botwsana”, which is investigating the purchase of land for a synagogue or Jewish community center. Meanwhile, a heder, or Jewish school, has been set up for the young community’s approximately twenty children, ensuring a vibrant Jewish community in Botswana for years to come.

Japan

About 600 Jews today call Japan home, living in the historic centers of Kobe and Tokyo. The first Jewish settlers – mostly traders from the US, Britain and Poland - came to Japan in 1861. Settling near Tokyo, they moved to the coastal city of Kobe after the great earthquake of 1923. One of the earliest Jewish residents was Raphael Schaver, an American businessman who founded the Japan Express, the first foreign language newspaper in the country. Some of their descendents still live in Kobe today.

A second Japanese Jewish community rose in the 1880s in Nagasaki, built by Jews fleeing pogroms in Russia. The Nagasaki community soon became the largest in Japan with about 100 families. During the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-5, the community fled, bequeathing its Torah scroll to their brethren in Kobe. (One famous member of the Nagasaki Jewish community was Joseph Trumpledor, who lost an arm in the Russo-Japanese War: he went on to help for the Israeli army and was a war hero in Israel’s War of Independence.)

Kobe’s Jewish community continued to flourish in the first half of the 20thcentury, attracting Jewish immigrants from Russia, Iraq, Syria and Eastern Europe. During World War II, Japan’s Counsul General in Lithuania, Chiune Sugihara, issued exit visas for 2,000 Jews, routing them through Kobe; many Jews, arriving in the bustling Japanese port city – and seeing a thriving Jewish community there – decided to settle in the city. The city maintains a small Jewish community today: communal Shabbat meals are common, and there is one synagogue in the town.

Tokyo’s Jewish community is more recent, dating from the 1950s, when foreigners began flocking to the country to help the war-torn nation rebuild. A Jewish center was established in the central Tokyo district of Hiroo in 1952. Yiddish was the language spoken there, allowing Jews from diverse nations to communicate. A larger center was rededicated in 2009, catering to about 120 families in the capital.

Chiune Sugihara 

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Chiune Sugihara

Uruguay

Jews are thought to have lived in the South American country of Uruguay since the 1600s. Remains of a mikvah, a Jewish ritual bath, from that time have been discovered in Colonia, a rugged outpost thought to be the home of secret Jews during the Inquisition.

The modern community, however, dates from 1904 when Sephardi Jewish traders arrived in the capital Montevideo; Russian Jews followed in 1906. Uruguay’s first formal synagogue was dedicated in Montevideo in 1917, and the community grew as Jews immigrated from Europe and the Middle East. By the 1960s, Uruguay’s Jewish population had reached 50,000, one of the largest in the world. Since then, it’s declined, to about 20,000-25,000 members. Approximately 0.75% of Uruguay’s population of a little over three million is Jewish.

Nine synagogues and two day schools – educating nearly half of the community’s children – provide the backdrop to a vibrant community in Montevideo. Jewish Uruguayans have often held national office, including cabinet officials, far beyond their numeric representation in society. Ricardo Erlich, a prominent member of Uruguay’s Jewish community and leading biochemist, served as Mayor of Montevideo from 2005-2010, when he left that post to become Minister of Education.

Uruguay’s Jews are proud that Uruguay was the first Latin American country (and the fourth in the world) to recognize Israel in May of 1948, and the first Latin American nation to establish diplomatic ties with the Jewish state. Uruguay is the only Latin American country to administer Israel’s university entrance exams, and has one of the world’s highest rates of aliyah to Israel.


The formerly predominately Jewish neighborhood
                    on Reus Street in Montevideo. 
                      (Photo credit: Gustavo Uval)

Siberia

Twenty years before the establishment of the state of Israel, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin set up his own “Jewish” country: Birobidzhan, in the far reaches of Siberia. Located in mosquito-infested swampland on Russia’s far eastern edge, as a buffer between the USSR and China, Birobidzhan was meant to be aYidishe Avtonomne Gegnt, a Jewish autonomous region, with Yiddish as its official language. Yiddish schools were established, a Yiddish-language newspaper, the Birobidzhaner Stern newspaper serviced the region, and street signs and official theatres and schools were all in Yiddish.

