SOMOS PRIMOS 
"We are Cousins"
FEBRUARY 2017
Editor: Mimi Lozano 
(c) 2000-2017

Artist Ignacio Gomez  
Cesar Chavez Maquette 

TABLE OF CONTENTS    

Submitters or attributed to:

Letters to the Editor

11/25/2016  jmcamelot@gmail.com writes:

Estimada amiga Mimi,

Muchas gracias por incluirme en la difusión de su magnífica publicación. He leído con mucho gusto ese reflejo de la inmensa ycompleja realidad hispánica en Norteamérica..

Por si fuera de su interés le remito una reflexión jurídica que con mucha generosidad me ha publicado el diario ABC en su prestigiosa Tercera. Abordo el tema de la nacionalidad de Cristóbal Colón desde un punto de vista jurídico. Creo que no se había hecho antes. Si le pareciera interesante le rogaría que lo compartiera. Si lo hispánico tiene que ser liderado desde América que sean suyos los argumentos que modestamente desarrollo en mi artículo y que demuestra la irrevocable decisión de Cristóbal Colón de imaginar políticamente una comunidad hispana superando los antiguos reinos de Castilla y Aragón, pues aunque jurídicamente Colón exige y adopta por voluntad propia la naturalización como castellano políticamente sus ideas van más allá.

En fin, espero que lo disfrute. 
http://www.abc.es/opinion/abci-nacionalidad-cristobal-colon-201701081724_noticia.html 

Un sentido abrazo
José María Lancho 
 jmcamelot@gmail.com 

Editor Mimi:  This article is included in this issue, 
click Lancho.

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THE FREEDOM TO SPEAK
Alliance Defending Freedom

THE FREEDOM TO THINK
in the classroom  

Editor Mimi:  This incident is being replayed in classrooms all over the United States.  The teacher's opinion is considered the only correct position to hold on any issue.  This accepted form of dictatorship  is not new, carried to extreme by teachers is surely damning the student to narrowness of thought, and absorbing ideas, without processing them, like programmed  robots.  

In 1976,  I sat in for my daughter's classes for a week at Santa Ana College.  It was a summer session which over-lapped with her last week of her regular semester at Brigham Young University, BYU.  

It was either a sociology or psychology class, I don't remember, but the topic was family relations. The instructor started out the first day of class aggressively defying contradicting him  He stated that if anyone really believed there were normal mother/father/children families anymore, they were delusional. 

"Does anyone know any families like that now?" he asked loudly.  I quickly threw up my hand and responded loudly, "Yes, I do!"  Surprised and startled he turned towards me, trying to assess me.  He paused, and then softly said,  "Yes, I believe you do."   

I was a little worried for my daughter, if my standing up to the instructor would affect her grade, but  fortunately it did not.  My daughter handled the class discussions just fine, and ended up being an attorney.

Fifty years ago, a social movement of the "I" generation was chipping away at family ideals.  My daughter's college teacher was expressing that sentiment.  

Unfortunately, we are seeing the results of those ideas in the only correct answer requested and demanded by the teacher of  Will Saletan's son.

For many years I have viewed media with a very suspicious eye.  I look at all media with questions.  What concept are they really trying to get across:  What does the title say? Opening and closing paragraphs? Why did they chose a specific picture?  Where is the article placed, inside margin, on the edge?  What page? Size of letters? Extracted quotes?   Is the reporter being an columnist, or is a columnist pretending to be a reporter?  

If you have not been a critic of media, this is a good time to start.  We are bombarded with collages tying together visuals with embedded ideas, selling something.  Unfortunately, the mind shaping starts very early. Our citizenship requires vigilance and keeping informed with reliable facts. We need to step back and ask what are they selling (ideas) and why?

God bless America 

https://www.prageru.com/school-choice-now 

Latino Representation in California (1849-2017)

By John P. Schmal
January 15, 2017  

The November 2016 Election

After the recent November 2016 Election, the representation of Latinos in the California Assembly increased from 23 to 27. With 27 assembly members out of 80 in the entire state, Latinos have achieved 34% representation. By comparison, the 2015 American Community Survey (ACS) reported that there were 14.7 million Latinos in California, representing 38.4% of the entire population.

In the California Senate, there are now five Latino Senators out of a total of 40 (13% representation). Thus, the total number of Latino California Legislators now numbers 32 out of 120 legislators, with about 27% representation in that body. This is in stark contrast to political situation in California from 1886 to the 1990s, when Latino representation was either non-existent or severely deficient. The struggle for Latino political representation has been a hard fought, long-term battle that started in 1848 and continues to this day.

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848)

On May 13, 1846, the United States Congress, at the request of President James Knox Polk, declared war on the Mexican Republic. And thus began the Mexican-American War. The war in California ended less than a year later with the Treaty of Cahuenga, signed on January 13, 1847. Another year later, on February 2, 1848, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo forced Mexico to hand over to the United States 525,000 square miles of landing, including California.   

Of the treaty’s twenty-three articles, four defined the rights of Mexican citizens and Indian people in the territories. Californians were given the freedom to live in ceded territories as either American or Mexican citizens. The new American citizens would be entitled to “the enjoyment of all the rights of citizens of the United States according to the principles of the constitutions.”

The First California Constitution (1849)

A year later, forty-eight delegates met in Monterey to put together the first California Constitution. For six weeks from September to November 1849 the Constitutional Convention created a constitution that would guarantee rights to all citizens living within California’s borders. The final Constitution -- written in both English and Spanish -- provided that all major legislation in the future would be written in both English and Spanish.  

Article XI, Section 21 of California’s 1849 Constitution reflected the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo’s guarantee, declaring, “All laws, decrees, regulations, and provisions, which from their nature require publication, shall be published in English and Spanish.” Article II, “Right of Suffrage,” Section 1, stated that “Every white male citizen of the United States, and every white male citizen of Mexico, who shall have elected to become a citizen of the United States, under the treaty of peace exchanged and ratified at Queretaro, on the 30th day of May, 1848 of the age of twenty-one years, who shall have been a resident of the State six months next preceding the election, and the county or district in which he claims his vote thirty days, shall be entitled to vote at all elections which are now or hereafter may authorized by law.”  

Section 5 decreed: “Every citizen of California, declared a legal voter by this Constitution and every citizen of the United States, a resident of this State on the day of election, shall be entitled to vote at the first general election under this Constitution, and on the question of the adoption thereof.” Eight Californios -- six of them Mexican Californians -- represented Hispanic interests at the Convention. They were as follows:  

1.    Antonio M. Pico from San Jose

2.    Jacinto Rodriguez from Monterey

3.    Pablo de la Guerra from Santa Barbara

4.    M.G. Vallejo from Sonora

5.    Jos. Antonio Carrillo from Los Angeles

6.    Manuel Dominguez from Los Angeles

7.    Miguel de Pedrorena, a native of San Diego (from San Diego).

8.    Jos. M. Covarrubias, a native of France (representing Santa Barbara).  

The sad reality of this bilingual convention is that -- even before the ink was dry on the official paper -- certain Anglo-American interests were taking steps that would lead to a gradual and continuous appropriation of Chicano suffrage. This action, to some people, may have been regarded as the logical prerogative of a conquering people over a conquered people. But the conquerors -- once Mexico had requested peace -- signed a treaty and wrote a constitution that guaranteed citizenship and voting rights to the Californios who had well-established roots in this region. This had been a promise and, by 1893, most of these guarantees had been eliminated through legislation and plebiscites.
 

The Early California Legislature

During the first couple of decades, several prominent Californio families of Spanish and Mexican origin who held large tracts of land called ranchos, shared the reins of power with the Anglos who were arriving in their territory in ever-greater numbers. But, in the First California Constitutional Legislature, which commenced on December 15, 1849 in San Jose, was attended by a nineteen delegates from the northern states of the U.S. Another ten hailed from the southern states, but no natives of California were represented in the Assembly. Jose M. Covarrubias, a Californio landowner in the Santa Barbara area, but a native of France, was one of the few Assemblypersons with any strong California ties going back more than a decade.  

The first California Senate in 1849 was composed of nine members from northern states, five members from southern states, and only two members who were native Californians. The session lasted four months and adjourned on April 22, 1850. Less than half a year later, on September 9, 1850, California would be admitted as the thirty-first American state.  

The first session of the California Legislation after statehood commenced on January 6, 1851 and lasted until May 1, 1951. One of the delegates representing Los Angeles for the Whig Party was a well-known Californian named Andres Pico. Andres –- the brother of the last Mexican Governor, Pio Pico -- was the Mexican military officer who had fought the American forces under his commander, General Jose Maria Flores.  

Andres Pico

On January 13, 1847, Andres Pico, seeing that continued resistance to the American forces was hopeless, met with Lieutenant-Colonel John C. Fremont, the commander of the American forces, and signed the Treaty of Cahuenga in the San Fernando Valley. Article 5 of the capitulation declared, “Equal rights and privileges are vouchsafed to every citizen of California as are enjoyed by the citizens of the United States.”  

Andres Pico became the first Californio to be elected to the Assembly as the representative of District 2 in the 2nd (1851) and 3rd (1853) legislative sessions. He changed his party affiliation to Democrat and was elected to the Assembly from District 2 once again for the 9th (1858) and 10th (1859) legislative sessions. Another Californian landowner, Jose M. Covarrubias, served on the California state assembly off and on from 1849 to 1862, representing Santa Barbara district.  

Early Chicano Representation in California

For the first three decades after statehood, some Chicanos were able to find the occasional support of their constituency and represent their home districts. Pedro C. Carrillo of Santa Barbara served as a delegate from the 2nd District in 1854-55. Manuel A. Castro of San Luis Obispo served as a delegate from the 2nd District in 1856-57 and from the 6th District in 1863. Esteban Castro from Monterey served in the State Assembly as a delegate to the 3rd District (1857-58) and the 6th District (1863-65).  

Ygnacio Sepulveda of Los Angeles became a member of the California State Assembly in 1863-65 as the representative of the 2nd District. Ygnacio went on to become a Judge of the Seventeenth Judicial District, one of the first two Superior Court Justices in Los Angeles County. Another Californio, Mariano G. Pacheco served as a representative of California’s 3rd District from 1852 to 1854.  

Romualdo Pacheco

It was Mariano’s brother who stands as the most spectacular Chicano legislator during California’s Nineteenth Century. Born in Santa Barbara in 1831, Romualdo Pacheco was a proud Californian who also had roots in the Mexican state of Guanajuato. Señor Pacheco originally served as superior court judge in San Luis Obispo from 1853-1857. Romualdo moved on to serve in the State Assembly in 1853-55 and 1868-70. In 1857, he first started serving in the California State Senate and he continued to serve intermittently, also in 1861-63 and 1869-70.  

Romualdo served as a brigadier general in command of the First Brigade of California’s Native Cavalry during the American Civil War. During the Republican State Convention of 1863, Governor Stanford nominated Pacheco for the position of state treasurer. Fluent in both Spanish and English, Romualdo Pacheco was a popular politician who got along well with both Californians and Anglos-Americans and, in June 1871, he received the Republican Party nomination for Lieutenant Governor of California.  

In 1875, when Governor Newton Booth was elected to the U.S. Senate, Pacheco became the Governor of California. His stay in the Governor’s office was relatively short and, in November 1876, Romualdo ran for and was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives to serve in the Forty-fifth Congress (1877-1878), winning by a margin of one vote. He later served in the Forty-sixth and Forty-seventh Congresses (March 4, 1879 to March 3, 1883). Even after his career as a representative ended, Pacheco served in his later years as a minister to several Central American countries before his death in 1899.  

The Gradual Erosion of Voting Rights

As the Nineteenth Century wore on, a gradual erosion of Mexican-American’s rights as citizens took place. The Fifteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, ratified in 1870, had promised “the rights of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” In theory this amendment gave all Californian Mexican-Americans and other minorities a voice in both local and national politics.  

The 1879 California Constitution

In practice, however, the Fifteenth Amendment was flagrantly violated in the years to follow by the California Legislature. One of the most blatant examples of this was the adoption of the 1879 California Constitution. The revised Constitution officially rescinded the linguistic protective provisions of the 1849 Constitution, providing that “no person who shall not be able to read the Constitution in the English language and write his or her name, shall ever exercise the privileges of an elector in this State.” With one fell swoop, the guarantee of bilingual publication of laws was revoked and no documents relating to elections were thereafter published in Spanish.  

The English Literacy Requirement (1891)

In 1891, Assemblyman A. J. Bledsoe introduced an English literacy requirement as a proposed constitutional amendment in the State Assembly. Bledsoe had earlier belonged to the vigilante Committee of Fifteen that had expelled every person of Chinese ancestry from Humboldt County. In his introduction, he lamented the “the increased immigration of the illiterate and unassimilated elements of Europe” and expressed his belief that American labor force should be shielded “from this destructive competition.”  

Although the Assembly voted down the proposal on January 21, 1891, a flood of petitions from the public favoring the literacy requirement flooded Sacramento. With such overwhelming support from their constituents, the Legislature hastily adopted Bledsoe’s proposal as a constitutional amendment subject to ratification at the next general election. In 1894, the people of California voted to approve the English literacy requirement, which henceforth before part of Article II, Section 1.  

Anti-Immigrant Sentiment in California

The anti-immigrant attitude directed at Asians, Mexicans and Eastern Europeans prevailed into the first half of the Twentieth Century to the point that it was even written into the California election laws. Section 5567 of the California Elections Code, as adopted in 1941, required that elections be conducted in the English language and prohibited election officials from speaking any language other than English while on duty at the polling stations.  

Such actions violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and, therefore, were unconstitutional. But the literacy law remained on the books in California until it was challenged in the California courts many decades later. In the landmark court case, Genoveva Castro et al. versus the State of California, the constitutionality of the English literacy requirement was challenged. The Court eventually concluded that “the English literacy requirement was a direct product of the narrow and fearful nativism rampant in California politics at the end of the nineteenth century.”  

Interregnum: The Dark Years (1886-1963)

In the 77-year-period from 1886 to 1963, only one Hispanic representative from California (Miguel Estudillo) went to either Sacramento or Washington, D.C. For the first half of the Twentieth Century, anti-immigrant legislation and sentiment prevented fair political representation of Chicanos and other minorities groups in California. The one standout during this period, Miguel Estudillo, served Riverside as California State Senator (1904-1908) and as California State Assembly member (1908-1913).  