The project attracted relatively few Jews: around five Soviet Jews moved to Birobidzhan when it was established in 1928, but the territory’s unwelcoming location made it an unappealing place to live. 1934 saw the peak immigration to the Jewish region, with 5,250 Jews moving that year, though most left soon afterwards.

The project attracted relatively few Jews: around five Soviet Jews moved to Birobidzhan when it was established in 1928, but the territory’s unwelcoming location made it an unappealing place to live. 1934 saw the peak immigration to the Jewish region, with 5,250 Jews moving that year, though most left soon afterwards.


The old synagogue in Birobidzhan, the capital of Russia’s Jewish Autonomous Region.
A few thousand Jews remained in Birobidzhan until 1991, when most left after the fall of the Soviet Union. Today, the capital city of Birobidzhan has a Jewish population of about 5,000 (out of a total population of 76,000). The town’s main avenue is still named Sholem Aleichem Street, and a statue of the Fiddler on the Roof stands outside the local symphony hall. The Birobidzhaner Shterncontinues to print two or three pages each week in Yiddish, but times have changed: the editor is not Jewish; the daughter of Cossacks, she learned Yiddish in college. The New York Times has called Birobidzhan a “Jewish Disneyland”: “a city that often seems to have the religious authenticity of a pizza bagel with pepperoni”.

Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan, a central Asian nation bordering Iran, is home to a thriving, warmly welcomed Jewish community.

Jewish traders first settled in this Central Asian nation bordering Iran in the 5thCentury, though the first permanent Jewish settlement dates from 1730, when a local king allowed Jews to purchase land in his northern Azeri kingdom: Jews bought and area known as “Red Village”, which remains a bastion of Azeri Jewish life to this day. Home to 4,000 residents – all of whom are Jewish – Red Village is prosperous town of brick and stone houses, cafes, three synagogues, and a Jewish school. The entire city comes to a peaceful halt each week, as businesses in the town close for Shabbat.

Azerbaijan’s capital city, Baku, a two-hour drive away, is home to about 10,000 Jews. Azerbaijan’s Government is encouraging their expansion: President Ilham Ilyev paid for a new synagogue in the capital in 2012 (bringing the number of synagogues in Baku to three) and fully funds the capital’s two Jewish schools. (In the Red Village, Azerbaijan’s government pays for the heating and oil in the synagogues and schools, as well.)

A Shiite Muslim nation, Azerbaijan nonetheless conducts a flourishing trade with Israel, totaling $5.5 billion annually. Many of Azerbaijan’s most prominent citizens are Jews, including the Nobel Prize physicist Lev Landau, chess master Garry Kasparov, and writers Essad Bey and Kurban Said, who wrote Azerbaijan’s most famous novel, “Ali and Nino”. Azeri Jews have made their marks in Israel, as well, including such well-known figures as the famous Israeli singers Sarit Hadad and Yaffa Yarkoni.

Let’s hope we soon see the day when all Jews come home together in Israel, bringing the beauty of their various traditions with them.

Received from newsletterserver@aish.com




Night Watch by Rembrant

The Rijksmuseum in Holland had an idea: Let's bring the art to the people and then, hopefully, they will come to see more - at the museum. They took one Rembrandt painting from 1642, Night Watch, brought to life the characters in it, placed them in a busy mall, and the rest you can see for yourself!

You may want to look at the painting first, then click to enjoy the video.  Either way . . 

http://www.youtube.com/embed/a6W2ZMpsxhg?feature=player_embedded 

Editor Mimi:  I agree with Oscar Ramirez who says: "This is so cool. Takes the flash mob to a new level. new.
osramirez@sbcglobal.net
 




British proposals aimed at combating Islamic extremism

British Home Secretary Theresa May has unveiled a series of new proposals aimed at combating Islamic extremism "in all its forms."

The plan is part of the Tory election manifesto, a declaration of policies and programs to be implemented if Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative Party stays in power after the general election on May 7.