One of the most successful tactics for limiting minority representation is a practice known as gerrymandering. In California, legislatures were able to divide a county or city into oddly shaped representational districts to give political advantage to Anglos in elections. Thus, even in areas with a large Chicano community (such as East Los Angeles), fracturing and reapportionment were able to prevent Hispanics from getting elected to office for many decades.  

The Battle for Representation Begins (1961)

In 1961, Los Angeles City Councilperson, Edward Roybal, testifying before the State’s Reapportionment and Elections Committee, complained about the fragmentation of the Chicano communities in L.A. He stressed the importance of creating Hispanic districts. Although most of the redistricting that took place in 1961 (following the 1960 census) resulted in the continued gerrymandering of the Latino community in the Los Angeles area, one congressional district was created that would pave a way for Mr. Roybal to run for Congress.  

A New Generation Takes the Helm (1962-1963)

In 1962, Philip Soto and John Moreno became the first two Latinos from Los Angeles County to be elected to the California State Legislature in the Twentieth Century. (They took their offices in 1963.) They were also the first Latinos to be elected to serve in the State Assembly since the election of Miguel Estudillo of Riverside County in 1907. The election of these two men set a precedent for a long line of Latino legislators committed to the service of their communities.  

An important factor in the rise of Chicano power in the 1960s was World War II. Hundreds of thousands of Hispanic Americans served in the U.S. military, many receiving numerous decorations for their service. These proud veterans returned to their native land, but still experienced various forms of discrimination and prejudice. But, for the first time in a long time, one piece of legislation presented Chicano veterans with an opportunity for advancement in California.  

The G.I. Bill Act of June 22, 1944 –- also known as the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act put higher education within the reach of thousands of Mexican-American veterans. The Veterans' Readjustment Assistance Act of 1952 provided similar privileges to Korean War veterans. Over the next decade, Mexican-American veterans attended local and nationwide colleges and universities to obtain college degrees. In many cases, these vets were the first members of their families to receive a high education. Armed with the weapon of education, many of these Chicano veterans became the politicians of the 1960s and 1970s.  

John Moreno, a World War II veteran, was a Democrat from Los Angeles and served as a representative of the 51st District to the California State Assembly. Unfortunately, in 1964, when Moreno tried to run again, he was defeated in the Democratic Primary by Jack Fenton. In 1964, Soto won reelection by 2,178 votes in the general election. Facing the same opponent in 1966, however, he lost by 4,309 votes, possibly due to boundary changes of his district by the 1966 reapportionment.  

Edward Roybal: A Legislative Pioneer

On November 6, 1962, the Democrat Edward Ross Roybal became the first Hispanic from California to serve in Congress since the 1879 election of Romualdo Pacheco. A native of Albuquerque, New Mexico, Roybal had come to the Boyle Heights Barrio with his family when he was six years old. After serving in the U.S. Army during World War II, Edward Roybal ran for a seat on the Los Angeles City Council in 1947, but was defeated. Soon after, Roybal became one of the founders of the Community Service Organization (CSO). In 1949 the CSO held voter registration and get-out-the-vote drives in East Los Angeles and supported Roybal's bid for election to the Los Angeles City Council in 1949. He won, and was subsequently reelected and served until 1962.  

Edward Roybal took his seat in the House of Representatives on January 3, 1963 at the start of the 88th U.S. Congress. He would serve for twenty years from the 88th Congress to the 102nd Congress, retiring on January 3, 1993. At the start of his Congressional career, Representative Roybal represented the 30th District from 1963 to 1975. From 1975 to 1993, he served in the 25th District. In 1976, Roybal became one of the founding members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. In 1992, he chose not to run for reelection. That year his daughter, Lucille Roybal-Allard, was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, where she represented part of his old district, which had been divided in redistricting.
 

Voting Rights Move Forward (1965-2002)

The rights of Latinos were further reinforced by the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. This legislation, as amended in 1975 and 1982, prohibited the use of voting laws or procedures that discriminated against anyone on the basis of race, color, or membership in a minority language group. The provisions of this act outlawed the literacy tests that had kept so many Latinos out of the voting booth.  

In 1968, when the California Legislature was once again without Latino representatives, Alex Garcia, a Democrat from Los Angeles, was elected to the Assembly. Mr. Garcia had been a field Representative for Congressman Ed Roybal for five years before he decided to run for office in the State Assembly. Assemblyman Garcia was the lone Latino in the California Legislature until 1970, when Peter Chacon, a Democrat from San Diego, was elected to office.  

In the 1972, three more Latinos won election to the State Assembly: Joseph Montoya, Ray Gonzales, and Richard Alatorre. Aware of their unified strength, the five Latinos serving in the State Legislature officially formed the Chicano Legislative Caucus. The establishment of the Caucus marked a significant turning point in the political empowerment of the Latino community. For the first time in California's legislative history, an agenda was established and legislative priorities were put forward to protect and preserve the rights of Latinos throughout California.  

The Chicano Assemblymen and Congressional delegates of the 1960s and early 1970s forged an important path for other people to follow, and Latino representation slowly, but steadily, increased both in California and in the United States. The struggle has been long and hard-fought. But, with the Latino population increasing at a significant rate, Chicano political analysts see that time and demographics are on their side.  

Copyright © 2017, John P. Schmal. All Rights Reserved.  

Suggested Readings:  

California Latino Legislative Caucus. Online: http://latinocaucus.legislature.ca.gov/member-directory  

John P. Schmal, “The Journey to Latino Political Representation” (2007: Heritage Books).  

John P. Schmal, “The Journey to Latino Political Representation” (2013 Presentation). Online: http://www.somosprimos.com/schmal/LatinoPoliticalRepresentation.pdf  

Latino Community Foundation Blog, “Latinos and the 2016 Election: Where Do We Go From Here?” -- December 13, 2016. Online:  http://latinocf.org/blog/2016/12/latinos-and-the-2016-election-where-do-we-go-from-here/  

Leadership California Institute, California Latino Legislative Caucus & National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO), “The Status of Latinos in California” (2015).  

Library of Congress: “Hispanic Americans in Congress, 1822-1995: List in Chronological Order.” Online: http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/congress/chron.html.  

NALEO, “Historic Number of Latinos to Serve in State Legislatures Following Election 2016,” Nov. 15, 2016. Online: http://galeo.org/naleo-historic-number-latinos-serve-state-legislatures-following-election-2016/  

Ralph Guzman, “Politics and Policies of the Mexican American Community,” in “California Politics and Policies” (Eugene P. Dvorin & Arthur J. Misner, eds., 1966).

(File photo: RGG/Steve Taylor)

López: The Seven Sisters of Texas (Las siete hermanas de Tejas)

By: José Antonio López  
January 1, 2017

In sharing pre-1836 history of Texas with others, there’s one particular feature that surprises many folks.  

That is, the fact that Texas was already an organized state when the first Anglo immigrants from the U.S. began arriving in Mexico in the 1820s.  

That fact alone proves that Stephen F. Austin cannot be the “Father of Texas,” since Texas was over 130 years old when he immigrated to Mexico!  

Indeed, mainstream history books perpetuate skepticism of our state’s true origins, because they contain an incomplete picture of Texas history. That is, Anglo Saxon immigrants from the U.S. did not create Texas, but rather initially crossed over as immigrants.  

Next, the U.S. absorbed it in 1845-48. Since then, conventional historians have tried to separate Texas from its Mexican birthright. The intentional scheme is insulting to its true founders and continues to this day.  
 
In the words of historian David J. Weber, “Hispanophobia with its particularly vitriolic anti-Mexican variant, also served as a convenient way to keep Mexicans “in their place.” Thus, Anglo Americans repudiated the Spanish past … and replaced it with their own institutions and culture.”  

Historian Weber continues: “Hispanophobia has lasted longer in Texas than in any other Spanish province. Well into the 20th century, the prejudice retarded the serious study of the state’s lengthy Spanish heritage, leaving the field open to distortion and caricature.”  

In fairness, prudent historians have tried to set the record straight. Perhaps no one has ever said it better than Walt Whitman when he wrote in 1883:  

“We Americans have yet to really learn our own antecedents…Thus far, impress’d by New England writers and schoolmasters, we tacitly abandon ourselves to the notion that our United States have been fashion’d from the British Islands only … which is a very great mistake.”  

So it is with the manner that the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) wields its rigid mandated curricula program. In their way of thinking, if it doesn’t fit the Austin and Sam Houston models, it’s left out of classroom lessons. Hopefully, one day soon the SBOE will heed Walt Whitman’s wisdom and embrace Texas’ pre-1836 history. What’s at stake?  

The answer is that students will finally learn long-ignored Texas facts. In reality, Texas was the most northeasterly member of a family of New Spain sister states commonly called Las Provincias Internas. It’s important for readers to know this: Texas and its well-established family of provinces (states) welcomed Mr. Austin and his 300 Anglo families who immigrated to Mexico to be “Mexicans.”

New Mexico: As Texas’ big sister, recorded knowledge of the territory can be traced to Francisco Vasquez de Coronado’s 1540-42 visit. From New Mexico, the first Europeans, not only explored the area, but also travelled through upper Texas and Kansas. By the way, West Texas (i.e., El Paso) was originally part of New Mexico. Also, here is where Jumano Native Americans requested that Santa Fe missionaries establish missions in their Texas villages.  

Road connections between Texas and New Mexico began on October 4, 1786, when Pedro Vial and Cristobal de los Santos departed San Antonio, reaching Santa Fe on May 26, 1787.

As to the origins of the name, Francisco de Ibarra, an early Spanish explorer, noticed a distinct difference in flora and fauna. Thus, he informally recorded its name as “un Nuevo México” in his logbook. Then, in 1598, Juan de Oñate formally accepted the name when he became the first Governor of Nuevo México. Please note that the territory of el Reino del Nuevo México at that time encompassed most of what we know today as the Southwest.  

Sonora: There are several accounts regarding its first European settlements. For example, locals believe that the origins of a village in Sonora can be traced to Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca in 1530. The first Spanish missionaries arrived in 1614. Italian Jesuit priest, Eusebio Kino, established a number of missions in the region, beginning in 1687. Sonora was the point of departure for the settlement of points north, such as Arizona.  

Coahuila: Bordering Texas along the Rio Grande, Minas de la Trinidad was established in 1577.  In the same year, Alberto del Canto established Saltillo, its capital. Coahuila shares a close kinship to Texas because as in New Mexico’s case, part of West Texas was once within the state of Coahuila. Additionally, after Mexican independence, the two states were combined as Coahuila y Texas. Many early Texas pioneers came from Coahuila.  

California:  Although settled for the most part in the 1700s, California’s story starts in 1533. Later, Spanish navigator explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo entered San Diego Bay on September 28, 1542. Sebastián Vizcaino followed, with the Portolá Expedition of 1769-70, and founded what we now know as California. The name “California” was first recorded in 1562, with several versions as to the word’s origin. The most popular of these is “Califia” referring to a mythical land.  

Nuevo León: After initial endeavors by Alberto del Canto and Luis de Carvajal, Diego de Montemayor is credited with permanently settling pioneer settlers in Nuevo León in 1596. Significantly, all three attempts were initiated by Sephardic Jewish Spaniards. As with Coahuila, many early Texas settlers originate in this region (Monterrey and points in between).  

Nueva Vizcaya: Today, this sister province of Texas is known as the states of Chihuahua and Durango. Antonio Deza y Ulloa is credited with the establishment of Chihuahua City in 1709, but Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca and his shipwreck companions were the first Europeans to set foot in the territory. Predating New Mexico, Nueva Vizcaya was settled in 1554, and served as the home base for explorers venturing farther north. Missionaries began arriving in 1569.  

Nuevo Santander: Texas’ youngest sister, this last province was set up in northern Mexico by Count José de Escandón in 1747. (Please note that South Texas was part of Nuevo Santander (Tamaulipas) until 1848.) Count Escandón eventually settled over twenty Villas del Norte. Several of them straddle both banks (ambos lados) of the Lower Rio Grande.  

Note: All of the aforementioned states are within a cultural region known as AridoAmerica, linking Native Americans living on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border for thousands of years. It is still home to their descendants. Sadly, without political voice (power), the way of life of southwest pre-Columbian Native American cultures is in danger. They are innocent victims of the so-called border fence that will greatly reduce their desert homeland; now a mere fraction of the land of their ancestors.  

In summary, the U.S. took Texas from its natural family of sister states (provincias internas) in 1848 and has tried since then to conceal its true beginnings. Thus, this article seeks only to re-connect Texas with its Spanish-speaking family tree. As an eighth-generation Texan, I’m proud of the fact that it gives today’s Mexican-descent students deserved ownership of Texas history — a reality denied to their elders who have long been treated as foreigners in their Texas homeland.  

Although little of early Texas history is taught in the classroom, Texas’ strong Spanish Mexican foundation lineage is organic and undeniable (as Historian Weber reminds us above). It’s not by accident that the U.S. is now the second largest Spanish-speaking country in the world.  

We must no longer let political borders (and Texas SBOE bias) dictate a flawed curricula, especially now that Spanish-surnamed Texans are close to reclaiming majority group status. 

In the words of Pearl S. Buck, “If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday.”  

About the Author:  José “Joe” Antonio López was born and raised in Laredo, Texas, and is a USAF Veteran. He now lives in Universal City, Texas. He is the author of four books.  His latest book is “Preserving Early Texas History (Essays of an Eighth-Generation South Texan)”. It is available through Amazon.com.  Lopez is also the founder of the Tejano Learning Center, LLC, and www.tejanosunidos.org, a Web site dedicated to Spanish Mexican people and events in U.S. history that are mostly overlooked in mainstream history books.

Sent by Juan Marinez  marinezj@msu.edu

The Roots of the Matter 
Multiracial individuals celebrate at Mixed Remixed Festival 
By Anh Do, Orange County Register,  June 12, 2016

"On my father's side, I'm also African American," she said. "Being a Person that doesn't fit into a description, you have to figure out how to evolve. Coming here, I felt a kind of peace and a ground- 
ing. Wow." 

Remembering A School 40 years later, 
a Fight for School Equality 

The La Elliott School in Sonora, Texas was a segregated school for Mexican students and remained opened 16 years after the United States Senate outlawed the segregation of students based on race. 