The home secretary has pledged that a future Tory government would — among other measures — ban Islamic hate preachers, shut down extremist mosques and review whether Sharia courts in England and Wales are compatible with British values.

May has also promised to crack down on Islamic extremism in British prisons, to monitor how police are responding to so-called honor crimes, female genital mutilation and forced marriage, and to change the citizenship law to ensure that successful applicants respect British values.

 



France Declares War on Radical Islam
by Soeren Kern

March 25, 2015 at 5:00 am
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/5440/france-radical-islam 

The French government has cut the social welfare benefits of nearly 300 jihadists who have left France to join the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. Amid a rapidly expanding jihadist threat, it has also started confiscating passports, imposing travel bans and blocking access to jihadist websites.
The moves are part of a raft of new anti-terrorism measures aimed at preventing French citizens or residents from joining jihadist groups abroad, and at slowing the spread of radical Islam at home. Muslim groups are criticizing the flurry of activity as "Islamophobia."

On March 17, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve revealed that the government has stopped paying welfare benefits to 290 French jihadists fighting with the Islamic State. He said that the agencies responsible for distributing welfare payments were being notified as soon as it was confirmed that a French citizen had left the country to fight abroad.

At least 1,200 French nationals or residents are believed to have joined the Islamic State, but Cazeneuve did not say whether any of those were receiving benefits. "We should not make a controversy out of this subject or allow people to think that no action has been taken," he said. "We are taking this seriously and will continue to do so."

The debate over benefits payments to jihadists erupted in November 2014, when Eric Ciotti, the president of Alpes-Maritimes, a department in southeastern France, suspended the payment of a welfare benefit known as the RSA to a French jihadist fighting in Syria. "I cannot conceive that public money goes into the pockets of someone who harbors terrorist designs against our nation, against its vital interests and against democracy, and that money is being used to fund jihad," Ciotti said at the time.

Meanwhile, for the first time ever, French authorities on February 23 confiscated the passports and identity cards of six French citizens who were allegedly planning to travel to Syria to join the Islamic State. The government said it might seize the passports of at least 40 other French citizens.

On March 16, the Interior Ministry also blocked five Islamist websites that, it said, were promoting terrorism. The sites included one belonging to al-Hayat Media Center, the propaganda wing of the Islamic State.

The actions were carried out in accordance with new rules that grant French authorities the power to block websites that "glorify terrorism," and to impose entry and exit bans on individuals "whenever there are serious reasons to believe that they are planning to travel abroad... to take part in terrorist activities, war crimes or crimes against humanity." The new powers have been controversial because they can be implemented without judicial approval.

Cazeneuve said that the websites were blocked to prevent people from "taking up arms" on the Internet. "I make a distinction between freedom of expression and the spread of messages that serve to glorify terrorism," he said. "These hate messages are a crime," he added. Cazeneuve said his ministry was targeting "dozens" of other jihadist websites.

But the Human Rights Commissioner of the Council of Europe, Nils Muižnieks, criticized the move because it was carried out without judicial oversight. "Limiting human rights to fight against terrorism is a serious mistake and an inefficient measure that can even help the terrorists' cause," he said.
Muižnieks added that he was "worried" about the "exclusively security-driven approach" shaping French counter-terrorism legislation, and warned that if adopted, "this legislation could have the effect of killing freedom and creating a dangerous social climate in which all individuals are considered potential suspects."

Muižnieks was referring to a new bill that was unveiled by Prime Minister Manuel Valls on March 19, which would allow intelligence services to monitor and collect the email and telephone communications of anyone suspected of being a terrorist. The bill will be debated in the French parliament in April and is expected to be approved in July.

Among other features, the new law would force Internet service providers and telephone companies to allow intelligence services to record metadata, which could be stored for up to five years and would be analyzed for potentially suspicious behavior. If intelligence agents detect anything suspicious, they could ask an independent nine-person panel for permission to conduct more intense surveillance.

Amnesty International said the law would pave the way for intrusive surveillance practices with no judicial pre-authorization. In a statement, the group said:  "The surveillance practices envisaged in the draft legislation would give the French authorities extremely broad surveillance powers running against fundamental principles of proportionality and legality, which ought to govern all restrictions on the right to privacy and free speech."

Valls defended the bill. "These are legal tools, but not tools of exception, nor of generalized surveillance of citizens," he said at a press conference. "There will not be a French Patriot Act," he said, referring to American legislation bearing the same name. "There cannot be a lawless zone in the digital space. Often we cannot predict the threat, the services must have the power to react quickly."

The majority of French citizens seem to agree. An Ipsos survey for Radio Europe 1 and the French daily Le Monde on January 28 showed that 71% of people were in favor of general surveillance without the need to get a warrant from a judge.

Other counter-terrorism initiatives include:
On March 3, Valls announced that the state would double the number of university courses on Islam in an effort to stop foreign governments from financing and influencing the training of French imams. Valls said that he wanted more imams and prison chaplains who have been trained abroad to "undergo more training in France, to speak French fluently and to understand the concept of secularism." There are currently six universities in France offering courses in Islamic studies and theology. Valls said he wanted to double that number to 12 and that the courses would be free.

On February 25, Cazeneuve unveiled a plan to "reform" the Muslim faith in order to bring it into line with the "values of the French Republic." This would be done by means of a new "Islamic Foundation" devoted to conducting "revitalizing research" into a form of Islam that "carries the message of peace, tolerance and respect." Among other measures, the government would create a new forum to: promote dialogue with the Muslim community; improve the training of Muslim preachers; combat radicalization in French prisons; and regulate Muslim schools.

On January 21, Valls announced a 736 million euro ($835 million) program to augment its anti-terrorism defenses. He said the government would hire and train 2,680 new anti-terrorist judges, security agents, police officers, electronic eavesdroppers and analysts over the next three years. The government will also spend 480 million euros on new weapons and protective gear for police. The initiative includes an enhanced online presence based on a new government website called "Stop Djihadisme."

"They tell you: Sacrifice yourself with us, you will defend a just cause." The French government's anti-jihadist website, called "Stop Djihadisme," features videos debunking jihadist recruitment propaganda. 

Valls recently warned that as many as 10,000 Europeans could be waging jihad in Iraq and Syria by the end of 2015. "There are 3,000 Europeans in Iraq and Syria today," he said. "When you do a projection for the months to come, there could be 5,000 before summer and 10,000 before the end of the year. Do you realize the threat that this represents?"

"But what they do not know is that, once they allow us to vote, we will all vote for Islamic parties because we do not believe in left and right. This will make us win local councils and as we begin to accumulate power in the Catalan autonomous region, Islam will begin to be implemented." — Abdelwahab Huzi, Salafist preacher, Lleida.

Gatestone  4/25/2015

Sent by Odell Harwell  
odell.harwell74@att.net
 



Of Helicopters & Pictures
Friday, May 09, 2014 
Alf Cengia 

I once worked under a Chief Executive who habitually used that cliché. I still cringe whenever I hear it. You know what it means, don't you? That person is going to show you that ''big picture'' that is important to them, but that you won't really care for. 

Our C.E. had been brought in as an interim officer assigned to facilitate a massive company-wide corporate restructure. The problem was that he'd been experienced in selling a different product and had no familiarity with ours. We had an entirely different business that required specialized marketing. Unfortunately, he was a "consultant" out of his depth.

His constant assurance that if we took a helicopter ride with him we would see where he was coming from made him infamous. Whenever someone asked where he was, the other person's eyes would slowly glance upwards. And whenever we heard a helicopter hovering above our building, we wondered whether he was....well, you know.
Anyhow, after all that I want to take you for a helicopter ride with me. I'm not a consultant and complex details perplex me unless I have hard data. But I know someone who has given us the Big Picture.

First of all, Israel turned 66 this week and that's a bona fide miracle. Israel ceased to exist as a nation some 1,900+ years ago. Throughout the centuries its tribes were dispersed, treated with contempt, mercilessly hunted and threatened with extinction. Against all odds they survived.