A long sought community based search for education and social justice in Sonora, Texas, was celebrated, with great enthusiasm, heartfelt abrazos, family reconnections and solidarity among all who attended the 40th Anniversary of the closing of theL'W. Elliott School, known to the Mexican American community as "La Elliott." 

The thirty-four year existence of the school brought light to the fact that the "Mexican" school prior to 
La Elliott had existed since at least 1925 as reflected in official school board minutes. The "Mexican 
School" at the time was located in poor facilities and lacking in education amenities. The building of the new "Mexican School" in 1935, later named the L.W. Elliott School, continued the separate and unequal . education system in Sonora until the U.S. District Court ordered its closing in June, 1970. The dual racial education system in Sonora existed for approximately forty-five years. 

Many who could not attend sent e-letters of support and encouragement to everyone who participated in organizing the historical gathering. A number of participants took part driving their cars in a long La Elliott parade through the community. 

Gus Chavez, La Elliott national contact: 619-286-9858 
Betty Hernandez, Sonora local contact: 325-206-0573 
Juanita Gomez, Sonora local contact: 325-206-0830 

Wording on the Community Historical Marker 
L. W. Elliott School (La Elliott) . 

In Sonora, Texas, the site of the second Mexican Ward School was opened on January 26, 1935. 
The official name was L.W. Elliott School, after the 'Sonora ISD Board'President L.W. Elliott. 
Since opening day, the Mexican American community referred to the school in Spanish as La Elliott. 

http://www.topbuzzapp.com/article/i6260659452401566212?app_id=1106  

HISTORIC TIDBITS

Españoles olvidados de Norteamérica
JOSÉ ANTONIO CRESPO-FRANCÉS
ACTAS EDITORIAL. MADRID (2016).
740 PÁGS + 16 DE FOTOS. 36 €.    rio_grande@telefonica.net 

El mito de Cook
LA HISTORIA ANGLOSAJONA atribuye el descubrimiento de este archipiélago a Cook 236 años después de que arribara nuestro personaje. Sus cronistas no quieren ver que antes de esta fecha ya se habían publicado numerosas cartas marinas, la primera de ellas fechada en 1551, firmadas por cartógrafos españoles, portugueses, holandeses, italianos y franceses, en las que se puede ver un archipiélago situado en puntos cercanos al lugar que estas ocupan en el globo terráqueo, y no se puede argumentar que
representen otros grupos de islas, ya que hay que alejarse cientos de millas de Hawaii para poder encontrar nuevas tierras, por lo tanto su identificación no alberga duda.

Cook afirma en su diario derrotero que no encontró tales islas, a las que cita, pues estaban situadas en los mapas que llevaba; las coloca desplazadas en el nuevo mapa que dibuja, afirmando que no las encuentra pero que en cambio ha visto estas islas nuevas, a las que renombra, rebautizándolas y apropiándose de su descubrimiento. Además, se muestra sorprendido del atuendo floral indígena de capa corta con colores rojo y amarillo, imitando al terciopelo, y casquete con plumero, y al ver objetos metálicos en poder de los
nativos similares a puntas de alabardas o refuerzos metálicos como los que se colocaban en las bordas de las naves del XVII para apoyar las culebrinas.

Abraham Lincoln and Mexico Project
How a US Republican President and a Mexican Youth 
Ended a Monarchy

By Michael Hogan

This review was also published in Alterinfos America Latina, which provides book reviews in six languages,
including Spanish, Portuguese and Italian 
http://www.alterinfos.org/spip.php?article7761 

Sent by Mercy Bautista Olvera 
scarlett_mbo@yahoo.com 

The day January 22nd, 1883 -- in Texas the Fifty Cent Act repealed

HONORING HISPANIC LEADERSHIP

Jonathan Sanchez

Jonathan Sanchez
Aug. 31, 1952  - December 23, 2016
With Great Sadness,
Eastern Group Publications Announces Passing 
of Assoc. Publisher & COO 

Sent by Kirk Whisler  kirk@whisler.com 

Most Reverend Joseph J. Madera, M.Sp.S., D.D.

In 1979, during his tenure as pastor in Fowler, he was appointed Coadjutor Bishop of Fresno, being ordained Bishop of Fresno on March 4, 1980. Bishop Madera’s earlier radio experience in Oxnard impressed him with the power of the media in evangelization, so he took the seminal idea of the diocese starting an educational television station and through his dynamic leadership made it a reality when KNXT Channel 49 broadcast its inaugural program on November 2, 1986.

Bishop Madera was appointed to the Archdiocese of the Military Services, Washington, D.C. on May 28, 1991 and retired on September 15, 2004. He lived in residence in Saint Martha Parish since September of 2011.

Bishop Madera was preceded in death by his parents, Jesus Madera Flores and Paz Uribe Santana, and six siblings. He is survived by his sister, Carmen Madera.

Funeral services were held at:
St. Martha's Parish
Our Lady of Guadalupe Church
Saint John the Baptist Cathedral
Saint Anthony of Padua
St. Peter’s Cemetery

En 1979, durante su ejercicio como párroco en Fowler, él fue nombrado Obispo Coadjutor de Fresno, siendo ordenado como Obispo de Fresno el 4 de marzo de 1980. La experiencia anterior del Obispo Madera en la radio de Oxnard lo impresionó con el poder de los medios de comunicación en el campo de la evangelización, por lo que él tomó la idea trascendental de la diócesis de iniciar una estación de televisión educativa y, a través de su liderazgo dinámico lo hizo realidad cuando KNXT Canal 49 transmitió su programa inaugural el 2 de noviembre de 1986.

El Obispo Madera fue nombrado a la Arquidiócesis de los Servicios Militares en Washington, D.C. el 28 de mayo de 1991 y se jubiló el 15 de septiembre de 2004. El residió en la Parroquia de Santa Martha desde el mes de septiembre de 2011.

El Obispo Madera fue precedido en la muerte por sus padres, Jesús Madera Flores y Paz Uribe Santana y seis hermanos. Le sobrevive su hermana Carmen Madera.

Sent by Sister Mary Sevilla, CSJ 
msevilla1256@gmail.com 

Latino soldiers
 Cebu, Phillipines, WW II

LATINO AMERICAN PATRIOTS

Click to Borinqueneers "Year in Review"
and Message from National Chair, Frank Medina 

EARLY AMERICAN PATRIOTS

North Carolina State Archives
The Division of Archives and Records 
Office of Archives and History and the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources. 

Spanish SURNAMES

Naming system in Spain
by Jack Carmena jcarmena@bellsouth.net
Sent by Bill Carmena  JCarm1724@gmail.com

FAMILY HISTORY RESEARCH

1. Personalized Dashboard
Now available in 2017, if you log in to your free FamilySearch account today, you will be greeted with your own, customized home page full of interesting, relevant activity feeds, notifications, and suggestions on your personal dashboard. The more you work on your personal FamilySearch family tree, the more new, applicable content the system will automatically send to you through your dashboard throughout the year. In other words, it continues to work for you even when you're not.

My Father Made Everyone Laugh at His Own Funeral 
by Jesús Ramírez

I didn’t really get to know my father. I didn’t really know who I was. The boy who would become my father. What did he do as a boy?  How would he play? On an early fall day in 2006 and after the death of my mother, I decided that I would pull out our family 8mm camera and ask my father to talk about his life. He was visiting and it seemed like the important thing to do. Since my father was a disabled veteran who fought in World War II, I would ask him about the fateful day when he was wounded by an 88-millimeter caliber German Artillery Gun. I was missing a wire or an accessory that day so it prompted me to go to the now defunct Circuit City near my house. Upon turning into the parking lot of the store, an insight arrived in my mind’s inbox. Was I the only young person who wanted to preserve his parent’s story? I captured my dad’s story that day but kept thinking about the bigger question.

I had been looking for a way to transition away from a life of lifeless commercials and empty promises. I wondered if a company dedicated to capturing the life memories of dads, moms, grandmas and grandpas for years to come could or would be a viable business. Was the world ready for this type of service? Was I too early? Was I on time? Was I late?



After my mom’s death, I asked my father to come live with us in San Antonio. We became great friends. I also decided to form a company and named the life story documentary service My Story.  
http://thestorytellingplace.com/ 
                       
The Future of Memories

Over the years, the company has had peaks and valleys. We’ve had very interesting storytellers grace us with their entire life story. 

One particular storyteller completed about 36 hours of storytelling and has passed on a 9 volume Blu-Ray collection to all his grandchildren. As a company we now include the capturing of company stories so that employees can understand and appreciate the path, struggles or insight it took to get to past successes. Our approach serves as a marketing tool and as a defining tool for the company or the organization. We’ve found that when a company culturally finds itself in these storytelling sessions, it is easy to culture the company’s values and determine what is missing from their DNA in light of the flux in the market environment. 

My Story has even produced an Emmy Award winning 20-part documentary series called The Children of the Revolución: How the Mexican Revolution Changed America which aired on PBS in Texas.
My father was a shy and humble man. He thought his life was uninteresting and that I should not need to preserve it. On the contrary, his story provided many missing pieces to my story that will continue to take shape in generations to come. I admit that before the age of 40, I thought that my family’s history was irrelevant. Once I matured, I understood how this was my most valuable inheritance.

My father’s photo as a child was used on the cover of the Children of the Revolución book.
After preserving my dad’s story and because I wanted improve upon the first session, I had him retell the stories on several occassions. Along came HD and I traded up to better cameras and better sound. I asked him to get in front of my camera again. He would remember another chapter about our genealogy and would request that I do another session. He had fun. He also felt a sense of satisfaction at having told his story. I didn’t stop with him. I extended the storytelling experience to my aunts and uncles.

On one occasion when I noticed that he was in a storytelling mood, I had him visualize in words what downtown Hebbronville, Texas was like when he was growing up. He mentally walked down the street for about 9 city blocks, crossed the street and came back all the way to where the story started. All the while he identified all the businesses and personalities who had once made Hebbronville a bustling town at the turn of the 20th century. Today, Hebbronville is a whisper of those memories. The buildings burned or fell. However, his telling of the story of my hometown is on display in the Jim Hogg County Museum.

“We die three times.
When you stop breathing.
When your body disintegrates.
When nobody remembers you.”
Mayan Proverb.

I often say that material inheritance is fleeting. Perhaps you may inherit a valuable piece of art, a home or a bundle of money. Receiving the story of your family is one of the most valuable inheritances that a person can receive. It will last hundreds of years.   Consider telling your story.

It’s time to tell my story. Have you told your story?

I am 51 years old now and I’ve got lots of valuable miles traveled on my life road. It would be a pity if my children did not know how many times I rose to greatness and how many times I fell to ruin. Life has serendipities, u-turns, setbacks, magic, disasters, fast lanes, roadblocks, redos.



If I don’t tell my story, then perhaps I never  really existed. Sure, I’ll be in pictures but that won’t provide any context for who I am or for who I was when 100 years have passed.

Why did the people laugh at my dad’s funeral when he was telling his World War II Purple Heart story?
My grandmother lived in the United States close to the border. In March of 1926 she decided to visit cousins in a Mexican border town while 8 months pregnant. The doctor in Guerrero, Tamaulipas ordered my grandmother to deliver my father in that Mexican town because he feared for her safety. A few weeks later my father was en route to Hebbronville, Texas. Because the immigration laws weren’t formalized in 1926 and because my grandmother’s cousins worked at the border, no proper recording of the birth was established. My dad grew up in citizenship limbo until he was 18. By then the US Border Patrol had been created. When my father presented himself to authorities to “fix” his paperwork, he was threatened with deportation or with the alternative to go to World War II in exchange for his citizenship.

He chose to serve. While still a Mexican citizen, Jose Heberto Ramirez fought for the United States Army during WWII My father was wounded when German soldiers saw him and his partner enter a farmhouse in Bitburg, Germany. A powerful 88 millimeter shell hit his partner square on and killed him while the ricochet of the explosion wounded my father. He had lost too much blood, and so he received German blood in the battlefield. He was later transferred to England to convalesce. All the while in the eyes of the United States, my father was still a Mexican citizen waiting for his official immigration papers. The immigration papers were always one station (location) behind him. The immigration papers finally arrived while he was in England. His official immigration status stated that his port of entry into the United States was England. Did that make him British?

“I didn’t know if I was Mexican, American, British or German because of the blood I received. I didn’t know what I was,” my dad joked on the video played at his funeral.

Everybody laughed.
It was a perfect funeral.

MyHeritage

Research your family history easily and instantly
Click here: Find Your Ancestry! - MyHeritage
https://www.myheritage.com/

EDUCATION

http://www.affordablecollegesonline.org/college-resource-center/first-generation-college-students/ 

Yuriana Aguilar sits in a biomedical lab at UC Merced that studies sudden cardiac death. 
(Sasha Khokha/KQED)

THE CALIFORNIA REPORT
Undocumented Ph.D. Makes History at UC Merced
By Sasha Khokha 
December 30, 2016
Story originally published on May 23, 2016.

Update:  Yuriana Aguilar is now a postdoc in Chicago, continuing her cardiovascular research.

Yuriana Aguilar with her family in their squash field: (L-R) Arturo Aguilar, Yuriana and her daughter Victoria, Ana Torres, and Yuriana’s husband, Ismael. Yuriana is the first undocumented student to graduate with a Ph.D. from UC Merced. (Sasha Khokha/KQED)

How Did Two Farmworkers Put Five Kids Through College?

God Changes the Heart of ISIS Leader
United Nations Resolution 2334, based on inaccurate history 
Christian Clergy Welcomes Islam in Church, Then Bows to It by Giulio Meotti

God Changes the Heart of ISIS Leader

CBN: How did ISIS start?
12-27-2016
http://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2016/december/god-changes-the-heart-of-isis-leader  

Sent by Odell Harwell  hirider@wt.net 

Comments on United Nations Resolution 2334  ~ Mimi

United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334 was adopted on 23 December 2016. It concerns the Israeli settlements in "Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem". The resolution passed in a 14-0 vote by members of the U.N. Security Council (UNSC). Four members with United Nations Security Council veto power, China, France, Russia, and the United Kingdom, voted for the resolution, whereas, the United States abstained.[1]

The resolution states that Israel's settlement activity constitutes a "flagrant violation" of international law and has "no legal validity". It demands that Israel stop such activity and fulfill its obligations as an occupying power under the Fourth Geneva Convention.[2][3]

The Hebrew nation selected its first King, Saul in 1020 BC.   They have occupied what was called the Land of Canaan since that time, 3000 years.   Scrolling through hundreds and hundreds of ancient maps of the area, I found the region consistently called Canaan, even as it lists the tribes that occupied that area, none of which were called Palestinians.

"The first clear use of the term Palestine to refer to the entire area between Phoenica and Egypt was in the 5th century BC."  

The Greek and Roman historic records of the Jewish people, acknowledge their presence in the land of Canaan and the Holy and Civil capital as Jerusalem.  

I found one map with an 1899 date produced by a firm in New York.  Click here: ancient maps of canaan - Google Search   Anciently there were sporadic previous mentions of Palestine, but none predate the identifying of the area as the Land of Canaan, tribes were numerous and areas were called by tribal name. 

The popularization of the term Palestine has been made by the United Nations, under the influence of the Arab nations. Note the map below 1947.   ~  Editor Mimi

Editor Mimi: I suggest that this video be viewed as a historical overview. https://www.prageru.com/courses/foreign-affairs/middle-east-problem 


Israel Creation and History
Nov. 29, 1947 | United Nations Partitions Palestine
The plan called for land to be parceled to Arabs and Jews.
Click here: 1947 Israel divided - Google Search

The Learning Network - The New York Times 190 × 348
U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. 
Since the United States seems to be caught up into this ancient battle, between the Israelites and Arabs.  Historic facts would be good to understand.

Although the Arabs received what they demanded in 1947, through the United Nations, they were not satisfied. Almost immediately after Israel was created, armies from five Arab countries (with 80 million Arabs) invaded Israel, determined to drive the Israelis into the sea. About 1/2 million Israelis, with very limited arms, battled for 15 months, lost more than 1% of its people (6000), and finally forced a truce in 1949. 

The Arabs had full control of Gaza, West Bank, Golan Heights, and East Jerusalem. When the Arabs controlled East Jerusalem, the Arabs refused to allow Jews access to their holiest site (Western Wall), Israel always had allowed all religions access to their holy sites. Israel was about 4 miles wide near Tel Aviv. Arab tanks could have cut Israel in half in about 10 minutes. Unfortunately, the Arabs would not allow the Israelis to live in peace. 

The Arabs repeatedly broke the truce, determined to destroy Israel. Israel was able to defend itself and improve its defensible borders. Whatever problems the Arabs now have, they themselves are responsible. Perhaps Turkey's partitioning of Cypress is an example of the only possible immediate solution for Israel. Maybe, after several generations without hate being taught in the schools, the walls can come down and both peoples can live in peace. (factsandlogic.org, more info) Very complete web sites with many links: www.geocities.com/truthmustbesaid/Middle-East   http://www.mideasttruth.com/index.html
http://www.geocities.com/compassionplease/SyriaTheMonster

Egypt, with additional troops from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Algeria, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon attacked Israel in 1967. Syria said it will drench the land with Israeli blood and throw them into the sea. Against all odds, Israel won the war and took land needed as a buffer zone against further attacks. (OCR, 9/30/01, Commentary 3 letter) [Arabs now want pre-1967 borders, to regain land they lost after attacking and trying to destroy Israel.] ..... The middle east Arab cartel produce oil for $2 a barrel, and sell it for $30 a barrel. (OCR, 9/9/03, Local 9) ..... Oppression of Christians in Muslim countries: "In its October 18 [2003] edition, “La Civiltà Cattolica” published a strikingly severe article on the condition of Christians in Muslim countries. The central thesis of the article is that “in all of its history, Islam has shown a warlike and conquering face”; that “for almost a thousand years, Europe lived under its constant threat”; and that what remains of the Christian population in Islamic countries is still subjected to “perpetual discrimination,” with episodes of bloody persecution."  

http://213.92.16.98/ESW_articolo/0,2393,41931,00.html  ..... Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar said, "resistance will continue until the Islamic flag is raised not only over the minarets of Jerusalem, but over the whole universe." 

PALESTINE: However, the United Nation refers to Israel as Palestine on the map above, and continues to act against Israel in most action taken in the United Nations. 

http://www.palestinefacts.org/pf_early_palestine_name_origin.php 

Christian Clergy Welcomes Islam in Church, Then Bows to It
by Giulio Meotti
January 4, 2017 

CULTURE

Does Mexican Music Have German Roots?  

Immigrants' Musical Styles Spread South From Texas
By Gerald Erichsen

Political Salsa: Chicano music and los trovadores

Estimadas/os: For those who may be interested, my latest “Political Salsa y Más” blog, “Chicano music and los trovadores…,” is on “Latinopia”—the link is below.

In this blog I focus on the important role that music and musicians—trovadores—have played in our community’s history.

Founded by Chicano media pioneer Jesús S.Treviño, Latinopia features Art, Literature, Theater, Music, Cinema and Television, Food, History, and Sci Fi. Jesús documented on film and in his book “Eyewitness: A Filmmaker's Memoir of the Chicano Movement” the most important events in the Mexican American/Chicano Civil Rights Movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. ¡CHICANO! History of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement,” the 1997 four-part PBS documentary series that Jesús co-produced remains a classroom staple throughout the country.

Jesús recently published a collection of short stories, “Return to Arroyo Grande” (Arte Público), for which he received the 2016 American Book Award given by The Before Columbus Foundation. It is noteworthy that this Award is a writers’ award given by other writers rather than bestowed by an industry organization. 

Other national and international awards and recognitions Jesús has received include: ALMA Award for Outstanding Director of a Television Drama, and Outstanding Co-Executive Producer of Best Prime-time drama series, and (twice) Directors Guild of America award.

Salomón  
salomonrb@msn.com  

Link to Latinopia: http://latinopia.com/blogs/political-salsa-y-mas-with-sal-baldenegro-01-15-17-los-trovadores/

La Tortilla Oven® US Patent Number RE42,311 
La Tortilla Oven, LLC
340 S. Lemon Ave #6509
Walnut, CA 91789
Copyright ©2005-2016. All rights reserved 
http://www.latortillaloca.com/History.htm  

Sent by John Inclan  
fromgalveston@yahoo.com 

The Power of LARED-L,  
a National Network 
by 
Moderator  Roberto Franco Vazquez  

Imagine a college auditorium with an audience of over 1000 people. Now imagine that the audience is comprised of people who represent all regions of the United States, as well as Mexico, Canada, and Puerto Rico.

Now imagine that every member of the audience has the right to go up to the Podium and express any opinion, belief, or sentiment regarding any socio- political, economic, or educational issue, or concern.

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

http://library.osu.edu/blogs/mujerestalk/tag/lared-latina-of-the-intermountain-southwest/

BOOKS & PRINT MEDIA

Breaking and Bleeding of a Macho Man 
by Isabel Delia Gonzalez  

A novel written by the Mexico-born Gonzalez based on her observation of men believing machismo is the badge of courage.  They have been conditioned to believe that courage is more important than life itself.  What are the consequences of the conditioning?

Enrique "Henry" Garfias was one of the most notable law enforcement figures in Arizona's territorial era. As Phoenix city marshal, constable, U.S. deputy marshal and Maricopa County deputy sheriff, he was known as a crack shot and a tenacious man hunter.

Dedicated to the rule of law and proud of his Hispanic origins, Garfias was widely respected for his evenhanded approach to policing a frontier town sometimes beset by racial tensions.

This engaging biography confirms Garfias' prominent place in the annals of the American Southwest.

Hola, Mimi,  Feliz Año Nuevo! Thanks so much for the excellent reminder from Philippians, it says a lot with a few words. Thanks, too, for your honesty in explaining your decision about accepting social network invitations. Courageous, in this day and age.

It's been many years (the early 90s!) since we first made contact, thanks to Christine Marin, Ph.D. at the U of Arizona. You were kind enough to put me in touch with Cindy LoBuglio (que descanse en paz). She was so helpful and encouraging in the early stages of my project. Later, you graciously put me in touch with a prospective publisher. Although he and I were not quite a fit, I did finally find a publisher for: Dogged Pursuit: Tracking the Life of Enrique Garfias, First City Marshal of Phoenix, Arizona.

You may recall he was one of the children of Manuel and Luisa Garfias, one of the the old ranchero families of Los Angeles County.I'm not sure the best way to advise your readers that this biography is now available, but for the moment, it just brings me great pleasure to inform YOU of this moment that I have worked towards for so many years. It has always been a part of my vision that the Latino/Hispanic community deserved a fuller portrait of Garfias, and it has been a labor of love to bring his story to fruition.

I hope the new year brings you and your enterprise many, many blessings, and I look forward to being in contact once again!

Jeffrey Richardson
Bend, OR
541-610-3826
jephyr7@hotmail.com

Chicano media pioneer Jesús S.Treviño recently published a collection of short stories, “Return to Arroyo Grande” (Arte Público), for which he received the 2016 American Book Award given by The Before Columbus Foundation. 

It is noteworthy that this Award is a writers’ award given by other writers rather than bestowed by an industry organization. 

Other national and international awards and recognitions Jesús has received include: ALMA Award for Outstanding Director of a Television Drama, and Outstanding Co-Executive Producer of Best Prime-time drama series, and (twice) Directors Guild of America award.

In the opening piece, “Where Lost Things Reside,” rumor has it that Old Man Baldemar has died. Stories about the old geezer’s demise abound: he died of pneumonia; he was hit by a car, even killed by the big C. All Yoli Mendoza knows is that she’s lost the income from helping the perverse recluse with his grocery shopping. Entering the house she has never been allowed in before, she’s shocked to find it’s much larger than it appears from the street. And even odder, it’s full of items, each tagged with a name, city and date. There’s a room full of cell phones, drawers packed with rings, trays and trays of plastic lids … socks, watches, wallets, glasses! Was Baldemar the caretaker of all of the things that have been lost, no matter the time, city or even country?

Weird things continue to happen to the characters that renowned author and filmmaker Jesús Salvador Treviño introduced in his captivating debut, The Fabulous Sinkhole and Other Stories. At the theme park where Choo Choo Torres works, people begin to disappear—and then reappear slightly changed; are they moving back and forth between alternate universes? Charlie Villalobos keeps blacking out and losing days; could it be that he exists only in someone’s dreams? And Jeannie de la Cruz has very distinct memories of seeing her partner Gale run over by a speeding taxi in Mexico City; how can she still be alive?

Many in these interrelated stories have left Arroyo Grande to follow their dreams, but in the raucous title story they all return to their home town in a resounding confirmation of the power of community. Weaving magical realism with issues of loss, memory and identity, Jesús Salvador Treviño once again confirms his place as a powerful storyteller in Chicano—and American—literature.

See more at: https://artepublicopress.com/product/return-to-arroyo-grande/#sthash.FXUt0S1f.dpuf 

by Jesús Salvador Treviño 
ISBN-13: 978-1-55885-819-0
Publication Date: September 30, 2015
Bind: Trade paperback  $17.95, Pages: 160


Sent by Salvador Baldenegro, via http://Latinopia.com   

Link to Latinopia: http://latinopia.com/blogs/political-salsa-y-mas-with-sal-baldenegro-01-15-17-los-trovadores/

Editor Mimi:  Dr. Gil made me very aware of the economic differences of those entering the United States. His detailed and emotional accounts of the hardships of those entering the US in the 1920s is very similar to the current situations of many poor Mexicans seeking employment in the United States, walking or free-riding on top of trains, fleeing the depressive economic unrest and political dangers of Mexico.  

My Grandpa brought the family from Nuevo Leon to San Antonio, as paid travelers inside the train.  
They left their home, fleeing from the marauding revolutionary units, unstable political conditions, and new volatile government leadership.   Grandpa was an educator, served as mayor of the small town of Sabinas Hidalgo,  ran a store to support his large family which included seven girls.  They fled for safety.  

Dr. Gil's ancestor, fled for safety also.  Reading the incidences and events described filled-out the reality of what was happening in Mexico and then the adjustments to living in California, increase my insight and understanding of my family, mi abuelita y abuelito, mis tios y tias, mi mama y papa, y mis muchos primos.  

I strongly recommend reading, "We Became Mexican American, How Our Immigrant Family Survived to Pursue the America Dream."   

For book signing and other speaking dates visit Dr. Blea at https://www.facebook.com/irene.blea  

ARE YOU A CANARY ISLANDS DESCENDANT?

El Censo de 1680 de la Gomera y El Hierro

El Censo de 1680 de la Gomera y El Hierro: 
With English Guide, which may be obtained at Amazon.com
 Julio Vera, editor

Researcher Julio C. Vera of Los Angeles, California, has published a forgotten census of two of the Canary Islands - La Gomera and El Hierro - presumed lost for  three-hundred-and- twenty-five years. Taken in 1680 by the Catholic church, the census captures the lives of 1,748 households - listing the full names, ages, relationships and other valuable details of the 7,602 residents - in short, a treasure trove of demographic information for genealogists, historians, anthropologists and statisticians.

CONTACT: contact@juliovera.com 

ORANGE COUNTY, CA

Dear primos and friends, 

If you have thought of writing your own personal and family stories,
 I do hope you can make this workshop and let me help get you started.

 "The Who, What, When, Where, and Why of Writing: Fun Ways to Trigger Memories, 
from Oral History to Written History".  

Society of Hispanic Historical and Ancestral Research
February 11

Mimi Lozano is one of the original founders of SHHAR and editor of Somos Primos, an on-line Hispanic Heritage and History Magazine.  She is a retired educator and an active member of the SHHAR Board of Directors.  She is the immediate past President of the SHHAR Board, a position she held for many years.  As editor of Somos Primos she is in contact and engaged with the Hispanic Community nationwide and internationally –she has a wealth of information to share with her audience!   

The free presentation will take place at the Orange Family History Center, 674 S. Yorba St., Orange. Volunteers will provide research assistance from 9 -10 a.m., and Lozano will speak from 10:15 -11:30 a.m.

For information, contact Letty Rodella at lettyr@sbcglobal.net.

A "Spirited" Evening of Humor & History! 