Dr. Andy Woods recently observed on his Facebook page:
On this day [May 6th] in 1948, one of the greatest anticipated prophecies of the Bible was fulfilled. Isaiah 66:8 rhetorically asks, "Can a land be born in one day. Can a nation be brought forth all at once?" We now know from history that the answer is "yes."... Never in the history of mankind has a nation been removed from its land and yet restored to that very same land 2000 years later with its own unique culture, religion, and language all intact!
Joel Rosenberg noted:

"Indeed, few Americans know how close the U.S. government came to refusing to support the establishment of the State of Israel in May of 1948. Few realize that most of President Truman’s advisors were dead set against the Jewish state, despite the horrors of the Holocaust, and that even many American Jews didn’t support the re-creation of Israel."

As the fortuitous nature of the times had it, Truman - a Bible believing Christian - was a significant factor in swaying the opposition to a new nation for the Jews. Rosenberg cites Clark Clifford who was an advisor to President Truman:
“[Truman] was a student and believer in the Bible since his youth. From his reading of the Old Testament he felt the Jews derived a legitimate historical right to Palestine, and he sometimes cited such biblical lines as Deuteronomy 1:8..."

Anti-Zionists imagine that modern Israel was a product of Zionist political manipulations. They would protest that: "Zionists got into Truman's ear" or "They arranged the Arab-Israel conflict with Armageddon in mind."
Yet, in the 19th century, a number of theologians anticipated the resurrection of Israel as a nation, purely because the Bible said so. These included people such as J. C. Ryle, the Bonar brothers, George N. H. Peters, Joseph Seiss and others. They looked at passages such as Jeremiah 31:31-37 & Amos 9:14-15 and took them at face-value.

Zionists couldn't have foisted Deut 28:37 onto the world. Hatred on the Jews is a phenomenon that precedes modern Zionism by centuries. It is eminently ironic that those who irrationally vilify Israel, or deny its right to exist, and those who hate Jews are, in fact, fulfilling Deut 28:37.

We are currently seeing hundreds of Nigerian girls kidnapped by Boko Haram in order to sell as slaves in the name of Allah. Yet this event was largely ignored by activists who opted to use the opportunity of Israel's 66th Birthday to malign it. I can only describe this as obscene and evil.

Dennis Prager gave us a piece of the Big Picture when he observed of the Middle East conflict that: "One side wants the other dead...and if it didn't there would be peace." It's not hard to grasp and you don't need a helicopter to see it.

God said Israel would not cease to exist as a nation forever and that it would suffer as a consequence of straying from its relationship with Him. That's what we see today. No Zionist pressure forced Israel's Arab neighbors to attack it in 1948, long before it had a chance to become an "apartheid State". And no Zionist helped to miraculously preserve it in subsequent attacks.

Some forty years ago Hal Lindsey predicted that Russia would emerge as a significant protagonist along with Iran. Then the iron curtain fell and the eighties went by without so much as a whimper. Someone even wrote a dissertation mocking Lindsey and those Armageddon-loving premillennialists.

The author's case was driven by his opinion. Hal accessed his information from the Bible even though his timing was premature.

So now we see Putin leaving his boot marks all over Eastern Europe while selling arms to Iran. In turn, Iran is striving for nuclear weapons and has repeatedly called for the extinction of Israel. Iran also enables Syria, who enables Hezbollah, who are the sworn enemies of Israel.

America is becoming a byword insofar as influencing international outcomes. We're now seeing Europe forced to rise and take an initiative in dealing with Iran's nuclear aspirations. Even so, there's little doubt that Iran will succeed.

Hal was right.
So let's quickly recap: A nation that was once dead has been miraculously resurrected. It survived a number of attacks and immense odds against its survival. For some otherwise inexplicable reason, its surrounding nations want to destroy it and others conspire against it. The protagonists are behaving as the Bible predicted.
Moreover, all this was prophesied to occur just before the Christ's Second Advent (Zechariah 14:1-4; Hosea 5:15; Matthew 23:39). Scoffers will be tempted to allegorize these verses but one cannot ignore the signs of the times, nor Israel.

Is the Big Picture coming into focus yet?  Are you ready?