Civil Spirits: 
The Politics of Booze in Orange County
Friday, February 10, 2017 
7pm to 10pm

Come on down to the ‘ol juice joint and hobnob with the swells!  Our guest speaker, Santa Ana Historian Manny Escamilla, will present, Civil Spirits: The Politics of Booze in Orange County

Join us for this inaugural event in our Speakeasy History Series!
It'll be a lively evening of OC History... with a twist! 
General Seating = $35.00 
Open to the Public.
Limited seating available. Reservations required.
No guests under age 21  (714) 540-0404, ext. 224. 

Celebrate Black History Month! 

45 Mexican Barrios/Colonias in Orange County in the 1900s
by Dr. Albert Vela, Ph.D.
cristorey38@comcast.net

 Julio Méndez, standing #2 from left; kneeling #2 from left, Tony Rivera

Hoover School, Westminster Barrio, CA 1938

A record number of Santa Ana high school students graduated last week with a Seal of Bi-literacy, a glowing badge of their fluency in English and at least one other language. J During graduation ceremonies held Tuesday through Thursday, 1,013 seniors received state-issued seals affixed on their diplomas - an increase of124 students from the previous year, according to the Santa Ana Unified School District.

"It's a very prestigious seal that they have bestowed, a very proud moment," said school district spokeswoman Deidra Powell.

To earn the seal, seniors were required to be "proficient" or "advanced" in

English; have a GPA of 2.0 or better; take a foreign language Advanced Placement exam and an SAT II foreign language subject test; and study a foreign language for four years or take a school district-approved foreign language exam.

Proficiency in Spanish was the most common, followed by French. The district also offers Vietnamese and German classes. SAUSD, the largest school district in Orange County and the seventh largest in California, has a student body that is 96 percent Latino. About 60 percent of students are English learners, with Spanish, Vietnamese and

Khmer the most common languages spoken at home. The school district embraces students' ability to be bi-literate, Powell said. "They speak different languages at home with their families, and then when they come to school, they speak English, so it's using both languages all the time," she said. "We encourage that. We think it's an asset."

LOS ANGELES, CA

Zoot Suit runs at the Mark Taper Forum from January 31 to March 19, 2017.
Don't Just Cry, Qualify! Ortiz, the Hobo Professor by Rudy Padilla

Zoot Suit runs at the Mark Taper Forum 
from January 31 to March 19, 2017.

ArtCenter College of Design
1700 Lida St.
Pasadena, CA 91103
www.artcenter.edu

Sent by Ignacio Gomez  ignaciogomezstudio@icloud.com 

“Don’t Just Cry, Qualify!”…
“Wichita” Ortiz, the Hobo Professor
by  Rudy  Padilla  opkansas@swbell.net 

A few years ago, when writing the weekly Caminos, I read an amazing article about Martin Ortiz.  I spoke with the writer, Michael Quintanilla and we had a conversation.  He commented “Martin Ortiz” is one of my favorite people and after he gave me the telephone number for Mr. Ortiz, he gave me permission to use his article.  

I had a very nice conversation with him in early 2003 and I agree – what a nice man.  I told him I wish he could come to Kansas City , Kansas and start a Center for Mexican American Affairs as he had done in California . Unfortunately, when we spoke last fall his health has deteriorated.  I received a call from him at the home where he is convalescing.  Since 2003, I have spoken with his friends who grew up with him and his family.  The Ortiz family is highly respected in the Mid-west.  Martin made his mark in WWII and in the field of Education. Several of his family were musicians and formed a large group called “Los Ortiz.”  Some were athletes.  One of the family members was a running back for the University of Nebraska .

(The following was written by Michael Quintanilla – permission granted to reprint). 

Martin Ortiz, a man of many firsts attempts another crossing of a plaza packed with well-wishers being sidelined for a quick hello, handshake or hug.  Buena suerte!  Not even Ortiz, a retired Whittier College elder known as El Jefe (the boss), can control the pandemonium his presence is causing.

  For 26 years , Ortiz, director of the college’s Center of Mexican American Affairs and its only Latino graduate in 1948, has guided thousands of students, finding  scholarships, arranging tutors, securing jobs and sharing words of wisdom that many hold dear long after graduation.

His crusade, or movimiento, as he prefers to call it, is inspired by a past that taught him, “Don’t just cry, qualify!” a Ortiz original.  

As a boy, a teacher degraded him because he didn’t speak English.  As a young man, restaurateurs, barbers, hostelers and landlords turned him away because of his Mexican heritage.  And while walking to class on his first day at Whittier , he was stopped cold and asked, “And where do you think you’re going?”  A soft-spoken Ortiz replied: “To get an education.”  

Today, Ortiz, long considered by educators the nation’s father of minority student programs, is the college’s first Latino namesake of a multi million dollar scholarship endowment for Latinos.  But it’s his personal touch, his chivalrous and charismatic way with people, that has lured 700 Latino students and parents on a fall day to the hilltop mansion of Whittier College President , James Ash for a tardeada, or afternoon reception.  

An 11-piece mariachi orchestra plays ‘Cielito Lindo” on the vihuela, guitarra de golpa and guitarron, high-gloss guitars of various sizes and sounds.  Ninos, perched on their father’s shoulders, reach for helium-filled balloons.  Streamers in patriotic red, green and white flutter like kite tails above the throng.  Ortiz, in a receiving line, manages to break away.  He takes three steps before a former student hits him with a kiss and asks if the man she considers her surrogate father might give her away at her July wedding.  

Another student approaches to vigorously pump the hand of the man he respectfully calls “Dad” the man who provides the encouragement to stick with college, especially when the student’s own father, an alcoholic, abuses his mother until the violence becomes unbearable.  

This proud Mexican woman whose son is the first in the family to attend college bashfully asks Ortiz to pose with her for a photo.  Wearing a gorgeous braid and fringed shawl, she wraps her arms around his waist, snuggles against his chest and smiles, revealing several gold-capped teeth.  “One day I will show my grandchildren his picture,” she says later in Spanish, “and I will tell them, El Jefe is the reason for my son’s success.”  

But Ortiz, a painfully shy man, flatly refuses to take credit.  The praise, he says, should be showered on the parents and their kids.  Thanks should go to Ash and his predecessors (except the one who tried to put the center out of business in its early years), and, he says, the center’s Hispanic Students Association, the Hispanic Parents Advisory Council and the Hispanic Alumni group should also be commended.  

In 1970, two years after returning to Whittier to teach Chicano studies, Ortiz, then 49, became the center’s founding director.  The college’s enrollment was 5.5% Latino.  Five years later, it reached 16%.  This year, 27% of the 1,260 students are Latino the highest percentage among the 73-member assn. of Independent Colleges and Universities.  Says Jonathan Brown, the association’s president:  “Carefully and cautiously, Martin has followed a social mission to deeply enmesh Whittier into the Latino community. 

He is the foot soldier who has made it work.”  Says Ash, simply, eloquently:  “We are here today to celebrate the gentleman whose work is the glorious fulfillment of his hopes and dreams.”  Clearly, El Jefe, surrounded by cheering and applauding students, is moved.  “I’m in heaven,” he whispers.  

A few days later, Ortiz is strolling across the velvety green grounds of Whittier College , founded by the Quakers 107 years ago.  In the distance, a trio of student’s strikes out of their path to say hello, filling him in on their schedules, assignments and grades, and regaling him with stories about their families, from little brothers and sisters to grandparents Ortiz has befriended.  He never forgets a name or a face.  

Destiny must have brought Ortiz to a place where he could touch many lives, where he could help tear down the barriers that keep many Latinos from going to college.  

Through the decades, in his low-key but persuasive style, he tells parents who never finished high school, who never considered higher education, to change history by giving their kids a shot at the American Dream.  He reassured Latinos that attending college, instead of working full time to help their families, is the right thing to do.  And he manages to alleviate fears about fitting in at Whittier , where wealthier Anglo students are in the majority.  

Born in a Wichita barrio called El Huarache, he grew up in poverty.  Even though he couldn’t speak English, he understood enough of the language to love school until the eighth grade.  As long as he lives he’ll never forget his teacher that year.  It was Mrs. Mitchell, a tall, skinny woman “with a strange hairdo” who chastised him every time he spoke Spanish.  

“I remember just asking if I could go to the bathroom because I didn’t know how to say it in English.  One day Mrs. Mitchell sat me in the corner of the classroom by myself.  She emptied all the desks around me and pinned a sign on my shirt.”  For an entire semester, the pinning became a ritual.  Every morning, his classmates would dance around him, laughing, pointing to the placard that proclaimed: “I am retarded. “  

“I didn’t know what the sign meant then,” Ortiz said.  “But I know that I didn’t cry.”  That ordeal fired a resolve “to never let that happen to anyone again” and to dedicate his career with help from his assistant, Rose Hernandez to creating opportunities for Latinos.  And he has forged lifelong friendships.  

Olivia Cervantes doesn’t need convincing.  As chairwoman of the Hispanic Parents Advisory Council, a support group that meets at the center, she sees Ortiz work his magic on parents as well, arranging financial-aid workshops and other programs.  He translates at meetings, visits parents at home and invites them to campus for walks and lunch.  Cervantes’ oldest daughter, Jacquelyn, graduated in 1987 thanks to Ortiz’s scholarship assistance.  Today, her youngest daughter, Judi, a sophomore, is in the same good hands.  Guatemalan-born Joseph Solorzano, a 21-year-old senior and Hispanic Student Association member, credits Ortiz with keeping him in school.  “I had some family problems at home this summer and when I got back to school, I talked to Mr. Ortiz about that,” Solorzano says.  “He shared his personal life with me and made it obvious that returning to school was the best thing for me.”  

Ortiz told the students of his own brief escape from school.  At 13, toward the Depression’s end, Ortiz was frustrated, pressured by discrimination in school and alienation at home. 

“I was on the move.  But I didn’t beg or steal,” he says, he worked on a sugar beet farm.  He dug up potatoes, picked cotton and harvested apples.  He slept in hobo jungles, heated food in tin cans over campfires, and learned to speak English.  “I went wherever the tracks took me with no destination in mind.”  At 16, tired of his directionless lifestyle, he returned home and enrolled in high school, one of three Latinos.  In his senior year, he became the school’s first Latino student council president.  

Ortiz never planned to attend college.  He had to work and was content sacking groceries at the neighborhood Safeway.  But one morning a friend rousted him out of bed and took him to Friends University , a Quaker-run school on registration day.  “My friend had a paper bag with him.  We went into the men’s room in the basement, he pulled out a shirt.  ‘Put this on.  You’re going to college.”’ Ortiz recalls his friend saying.  “My friend did this because he felt that I was college material.  He had faith in me.”  So did three other Anglo friends who dipped into their pockets to pay Ortiz’s  $200 tuition, and later tutored him.  Three years ago, Ortiz was the guest speaker at his high school reunion in the very hotel where he had been barred as a youth because of his brown skin.  In the back of the ballroom sat his four buddies, wiping away tears as he spoke.  

“What you fellows did for me is what I have been doing all these years at Whittier College ,” Ortiz recalls saying, “Nurturing the minds of young people with potential.”  

Ortiz put in one summer at Friends, then signed up with the Marines in 1942, serving in the South Pacific as an aerologist and language specialist.  After World War II, he enrolled at Whittier because it offered a YMCA management program.  

His skin color, his last name, his sack lunches of tacos, who knows why, he says, kept him from feeling accepted by other students.  “I just kept to my own and in my own place because it was more comfortable to do that.”  In town, no barber would touch his head, no restaurant would give him a table, no landlord would rent an apartment to Ortiz and his young Cuban-born bride.  So they lived in veteran’s housing near City Hall and persevered.  

After he earned a sociology degree, the couple moved to Chicago , where Ortiz got his master’s degree from George Williams College .  He also founded the city’s Mexican American Council and taught Spanish at the YMCA. 

Ortiz remarried in 1980.  He and his wife Linda, a bilingual kindergarten teacher, shared a home in La Habra with Peluso, a floppy-eared rabbit, Valentine, a turtle, Perlita and Emi, two cats.  Iggy the iguana, and Foxy, a mutt found beaten and left for dead 11 years ago.  “The other night I went home and the dog bit me,” Ortiz says.  “He hadn’t seen me for a few days because I’d been so busy, coming home late from meetings.  Finally, he said, ‘I’ll get your attention.”’  When Ortiz isn’t caring for his menagerie, he’s working in his rose garden, reading one of five newspapers or reliving his hobo years at National Hobo Association meetings in Century City .  

And when he isn’t deep into work at the center, he’s serving on commissions, committees and boards across Southern California , and planning to finish his doctorate.  But his kids always come first.  “When people ask me if I have any children, I say ‘Well, this year I have 340.”’  

On his own college commencement day, Ortiz’s father was in the audience.  “I’ll never forget when I walked past him after I got my diploma,” Ortiz recalls.  He stops and his eyes water.  “My dad was crying in tears because a member of his family had graduated from college.”  (Rudy Padilla can be contacted at opkansas@swbell.net).

CALIFORNIA 

JUAN RODRÍGUEZ CABRILLO, 

CITIZEN OF GUATEMALA 
AND 
NATIVE OF PALMA DEL RÍO: 

New sources from the 
16th Century
by 
WENDY KRAMER

Editor Mimi:  This information was sent by Nancy Walton, San Diego Genealogist//Historian cyberferret1542@yahoo.com   Nancy's husband, Robert Walton is the Historian and the Cabrillo National Monument.  Nancy said that she and her husband are excited with this new finding. It establishes Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo's birthplace and that Juan Rodriguez was Portuguese, not Spanish.   

Please go to the article for more information:
http://www.sandiegohistory.org/journal/2016/july/juan-rodriguez-cabrillo-citizen-of-guatemala-and-native-of-palma-del-rio/ 

Also, let me suggest that you explore the website and their archive of journals.  
You'll find an outstanding collection of historical articles on San Diego and California history.

Old Caretaker at Mission San Juan Capistrano, 1897

Historic Hispanic Clothing

                                                                         Southern California Styles 1840, 
                      Prepared by Mary Schultz M.S.E.  M.S.   Textiles and Clothing Consultant 

MEN'S HISPANIC CLOTHING

WOMEN'S HISPANIC CLOTHING

Juan Jose de la Guerra
Birth: 05-23-1847 in Mission Santa Barbara, Alta CA
Death: 12-19-1940 in Sawtelle Veteran's Home, Los Angeles Co., CA 
https://familysearch.org/photos/artifacts/22334894 
30 January 2016

California and the Civil War

1st Battalion of Native Cavalry, California Volunteers

 

 

Introduction First Battalion of Native Cavalry
Prepared by Dr. Albert Vela, Ph.D.