Sent by Odell Harwell  
odell.harwell74@att.net
 

 

  05/01/2015 08:41 AM

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

UNITED STATES
Boatlift on 9/11 ...... Unbelievable....Takes 12 minutes to WATCH
Pepe Serna: Finally the Star
“Children of Giant” - A Documentary born of Texas History By Rita D. Hernandez
545 vs. 300,000,000 People By Charlie Reese Last Column
Internship with National Park Service, seeking Latinos for Internships
A majority of English-speaking Hispanics in the U.S. are bilingual 
Scholars focus on  violent chapter  from Texas’ past by Lucia Benavides
Chicanos and Latinos facing the challenges of racism in the U.S. by Gus Chavez   
Mexican Immigration and "How America Inspired the Third Reich"
by Rosalinda Mendez Gonzalez, Ph.D.
A 'forgotten' war festers in relationships by Agustin Gurza
Importance of the ranching and mining skills of the Hispanic people  by Ruben Salaz Marquez, Ph.D.
The Spanish Presence in the Americas
Serra statue a step closer to leaving D.C.

HISTORIC PROJECTS
Soy de Duval Blog maintained by Alfredo E. Cardenas
Did another Miracle Occur at 4th Annual Pilgrimage Honoring Sor Maria, The Mystical Lady in Blue?

HISTORIC TIDBITS
El Cinco de Mayo, the Real Reason We Celebrate by Dan Arellano
April 4th, 1689 -- Spanish explorer names the Nueces
April 13th, 1888 -- Millionaire Robert Mills Dies
National Humanities Center Web Site


HISPANIC LEADERS
Raul Hector Castro:  Arizona's only Hispanic governor    1916 - April 10, 2015      
Manual Vicente Perez: Engineer and Businessman  April 14, 1934 - April 3, 2015     
Anticeto Molina: Musician 1939 - 2015                                                                
Eduardo Galeano:  Uruguayan writer  September 3, 1940 - April 13, 2015              
Tony Cantu, a longtime professor and administrator   1951- 2015 
Remembering:  Anthony Quinn  April 21, 1915- June 3, 2001
Remembering:  Cesar Chavez     March 31, 1927 -  April 23, 1993       

LATINO AMERICAN PATRIOTS
Website focusing on the contributions of Latinos in the U.S. military has been launched
     by Ron Gonzalez, October 16, 2013
Long Beach VA Hospital Art Show, Chris Kyle Navy Seal by Leroy Martinez
Johnny Quezada USN (Ret), Director for Special Programs & Military Affairs
Forgiveness by Roy A. Archuleta

Comments by Gus Chavez on  “Patriots From The Barrio” by Dave Gutierrez
ChicanoVietnam Peace Commemoration Committee 

EARLY LATINO PATRIOTS
Battle of San Diego Bay, California highlights Spain's early footprint
Galvez/Spain Our Forgotten Ally in the American Revolutionary War by by Judge Edward F. Butler, Sr.
June 12-14, 2015:   Sons of the American Revolution (SAR)’s Annual Conference 
Spain to turn over to U.S. documents linked to American independence:

SURNAMES
Jose Antonio Menchaca Campaign by Rosie Carbo
El origen de los apellidos

DNA
Family History and DNA Link New Mexicans to Mexico by Nicolás Cabrera 
             NMSU Student Series, by Nicolás Cabrera, Part 1 and Part 2 
DNA Roots from the Mexican States of Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas


FAMILY HISTORY
What Day of the Week were your Born?
Free Historical Book Collection Online Hits 200,000th Milestone 
Evidence: In a Nutshell  by Karen Clifford, A.G. 
Using Historical Maps to Learn About Your Ancestors

EDUCATION
Major Hector P. Garcia, M.D. Charter High School by Rita D. Hernandez, Ph.D.
The Legacy of Dr. Hector P. Garcia Extends Nationally by Rita D. Hernandez, Ph.D.
UCLA to require diversity course
Students weave their heritage into a quilt honoring Hispanic soldiers who earned the Medal of Honor.
Caps, Creating a Path to Success
Urban farm helps urban school get its fresh on by - Hannah Madans
The World War I Diary of José de la Luz Sáenz