Extracted from "Records of California Men in the War of the Rebellion, 1861 To 1867." 1890. pp 304-306.

Transcribed by Sandy Neder.

The extraordinary horsemanship displayed by the native Californians led to the belief that a battalion of cavalry, composed entirely of such, would render excellent service in Arizona. Accordingly a telegram, a copy of which is here inserted, together with the reply, was sent to the War Department.

 

 

[Telegram.]   San Francisco, December 19, 1862. To Adjutant-General L. Thomas: I request authority to raise four companies of native cavalry in the Los Angeles District, to be commanded by a patriotic gentleman, Don Andreas Pico. G. WRIGHT Brigadier-General

[Telegram.] War Department, Adjustant-General's Office, Washington, January 20, 1863. To General Wright, San Francisco, Cal.: Secretary of War gives authority to raise four companies native cavalry in Los Angeles District. Thomas M. Vincent, Brigadier-General Assistant Adjutant-General

A favorable response having been received, the officers were appointed and the work of recruiting the battalion commenced. Don Andreas Pico, of Los Angeles, then Brigadier-General of the First Brigade of California militia, was commissioned Major of the battalion. He, however, declined the commission, on the ground of sickness and his inability to ride on horseback.

 

General Pico having declined, Salvador Vallejo was commissioned Major of the battalion. He was not mustered as such, however, until August 13, 1864. He resigned in February, 1865, and was succeeded by John C. Cremony, who had been a Captain in the Second California Cavalry, and, with his company, constituted part of the 'California Column" during its march to, and service in, New Mexico.

 

Considerable delay was experienced in raising men for this battalion. Recruiting commenced in February, 1863, but the first company was not filled up and mustered until September seventh, same year. The other companies were not mustered in until the spring and summer of 1864.

The battalion was stationed in various places in California, as shown by the table published herewith. During the summer of 1865, it was taken by Major Cremony to Arizona and stationed in the southern part of that territory, until early in 1866, when it was returned to California to be mustered out. The table on page 7 will give the dates of mustered in and muster out of the companies. Companies A, B, and D were mustered out at Drum Barracks; Company C was mustered out at Presidio, San Francisco.

 

The records of this battalion are very incomplete, and for that reason it is impossible to give a full account of the service rendered by it. There seems to have been an unusually large number of desertions from it. From one company there were more than fifty; from another, about eighty.

The following is the correspondence and remarks on muster rolls found relating to this battalion:

 

 

General Headquarters, State of California Adjutant-General's Office, Sacramento, June 2, 1864. General: Colonel Curtis' letter has been read by me, and in reply to your inquiry as to whether the Governor has authorized Don Antonio de la Guerra to raise a company, I have to state that the Governor did not specially authorize him to raise a company, but that he, on yesterday, concluded to accept his company (known as the Santa Barbara Company), and has directed commissions to issue, which has accordingly been done and forwarded to Colonel Drum to-day, for the following officers: Captain, Antonio M. de la Guerra; First Lieutenant, Santiago de la Guerra; Second Lieutenant, Porfino Jimeno. The recommendation for the Fourth Infantry, California Volunteers, I have duly forwarded to his Excellency the Governor. Respectfully, your obedient servant, Geo. S. Evans Adjutant-General, State of California. George Wright, Brigadier-General U.S. Army, Commanding Department of Pacific

State of California, Executive Department Sacramento, March 27, 1865 Colonel: I enclose a memorandum of the officers already commissioned for the native battalion, as appears from the books of the Adjutant-General. I have the General's recommendation for Mr. Leese and some other men (I think) for a commission in this battalion. Mr. Leese was commissioned by me as Adjutant, but could not be mustered in. From this date it appears that there are no vacancies to fill; and even one or more of the Second Lieutenants that I have appointed have not been mustered in, for the reason that their companies were below the minimum. It seems to me that all these companies should be recruited to above the minimum before they leave for Arizona. I am informed that the companies could easily get recruits enough to fill them up in Monterey County if any effort was made to do it. Please call the General's attention to the matter. Truly yours, F. F. Low, Governor. To Lieut.-Col. R.C. Drum. [Inclosure.] Company A, Rose R. Pico, Captain; Crisanto Soto, First Lieutenant; M.E. Jimenez, Second Lieutenant. Company B, Porfino Jimeno, Captain; John Lafferty, First Lieutenant; J.G. Donevan, Second Lieutenant. Company C, Antonio M. de la Guerra, Captain; Santiago de la Guerra, First Lieutenant; ---- Coddington, Second Lieutenant. Company D, Edward Bale, Captain; J. Clement Cox, First Lieutenant; Francisco F. Guiraido, Second Lieutenant. Note: Company C is the only one that has the minimum number of privates.

Remarks on Muster Roll of Company A, First Battalion Native Cavalry, for March and April, 1865. -- Pursuant to orders from Headquarters Benicia Barracks, Cal., a detachment of twenty-five enlisted men in command of Second Lieutenant M.E. Jimenez, proceeded, on the twenty-third of April, to Green Valley and arrested and brought to confinement ten marauders. A fight ensued, wounding private Antonio Guilman and Juan Leon, both severely.

Remarks on Return of Company B, First Battalion Native Cavalry, for May 1865. -- First Lieutenant John Lafferty and five enlisted men left Camp Low, San Juan, Cal., April 10, 1865, in pursuit of the murderers Jason and Henry, per Post Order No. 3, Headquarters Camp Low, Cal.

The following are the stations occupied by the headquarters and various companies as gleaned from monthly returns, muster rolls, etc.:

Field Staff

Drum Barracks, Cal. ..........................................................................December 31, 1864.
Drum Barracks, Cal. ..................................................................................April 30, 1865.
Drum Barracks, Cal. ...................................................................................May 31, 1865.
Drum Barracks, Cal. ...................................................................................June 30, 1865.
Fort Yuma, Cal. ...........................................................................................July 31, 1865.
Fort Mason, A.T.......................................................................................August 31, 1865.
Fort Mason, A.T.................................................................................September 30, 1865.
Fort Mason, A.T. ...................................................................................October 31, 1865.
Fort Mason, A.T..................................................................................November 30, 1865.
Fort Mason, A.T. ................................................................................December 31, 1865.

Company A

Camp Curtis, Cal...................................................................................August 31, 1864.
Fort Humboldt, Cal..............................................................................October 31, 1864.
Fort Wright, Cal................................................................................December 31, 1864.
Fort Wright, Cal..................................................................................February 28, 1865.
Benicia Barracks, Cal...............................................................................April 30, 1865.
Tubac, A.T............................................................................................ August 31, 1865.
Tubac, A.T...........................................................................................October 31, 1865.
Fort Mason, A.T...............................................................................December 31, 1865.

Company B

San Francisco, Cal. ...................................................................................June 30, 1864.
Presidio, San Francisco, Cal..................................................................August 31, 1864.
Presidio, San Francisco, Cal. ...............................................................October 31, 1864.
Presidio, San Francisco, Cal. ...........................................................December 31, 1864.
Monterey Barracks, Cal. ....................................................................February 28, 1865.
Camp Low, Cal.......................................................................................March 31, 1865.
Camp Low, Cal.........................................................................................April 30, 1865.
Camp Low, Cal. ..........................................................................................May 2, 1865.
Camp Low, Cal........................................................................................... June 1, 1865.
Fort Mason, A. T................................................................................... August 31, 1865.
Fort Mason, A.T....................................................................................October 31, 1865.
Fort Mason, A.T................................................................................December 31, 1865.

Company C

Cahuenga Pass, en route for Drum Barracks, Cal.................................August 31, 1864.
Drum Barracks, Cal..........................................................................December 31, 1864.
Drum Barracks, Cal............................................................................. January 31, 1865.
Drum Barracks, Cal............................................................................February 28, 1865.
Drum Barracks, Cal...................................................................................June 30, 1865.
Tubac, A.T...........................................................................................October 31, 1865.
Fort Mason, A.T...............................................................................December 31, 1865.

Company D

Drum Barracks, Cal...................................................................................June 30, 1864.
Drum Barracks, Cal...............................................................................August 31, 1864.
Drum Barracks, Cal..............................................................................October 31, 1864.
Drum Barracks, Cal......................................................................... December 31, 1864.
Drum Barracks, Cal...................................................................................May 31, 1865.
Drum Barracks, Cal................................................................................June 30, 1865.
Carrisso Creek, en route via Fort Yuma to Tubac, A.T.........................July 31, 1865.
Tucson, en route for Tubac, A.T.........................................................August 31, 1865.
Fort Mason, A.T............................................................................September 30, 1865.
Fort Mason, A.T.................................................................................October 31, 1865.
Fort Mason, A.T..............................................................................December 31, 1865.
Tucson, en route for Drum Barracks, Cal...........................................January 31, 1865.

 

 

On July 4th 1865, two companies of an unusual cavalry unit observed Independence Day in traditional Californio style, with a bull-and-bear fight at a "grand arena" near the old mission town of San Buenaventura. Neither the men nor their officers seemed concerned that they were expected to ride in a parade some sixty miles away in Los Angeles that very day. Nearly a week late for their scheduled arrival at Drum Barracks in Wilmington, the troopers had stopped for a few days of rest and revelry-a break in a long overland march that would ultimately take them to a forsaken post on the Arizona-Sonora border.[1]

These were men of companies A and B of the First Battalion, Native California Cavalry. It was immediately obvious to the casual observer that these troopers were different from the thousands of other loyal Californians who had joined volunteer units of the Union army since the beginning of the Civil War-more than half the horsemen carried lances, a throwback of sorts to the proud Hispanic heritage of California. The men themselves were heirs to that tradition, or, as one correspondent put it, they were of the "vaquero class ... natives of California or Mexico, and brought up from youth on horseback and accustomed to the use of the lasso and to simple fare and [the] rough herdsmen's life." [2]

As early as 1862, California state senator Remauldo Pacheco of San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties had observed that California's Mexican-American population (or Native Californians in the vernacular of the day) comprised an exceptional pool of cavalry recruits already well versed in the arts of horsemanship and life in the field. A former officer in the Mexican army and a Union loyalist, Pacheco was eager to give his fellow Californios an opportunity to prove their patriotism. He proposed the formation of a regiment of "native cavalry," which would draw recruits from the vast ranches of Southern California and the central coast to serve as lancers in Texas. His novel idea was well received and, in January 1863, the War Department authorized raising a four-company battalion.[3]

Initially, the unit was "to be commanded by a patriotic gentleman, Don Andreas [sic] Pico" The choice was at once inspired and ironic, for Andres Pico had commanded the Californio lancers who humiliated a force of regular cavalry and volunteers under Gen. Stephen Watts Kearny at the battle of San Pascual in 1846. In the process, they not only gave the United States its only clear defeat of the Mexican War, but also forced the previously unimpressed Americans to recognize the skill and mettle of the California vaquero. [4]

Pico's popularity and Union loyalty made him a good choice for the position. The aged caballero was not sufficiently healthy, however, to ride a horse or perform many of the other duties required of a field commander, and he never accepted his major's commission. It was not until the recruitment of the battalion was underway in August of 1864 that Maj. Salvador Vallejo replaced Pico. Like Pico, the crusty Vallejo was a member of an old and established Californio family. On the other hand, Vallejo seemed an unlikely choice for command because of his disdain for all things Anglo. Don Salvador was better known for his conflicts with American squatters on his Napa Valley property than for his admiration of the Union cause. It seems likely, given Vallejo's sentiments, that Confederate overtures to the French backed imperialist government of Mexico drove the dignified curmudgeon to set aside his hostility and don the blue uniform of a United States Army officer. [5]

Even as the paper battalion languished without a commander, a few prominent citizens, Californio and otherwise, took the initiative and began gathering recruits for the four companies. Jose Ramon Pico, a nephew of Andres and who later claimed to have also fought at San Pascual, enthusiastically started the process of organizing recruits weeks before official approval for the unit had come back from Washington, D.C. In a flowery letter to Governor Leland Stanford, Pico cited his credentials as a partisan Republican and, without the slightest hint of humility, demanded a captain's commissions [6]

Stanford granted the request, and Captain Pico immediately gathered recruits at his personal expense. On March 3, 1863, at his headquarters on the plaza in San Jose, he spoke to an assembled crowd in the "soul-stirring" manner for which the men in his family were renowned:

Sons of California! Our country calls, and we must obey! This rebellion of the southern states must be crushed; they must come back into the union and pay obedience to the Stars and Stripes. United, we will, by the force of circumstances become the freest and mightiest republic on earth! Crowned monarchs must be driven away from the sacred continent of free America!

The mention of "crowned monarchs" was an obvious reference to the emperor Maximilian, who enjoyed not only the support of France and conservatives in Mexico, but apparently of the Rebel government in Richmond as well. Clearly, Pico sensed that sentiments linking Imperial Mexico and the Confederacy as mutual enemies of California were rife within the Spanish-surnamed community.[7]

Pico's bluster and fiery rhetoric "infused with martial spirit" the Native Californians of San Jose. Even before his speech, Pico had already enlisted more than fifty recruits, mostly from the San Jose area. Many of the Califormos showed up with their lassos, "a novel weapon of offense. . . which they are exceedingly expert at using on horseback." The eighty-one recruits of Company A trained at the Presidio of San Francisco that summer. By August, a dozen men had deserted, a sign of troubles that would plague the battalion during its entire existence.[8]

Although the enlistees were skilled horsemen, trained and drilled as lancers, it is unlikely that Company A was quite what Senator Pacheco had in mind when he proposed a unit of "native" cavalry. Many of the Spanish-surnamed recruits were foreign born, primarily from Mexico and Chile, and seem to have been former miners. The unit contained a number of non-Hispanic recruits as well. A San Francisco journalist later described the company as "truly a mixture of colors and tongues, the men rugged and hearty-more than half being native Californians and the remainder Mexicans, Chilenos, Sonorans, California and
Yaqui Indians, Germans, Americans, etc." [9]

In December, the colorful lances adorned with red pennons were replaced by Sharp's carbines and Company A sailed north by steamer to Humboldt Bay, where it joined an ongoing campaign against the Hupa, Wintun, and other Indians in the northern region of the state. Its duties in the redwood country included escorting prisoners, livestock, and supply trains, but little actual fighting. While the company was posted at Fort Gaston in February 1864, four more men deserted and this time robbed a local civilian. A detachment rode out in pursuit and quickly apprehended the culprits.[10]

While Company A campaigned in the northern part of California, Capt. Ernest Hippolite LeGross was recruiting Company B in San Francisco. A French expatriate who had served with the Corps d'Afrique in Algeria and the Crimea, he was commissioned in part on Pico's recommendation. Contrary to Pacheco's original vision for the battalion, the majority of Captain LeGross's original recruits were Frenchmen, including at least two fellow veterans from Algeria. Like Company A, Company B was inducted into federal service at the Presidio of San Francisco, where it remained until January 1865.[11]

Recruitment of vaqueros from the vast ranches in the southern part of the state-the so-called "cow counties"-did not begin until early 1864. A drought had devastated many of the old ranches in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties and even the prominent de la Guerra family was forced to sell much of its vast holdings. Newly unemployed ranch hands from the area formed the core of Company C, recruited by Capt. Antonio Maria de la Guerra. State Senator Ramon J. Hill, a secessionist elected from San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties, lamented the choice of de la Guerra, pointing out that he "does not even write fluently in his own language, knows not one word of English, knows not what figures are-but is an experienced horseman." Still, even Hill later admitted that "the men will not be kept together for any other captain."[12]

Company C was very much a de la Guerra family operation, which explains its high morale and low desertion rate. Other de la Guerras in the company included Ist Lt. Santiago de la Guerra and 1st Sgt. Juan de la Guerra. Also present was 2d Lt. Porfirio Jimeno, the captain's nephew and stepson of Dr. James Ord, brother of a Union general as well as a prominent surgeon and rancher. Educated at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., the twenty four-year-old Jimeno was the most intellectually well equipped of the battalion's officers and would prove to be one of the best.[13]

Mustering of the company was delayed until July because of rumors that raised suspicions about the officers' loyalty. In the intervening two months, the already financially strapped Antonio Maria de la Guerra quartered the full-strength company of recruits at his own expense. According to the de la Guerra family and their political allies, the rumors arose from a clique of political rivals, who sought to diminish the de la Guerras' influence by preventing them from receiving officers' commissions. The issue was apparently resolved by late June and, by late August, Company C was on the march toward' Drum Barracks. [14]

Meanwhile, Capt. Jose Antonio Sanchez had already recruited Company D in Los Angeles. He was anxious to reverse the work of his brother, Sheriff Tomas Sanchez, a Democratic Party boss who, early in the war, had provided militia arms to Rebels operating in Arizona and New Mexico. Again taking advantage of anti-imperialist sentiment among the Spanish-surnamed Angelenos, Sanchez enrolled eighty-nine volunteers. As with Company C, politics and doubts about officers' loyalty delayed mustering in until March at nearby Drum Barracks. At the same time, Juan J. Moreno, another prominent local citizen, took the initiative in April and recruited forty men for a Los Angeles company. But after languishing at Drum Barracks without any word from department headquarters, Moreno and his volunteers apparently lost interest in federal service and dispersed by the end of May. [15]

Sanchez's enthusiasm for military service also quickly waned. Already overwhelmed by the paperwork involved in commanding a company, in June Sanchez and 1st Lt. Jose Redona resigned in frustration over what they saw as poor treatment of their men, exacerbated by a currency crisis in Los Angeles caused by an influx of nearly worthless federal scrip. While Sanchez remained active in promoting the Union cause in secessionist southern California, command of his men went to Capt. Edward Bale, promoted from Company B. A native-born Californian proficient in Spanish, Bale was respected in the Californio community [16]

In September, de la Guerra's Company C joined Bale's Company D at Drum Barracks. Post commander Col. James Curtis apparently had a low opinion of the native troopers and put them to work on a massive irrigation project to carry water from the San Gabriel River to Wilmington. Although other officers protested the treatment of the Californios and the use of federal soldiers for a private project, the construction continued until January 1865 with the troopers also marching in parades and patrolling the waterfront and guarding federal property at nearby San Pedro amd Wilmington. [17]

Frustrated by ditch digging and the general dullness of service, Major Vallejo resigned at the end of February, gruffly dismissing his tour of duty as "devoid of interest." Three weeks later, Maj. John C. Cremony transferred from the Second Cavalry, California Volunteers, and took command of the battalion. [18]

Although an Anglo, Cremony possessed many assets that well-suited him for his new command. First, he was adept at languages, including Spanish and four other tongues. Second, the colorful officer and sometime journalist seemed to understand and have a fondness for the Californios, even affecting the flamboyant dress of a vaquero. Third-and perhaps most important in the coming year-he was a veteran campaigner in Apacheria, including a stint (1851-1852) as interpreter for the Bartlett Boundary Commission, as well as his more celebrated (and exaggerated) role with the California Column in 1862. [19]

As it happens, Vallejo quit just as things were becoming more interesting for the battalion. In November of 1864, bandits John Mason and Jim Henry held up a stage on the road from Watsonville to Visalia, killing three men and vowing to "slay every Republican they would meet." Under the pretense of being Confederate guerrillas, Mason's and Henry's gang terrorized Monterey County and its environs for the next several months.[20]

Company B, newly posted to Camp Low at San Juan, comprised the entire cavalry force in the county. In a letter to Governor Frederick Low, post commander Maj. Michael O'Brien, Sixth California Infantry, described the arrival of the troopers in late January 1865:

The gay and gallant Spanish lancaroes [sic] came dashing through the town with the lances in their hand, a flag flying from each of them. I assure you that they presented a warlike appearance, the people here had never seen a soldier in their lives-Yes sir! they even stampeded the Spanish cattle that were so poor before that they could scarcely stand alone.

Shortly thereafter, O'Brien received intelligence about the location of Mason's and Henry's hideout. Early one Sunday morning a detachment of a dozen Native cavalrymen under 1st Lt. John Lafferty rode out to find the bandits. Unfortunately, Lafferty was unsuccessful and the gang continued its depredations.[21]

Meanwhile, drastic changes were taking place for Company B. In March of 1865, Captain LeGross resigned in the face of declining morale that produced forty desertions in a little less than a year. Promoted from Company C, Capt. Porfirio Jimeno, the new company commander, replaced the mostly French and Anglo deserters with Hispanic recruits. This improved morale somewhat by making the company more "native" in character.[22]

In April, word arrived at San Juan that the Mason-Henry gang had struck at Firebaugh's Ferry. Captain Jimeno, temporarily in command of Camp Low, sent Lieutenant Lafferty and a detachment of five men in pursuit of the bandits. Hoping to cut off the gang at Panoche Pass, the lancers rode south along the western flank of the Diablo Range and encountered Mason the next morning. As the bandit spurred his horse in a desperate attempt to escape, Lafferty fired, wounding Mason in the hip and felling his mount with a single bullet. Although the soldiers captured the outlaw's horse, somehow Mason managed to elude them. At six that evening, Lafferty and his troopers returned to Camp Low with the horse in tow. Captain Jimeno boldly vowed to continue the pursuit of Mason and Henry, unaware that he and his new command soon would be otherwise occupied.[23]

Similar troubles erupted in the Mohave Valley, where secessionist sentiment ran high, and Chimehuevi Indian depredations plagued the local residents. In response, Captain Bale and Company D were sent to Camp Cady on the road from Cajon Pass to Fort Mohave. Only thirty of Bale's men were mounted as cavalry; the bulk of the company served on foot and was equipped with model 1842 muskets left over from the Mexican War. The Californios performed routine garrison and patrol duties through March and were back at Drum Barracks by April 9, in time to prepare for a new assignment.[24]

In March 1865, Brig. Gen. John S. Mason, newly appointed commander of the District of Arizona, announced that the battalion of Native Cavalry would be traveling east to fight Apaches. Company A assembled at Benicia Barracks on the mouth of the Sacramento River in early April, where it began preparations for the nearly thousand-mile march. Meanwhile, Major Cremony arrived at Camp Low with headquarters and Company B.[25]

Reports of President Abraham Lincoln's assassination reached the West Coast on April 15, delaying the departure of the two Native companies. Major Cremony, Captain Jimeno, and Lieutenant Lafferty served on the committee that planned Monterey County's memorial observance, and on April 19, Company B participated in a procession through the streets of San Juan. Meanwhile, detachments of both companies were assigned to quell violence and arrest men caught "rejoicing" at the news of the president's death. Disturbances occurred across the state, and in response, detachments were sent as far away as Grass Valley, where twenty-five troopers of Company A under Lt. Marcelino Jimenez arrested ten individuals after a skirmish that left two Native Cavalrymen wounded.[26]

By June, companies A and B were united at San Juan. On June 3, the eve of the Californios' scheduled departure for Arizona, two secessionists arrested in the wake of President Lincoln's death escaped from the Camp Low guard house. Major Cremony detailed both companies to hunt for the fugitives. After a week of fruitless searching, on June 16, troopers began the long march that would take them first to Drum Barracks and then to their new station at Tubac, Arizona Territory. Although they were expected at Drum Barracks by the Fourth of July, the cavalrymen marched leisurely south along the coast, their pace slowed not so much by their sizeable stock train that included "14 fine mules and some 300 horses," as by their frequent stops for fandangos and bull-versus-bear fights.[27]

The arrival of Major Cremony's column at Drum Barracks on July 9 represented the first time that the First Battalion, Native California Cavalry, was assembled in one place. Companies C and D were now fully mounted and armed, thanks in part to Captain Pico's uncle, don Pio Pico, who supplied the garrison with horses. Capt. Thomas Young, a veteran of service in New Mexico and Arizona, was now in command of Company D, replacing Captain Bale who had resigned in May. [28]

Like the California Column three years earlier, the Native California Cavalry departed at staggered intervals in order to conserve water and forage on its journey across the desert. Company A left Drum Barracks on July 13, followed by Company B on the fifteenth and Company D on the twenty-first. For reasons that are unclear, Company C with Major Cremony and his staff remained behind until September. During the two-week march to Fort Yuma, the three companies spread out for seventy-five miles along the famous Overland Road. [29]

Captain Jimeno, for one, questioned the wisdom of crossing the Mojave and Sonoran deserts in July and August. In a letter home, the gloomy and cynical commander of Company B warned his uncle Pablo de la Guerra of the perils of such a journey:

For Heaven's Sake never come out here if you can help it; you will surely melt. Thermometer every day in the shade 112 to 116-wind none-Scorpions thick as molasses, flies still worse and when we want to drink cool water we have to boil it and drink it immediately or else it will get hotter. Es imposible dan una description de esta punto. [30]

Dallying at Fort Yuma only long enough to bivouac for a few days, the Californios continued on toward Tubac. The route would have been familar to the ancestors of most of the California-born men of the battalion, as well as to many of the troopers of Mexican birth, since it was the same route they had followed in the opposite direction from Sonora to California years before. On August 9, Company D once again took up the rear of the column, escorting a supply train that included two light artillery pieces.[31]

Six men deserted Company A during the first five days out of Fort Yuma, while Company B lost twenty men. Because the desertions occurred as the column passed through the lower Gila Valley, where the prosperous but short-lived mining camp of Gila City had existed only a few years before, it may be that the abscounders, some of whom were ex-miners, ran away to try their hand at placer mining, either near Gila City or a few days north at La Paz. It is also possible that some of the fugitives fled south along the Camino del Diablo, which linked up with the Overland Road in the same area, and sought sanctuary in Sonora.[32]

A night march across the forty-mile desert, a week or so out of Fort Yuma, brought Company D to the Maricopa villages. After more than three weeks on the trail, the Native cavalrymen cast envious eyes on the melons ripening in the fields. According to 1st Sgt. Juan Robarts, the "men having a sneaking regard for the fruit," but having no hard currency, paid the enterprising Indians with "their shirts, drawers, and other articles of apparel." In Robarts's estimation, the Maricopas "got the best of every trade that was made."

Arriving in the Old Pueblo on August 30, Robarts had nothing nice to say about what he sarcastically referred to as the "flourishing and extensive city of Tucson." After a day's rest, Company D resumed its march south on September 1. Two nights later, a corporal on guard duty spotted "eight or ten" Apaches, the Califormos' first encounter with the desert warriors. Apparently the Indians had "only come to see if they could find a horse or mule loose, or picketed outside of camp," and nothing came of the brief sighting.[33]

The following day the Los Angeles company arrived at Tubac, only to find the ancient presidio all but abandoned and the military post moved a dozen miles south to the old hacienda of Calabasas. There they joined companies A and B and three companies of the Seventh Infantry, California Volunteers, all under the command of Lt. Col. Charles Lewis, a competent and decisive officer who led the "Hungry Seventh." [34]

Named Fort Mason after Gen. John S. Mason, who commanded the District of Arizona from his Fort Whipple headquarters near Prescott, the new post could hardly be called a fort, consisting instead of tents and brush shelters and only a few permanent buildings. The site, selected by Colonel Lewis, was the former location of Camp Moore, occupied by two companies of the First Dragoons for a few months in 1856.

Lewis probably did not foresee the problems that would plague Camp Mason. Unusually heavy monsoon rains in August and September swelled the Santa Cruz River and its tributaries. Water that accumulated in the arroyos and cienegas provided an ideal environment for mosquito-borne fever that prostrated the garrison throughout the fall and winter. Five enlisted men of the Native California Cavalry and two of its officers, 1st Lt. Crisanto Soto of Company A and Capt. Thomas A. Young of Company D, eventually died of the disease. At one point, between one-third and one-half of the garrison was laid low. The fever slowed construction of the post to a near standstill and delayed serious forays against the Apaches.[35]

Despite its problems, Fort Mason was strategically located on the most important road leading from Tucson into Sonora. Stationed at an important listening post less than ten miles from the border, the men of the Native California Cavalry found themselves only a few hours ride from Mexico, a nation occupied by a foreign power and mired in turmoil that threatened the United States.