CULTURE
The Mexican Cure-All  
Mexico’s Tarahumara Tribe is Getting the Video Game Treatment  
Zarco Guerrero Chicano Sculptor, Mask Maker & Performance Artist 
Birthday Traditions: History of the Quinceanera
El Majahual Restaurant in San Francisco


BOOKS AND PRINT MEDIA
DVD, ten years of Somos Primos, 1990-1999 available 
Abebooks: Finding scarce books Mexican family research     
2015 NALIP Media Summit, Media Summit, June 25- 28, 2015   
María Teresa Márquez and CHICLE: The First Chicana/o Listserv Network
LATINA Style Inc. Announces Partnership with The New Agenda
More Than Just Peloteros: Sport and U.S. Latino Communities. Edited by Jorge Iber
Somos en escrito – The Latino Literary Online Magazine
Antonia Castaneda, Su Vida y Su Obra, Her Life and Her Work
Border Contraband, A History of Smuggling Across The Rio Grande by George T. Diaz 


ORANGE COUNTY, CA
May 9:  SHHAR "Indigenous Background of Westerns and Northern Mexico"
May 1-3: 16th Annual Cinco de Mayo Festival, Santa Ana Parks
May 9: Mother's Day Tardeda, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.  
May 16: 25th  Adelante Young Women's Educational & Leadership Conference
May 26: 15th Annual Awards & Scholarship Luncheon, NHBWA
Beany's Drive-through in Long Beach CA


LOS ANGELES COUNTY
“The House of Aragón”  Chapter 5: Michael Aragón again goes off to war
Color My World Written by Pauline Adamek 
Shoes for Margarita by Mike Acosta
National Medal  of  Honor Day, Obregon CMH  Memorial, La Placita, Los Angeles
Fort Moore Pioneer Memorial


CALIFORNIA
LULAC California new website and May 15-17 Convention Information
California LULAC, A History of Patriots with Civil Rights by Margie Aguirre

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
Felix Gutierrez Death Certificate, Lorri Ruiz Frain
Three Generations and the Monrovia Plunge: Grandfather Francisco J. Gutierrez, Father Felix J.
      Gutierrez, and Son Felix F. Gutierrez   by Susie Ling, 18 September 2011
The History of Neighborhood House in Logan Heights: Americanization through Baseball 
The History of Neighborhood House in Logan Heights: Girls Play Ball!
Pomona:  Dirigentes Locales Reciben Reconocimiento en Desayuno Cesar Chavez Por Olga Rojas


NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
City of Berkeley to honor Rafael Jesús González with a Lifetime Achievement Award
Hispanic Winemakers: Another cultural phenomenon
Latino Winemakers in California
Return of a Spanish Legacy and Treasure: Cruce Spanish Colonial Horses 
"Preserving our Past for our Future" Saving the whole package  for future generations
by  Robin Collins, President
Ranches in the San Joaquin Valley  By Norman Atkins
San Francisco, the brickyard


NORTHWESTERN, US
Changing face of Chicano studies by Deborah Bulkeley

SOUTHWESTERN, US
"What If?" by Edward R. Alcantar
Arizona Latino Arts and Culture Center In the Heart of Downtown Phoenix 
Alianza Memories by by John de Aragon
Unknown raiders along the Mexican Border attacked Nuecestown.  
The Chinese-Mexican Cuisine, Born Of U.S. Prejudice by Lisa Morehouse
To all Anza Society members and friends
Dreamers, Deportees and Daredevils:  J. Paul Taylor and Justice for Migrant Children and Youth
El Cerro de Tomé: a Hill that Unites by Nicolás Cabrera
Espana en el Suroeste de Los EEUU: de Cabeza de Vaca . . a Juan de Onate
      by José Antonio Crespo-Francés

TEXAS
May 4th - 7th: Hispanic Medal of Honor Exhibit, Texas State Capitol 
Texas Antes de El Alamo, 1682-1736
Vanished from Victoria: Southern Pacific Railroad depot 
April 10th, 1887 -- Pioneer Mexican Presbyterian ordained minister
Pena Launches "Texas Heritage Revival" Campaign 
Texas Tejanos  Early Texas History Symposium Port Lavaca, TX by Jose Antonio Lopez
The Jola Coins  by Rueben M. Perez

The Ordeal of  Manuel Ramírez Martínez by Jose Antonio Lopez
Hispanic Roots: Series of three articles written by George Farias
Alphabetical listing of the families in the Camargo Census of 1750
New Books in Texas History 
This Day in History:  April 1st of 1813


MIDDLE AMERICA
Borderlands, Migrant Saints, Sacred Bundles: Latinos and the Remaking of American Religiosity
Digital Project Offers Access to the History of Free People of Color in Louisiana

EAST COAST
Whitney Museum to Feature Prof. Harry Gamboa Jr. of California State University of Northridge 
Sephardic Journeys, on view through June
April 19, 1875  White Horse (Tsen-tainte) and a group of followers surrendered at Fort Sill,
Film screening of "Millie and the Lords" Directed by Jennica Carmona

AFRICAN-AMERICAN
Louis Armstrong: Growing Up Jewish ~ A Wonderful Story
102-year-old former Apollo, Cotton Club dancer sees herself perform on video for first time 
Lena Horne: A Great Lady Who Broke the Color Line
A rich library of African-American poetry goes digital - Knight Foundation by Julie Edgar
Anna Julia (1858-1964Hatwood) Cooper  

INDIGENOUS
What Killed the Mayas: War or Weather?
Native Americans have West Eurasian origins

SEPHARDIC
Texas Mexican Secret Spanish Jews Today, by Anne deSola Cardoza
Spain Expected to Offer Citizenship to 2 Million Jews
Pepper, Silk & Ivory: Amazing Stories about Jews and the Far East


ARCHAEOLOGY
Incredible New Artifacts Found In 2,000-Year-Old Mexican Tunnel George Dvorsky
Discovery Links Man to Americas for 36,000 Years by Thomas H. Maugh II
Oldest Human DNA Reveals Mysterious Branch of Humanity
DNA Analysis of the Paracas Skulls Proves They Are Not Human


MEXICO
Cook Islands: A Comic Strip Star by Galal Kernahan, 2/20/1984
Major Monasteries of Mexico: Dominican priory of San Juan Bautista Coixtlahuaca in Oaxaca
Facebook with Mexico's Northern Mexico Researchers
José Antonio Serrano Ortega, Nuevo Presidente del COLMICH
Restos hallados en exconvento sí son de Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz
Defunción de Doña Josefa Sanchez Viuda del Exmo. Don Juan O Donojú
Defunción de Don Mariano Ramos Arizpe y Valdez
Nombramiento del Licenciado Gómez de Santillán
El Soldado Abanderado, Porfirio Morales
Diligencias Matrimoniales, leídas en tres dias festivos las moniciones
Matrimonio de Don Ygnacio de Urrutia y Doña Rosa Sanchez Navarro
Murieron Hace 100 Anos, las imágenes de los registros de las defunciones.
Nombres Antiguos y Modernos de Las Villas

CENTRAL & SOUTH AMERICA
Beginning to Understand Brasil, a Unique and Engaging Giant by Galal Kernahan
Archbishop Óscar Romero’s Last Sermon: March 14, 1980
Argentine archaeologists find secret Nazi lair in jungle By Harriet Alexander

CARIBBEAN REGION
Havana Curveball: Documentary About Healing the World
Puerto Ricans at the Dawn of the New Millennium 
War Against All Puerto Ricans by Nelson A. Denis
Condolences to Dr. Sarai Lastra and Family

PHILIPPINES
Hispanic Songs in the Philippines  by Eddie AAA Calderón, Ph.D.
The Subject of Love by Eddie AAA Calderón, Ph.D. 


SPAIN
Touching the Prado
Spain and New Spain
Expedicion Malaspina


INTERNATIONAL
6 Surprising Jewish Communities, Some of the surprising, diverse places
British proposals aimed at combating Islamic extremism
France Declares War on Radical Islam by Soeren Kern
Of Helicopters & Pictures by Alf Cengia