Sonora was so far removed from Mexico's central government that in many ways it was effectively independent. The political chaos that consumed the rest of the country did not leave the frontier province untouched, however. Governor Ignacio Pesquiera, a Liberal of convenience, had been fighting to retain the governorship since 1855 against partisans of his predecessor, Conservative Manuel Gandara, who sought forcibly to unseat him. Gandara's support collapsed in 1861, and he was exiled just in time to miss the coming French invasion.A supporter of the Republicans under President Benito Juarez, Pesquiera was friendly to the Union cause during the American Civil War. He resisted overtures from Confederate agents and cultivated friendships with federal officers, including Colonel Lewis and Col. James Carleton of the California Column. These amicable relationships were born not only out of pragmatism, but also out of partisanship, for the French-backed Imperialists maintained ties with the Confederacy, while the Union generally favored the Republican faction. [36]

While Sonora remained more or less unaffected by the war in central Mexico, Pesquiera managed to retain his governorship during the early part of the French Intervention. That changed in 1865 when French regulars landed at Guaymas in hopes of seizing the fabled Sonoran silver mines and using the loot to defray the high cost of supporting Maximilian's monarchy. The French movements alarmed United States officials in California, who had received reports that the Imperialists sought to overturn the Gadsden Purchase and reclaim Arizona. Sonoran Conservatives were encouraged. They assisted a small-but-disciplined foreign force in destroying Pesquiera's ragtag and demoralized army, forcing him
to flee to the safety of his friends north of the border.

Major Cremony, who was not yet present at Fort Mason, later wrote an account of Pesquiera's September 6 arrival at the post that seemed to imply that the exiled governor stumbled into American territory with a force of French regulars in rapid pursuit at his heels. The reality seems to have been somewhat different. Accompanying the governor was a sizeable entourage that included his family, sheep, goats, a thousand head of cattle, a hundred horses, and a military escort. Col. Federico Ronstadt, an infantry officer in the Republican army, rode ahead of the party and requested permission to camp in the valley below Fort Mason. According to Sergeant Robarts of Company D, "Colonel Lewis replied that he and his officers would do themselves the honor to wait on the Governor of Sonora, which accordingly they did, and offered the protection and hospitality of the post." Pesquiera camped with his entourage in the shadow of the fort before briefly taking up residence at the nearby hacienda of Calabasas. He then moved on to Tubac and established a sort of capital in exile, where he could gather financial resources and recruits for a new army. [37]

Meanwhile in Sonora, Jose Moreno, prefect of the military district of Altar, moved "300 or 400 Mexican Imperialists" to Magdalena, some fifty-five miles south of Fort Mason, apparently with the intention of crossing the border to seize the governor. Colonel Lewis belligerently declared, "Let him come and try it!" War seemed inevitable, and the boredom and misery of garrison life only amplified the tension. [38]

The situation may have been too much for fifteen men of companies A and B, who deserted shortly after Pesquiera's arrival and fled south with thirty horses and "numerous" pistols and carbines. Receiving word that the deserters were at Magdalena, Captains Pico and Jimeno, along with Lt. William Emery of the Seventh California Infantry and thirty men of Company A, Native California Cavalry, set out to recover the deserters and the stolen property.

A two-day ride brought the detachment to the outskirts of the Sonoran community, where Captain Pico sent Emery forward as a messenger. Impatient for Emery's return, Pico selected eight to ten men and charged into the town. Stopping in front of Prefect Moreno's office, the Californio boldly demanded the return of the deserters and stolen property, as well as safe passage for himself to Altar and Hermosillo. During the ensuing heated argument, Pico arrogantly declared that as an American officer, he did not recognize the Imperial government. A crowd that assembled in the plaza cheered the blue-coated invaders. Like everyone else in Magdalena, Moreno assumed that Pico was there to start a fight. Consequently, he assembled ten to twenty cavalrymen in a line opposite the Californios and sent for an infantry detachment camped nearby. "A single gun fired at this moment would have started a general fight," one California soldier later wrote.

For some reason, perhaps the intervention of the cooler headed Lieutenant Emery, the situation calmed somewhat and Prefect Moreno agreed to send a courier to Hermosillo for instructions. Captain Pico, for his part, agreed to send Captain Jimeno and the bulk of the detachment, who still remained outside the town, back across the line. During the eight-day wait for the messenger to return, Republican sympathizers in Magdalena treated Pico, Emery, and the small escort of Native cavalrymen who had been permitted to stay with them to "three fine dinners." Pico's request for safe passage into the Sonoran interior was refused and the proud Californian was forced to return home empty-handed. On the way back, the Californios spotted five Apaches in the hills overlooking the road. So that the expedition would not be a total loss, Pico ordered his troopers to give chase. Lieutenant Emery narrowly escaped injury as his horse lost its footing on the steep and rocky incline. Captain Pico burned himself severely when his pistol discharged as he fell with his horse. The incident no doubt humiliated Pico, who had a reputation as one of California's finest horsemen. He called off the chase and the humbled Californians returned to Fort Mason on September 15. The next day, word arrived that Moreno's men had auctioned off the federal property the deserters had stolen. [39]

In the wake of Imperialist protests against Pico's belligerent behavior and an apparent accompanying buildup of French and Imperialist troops near the border, Colonel Lewis established an outpost at Sylvester Mowry's recently abandoned Patagonia mine and sent a twenty-man detachment from Company D to patrol the line. Meanwhile, a rumor reached California that Pico was being held prisoner in Mexico and would be executed by the French-backed Imperialists at Hermosillo. [40]

Major Cremony finally arrived at Fort Mason, together with Captain de la Guerra and Company C, in early November. A three week delay at Fort Yuma-possibly due to flooding-and Cremony's visit with the ailing Governor Pesquiera at Tubac had slowed the march from Drum Barracks. Now the Native California Cavalry battalion was once again assembled, just in time to respond to a threatened Imperialist invasion of southern Arizona. [41]

Late on the night of November 24, word reached Fort Mason from Patagonia that a large Sonoran force had attacked the ranching community of San Rafael, just north of the border. About 350 Opata volunteers under the command of Col. Refugio Tanori, an Opata leader commissioned in the Imperial Army, had crossed the line on an apparently botched raid that left an American citizen wounded. Believing that the raid was an attempt to capture Pesquiera, Major Cremony quickly assembled a detachment from companies C and D and rode across the Patagonia Mountains, reaching San Rafael early the next morning. From there, Cremony crossed the border and entered the town of Santa Cruz, where he learned that Tanori's command had retreated farther south. The major sent ahead 1st Lt. Edmund W. Coddington of Company D and ten troopers to make contact with the Imperialist colonel. After a forty-mile ride, the troopers reached Imuris only to find that Tanori and his irregulars had melted into the countryside. After resting a few days at Santa Cruz, the command returned to Fort Mason, where it arrived on November 30. [42]

By the time of Tanori's raid, the French regulars had largely withdrawn from Sonora. Pesquiera and the Republicans, while, had successfully raised a small army to challenge Imperialist authority in the frontier state. Increasingly through December and January, Republican forces engaged the Imperialists in battle in the heart of Sonora. Although the war was far from over, the Imperialists would never again molest the northern regions.[43]

At the same time, frontier privations and the especially miserable conditions at Fort Mason took their toll on the men of the Native California Cavalry. Company returns signed by Cremony in December show a battalion that, although fairly well disciplined, was scarcely ready to fight. Arms for companies B, C, and D, including the distinctive lances that were once such a source of pride, were listed as unfit for service. Accoutrements and clothing were also in bad shape. Despite the Californios' evident unreadiness for field service, General Mason was contemplating a campaign against Cochise that involved the 'men of Fort Mason. [44]

For much of the Native Cavalry's service at Fort Mason, the much-talked-about Apaches were nowhere to be seen in the Santa Cruz Valley. A few patrols caught glimpses at a distance of small parties of less than a dozen, and Captain Jimemo reported killing one Apache in a brief exchange in October. Cochise had greatly curtailed his activities north of the border, partly in response to the troop buildup during the summer and fall that accompanied General Mason's arrival in Arizona. [45]

Mason's plan called for troops from Forts Mason and Bowie to conduct a two-pronged campaign against the Chiricahua Apaches. Colonel Lewis's command, including men from the Native Cavalry and his own Seventh California Infantry, started from Fort Mason in late December, then split into three detachments that scouted the San Pedro Valley and the Huachuca and Dragoon mountains. Captain Jimeno's cavalry tracked a party of Apaches to an encampment at Sulphur Springs on Christmas Eve. Attacking from ambush, the Californios killed one Indian, wounded two others, and scattered the remainder.

Several days later, Lewis and the rest of the expedition joined Jimeno's troopers at the ambush site. Striking north and west, the California Volunteers eventually reached Fort Bowie, where they were joined by noted scout Merejildo Grijalva. By January 6, the command was in the field again, tracking Cochise's band in: the Chiricahua Mountains. Although at one point the Californios observed sixty to seventy warriors at a distance, the Apaches constantly remained a few steps ahead of Lewis's troops. The pursuit continued as far south as Fronteras, Sonora, where the frustrated colonel turned back toward home, blaming the expedition's failure on Captain Jimeno, despite the fact that the Native troopers produced the only tangible success of the campaign. Fortunately for Jimeno, department headquarters in San Francisco, unaware that the Chiricahua Apaches had largely withdrawn from Arizona in the pervious months, proclaimed the expedition a success, since it appeared to them that Cochise had been driven into Mexico. [46]

Even before Major Cremony arrived at Fort Mason back in November, orders had been issued for the dissolution of his battalion. On October 21, 1865, department headquarters at San Francisco instructed the Native California Cavalry to return to Drum Barracks for mustering out. By early December, detachments that had remained behind to guard federal property at Camp Low, the Presidio, and Angel Island had been relieved by regular troops and discharged. A few more months would pass, however, before regulars arrived in Arizona. So the bulk of the battalion remained at Fort Mason until late January, when it began its long march home. [47]

Reaching Tucson on January 31, 1866, the Californios retraced their route along the Overland Road to the Colorado River opposite Fort Yuma, where high water from heavy autumn rains forced them to stop for over a week. As soon as they were able to ford the river and reach the fort, the battalion split up, with companies A, B, and D marching overland to Drum Barracks, while Major Cremony and Company C boarded a steamer for the Presidio. The Santa Barbara company may have received this special treatment because of the poor health of Captain de la Guerra. Suffering from a social disease that he caught some time during his service, the captain had been confined to quarters during much of his stay at Fort Mason and was likely unable to withstand the rigors of a road march. [48]

Lagging behind the other two companies traveling over land, Company D reached Drum Barracks on March 8, joining companies A and B who had arrived there a week earlier. Captain Jimeno and Company B were mustered out on March 15; the other two companies were discharged five days later. One news paper correspondent tersely summarized the Californios' tour of duty. "They have done good service," he wrote. [49]

The journey home for Major Cremony and Company C took somewhat longer. Together with a company of the Seventh California Infantry and two companies from the Second California Infantry, the remaining Californios boarded a Colorado River steamer at Fort Yuma and sailed south to Cabo San Lucas at the tip of Baja California. After a few days stopover, they continued the voyage around the peninsula and then north to San Francisco, where they docked on March 27. [50]

At the Presidio on April 2, the men of Company C were mustered out, given their back pay, and let loose in San Francisco, where they were "to be seen on every street corner. . . spending their greenbacks with great liberality." The ex-lancers, threadbare after their frontier service, spent most of their newly issued scrip at clothing stores. [51]

The veterans of the Santa Barbara company were welcomed home with a parade down the dusty lane that would become State Street and a two-day fiesta in De La Guerra Plaza. The events of the Civil War and their political fallout had given the old families of Spanish California power and prestige that they had not enjoyed since the American conquest. Now, the return of the vaqueros, who had served their country in the best tradition of the valiant lancers of San Pascual, gave the Californios a chance to celebrate this brief moment when the glory and romance of Old California seemed restored. Perhaps they knew that it was not to last. [52]

Porfirio Jimeno was offered a commission in the postwar regular army, but turned it down. Instead, he went to Mexico, possibly to join members of his father's family, or, according to some reports, throwing in with the American Legion of Honor, a band of ex-California Volunteers who aided the Republican cause in Mexico. Either way, he died a commissioned officer in the Mexican Army at Mexico City in 1870. [53]

Antonio de la Guerra continued to suffer from the illness he contracted in the service. Treated with injections of mercury, he died blind and toothless at age fifty-six in 1881. [54]

The other officers and men of the Native California Cavalry returned to their civilian lives. Like most of the California Volunteers, they faded into obscurity, forgotten by nearly everyone except when the proud veterans appeared at the battalion reunions held at Drum Barracks until 1923. The last Californio lancer, 1st Sgt. Juan de la Guerra of Company C, died at Santa Barbara in 1945. [55]

Well before Sergeant de la Guerra's death, the tradition that the Native Cavalry represented had become a throwback, seen only in popular novels like Ramona and The Mark of Zorro. Even as the battalion served in California and Arizona, the big ranches were being broken up and sold. The end of the war brought an influx Anglos ignorant of California's past and thus unable to respect the contributions of their Spanish-surnamed predecessors. The charge of the lancer, with brilliant pennon fluttering in the wind blowing in from the sea, had become as quaint a romantic notion as the sprawling rancho and the vaquero. The service of the First Battalion of Native California Cavalry was one last chance for the proud California vaquero to ride into glory. [56]

1. San Francisco Bulletin, July 11, 1865; Wilmington Journal, July 1, 8, 1865.

2. Officially, the armament of the lancer companies of the Native California Cavalry consisted of a Colt army revolver, a saber, and a lance manufactured at the Benicia arsenal.
Special Order 65, Headquarters, District of Southern California, Drum Barracks, in The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, 70 vols. in 128 pts. (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1880-1901), Series I, vol. 50, pt. 2, p. 1035 (hereinafter cited as O.R.); San Francisco Bulletin, July 8, 1865.

3. Richard H. Orton, Records of California Men in the War of the Rebellion (Sacramento: State of California, 1890), p. 304; Sacramento Union, January 28, 1863.

4. Orton, Records of California Men, p. 304; Leonard Pitt, The Decline of the Californios: A Social History of Spanish-Speaking Californians, 1846-1890 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1966), p. 34.

5. Orton, Records of California Men, p. 304; Pitt, Decline of the Californios, pp. 230, 233.

6. Wilmington Journal, March 10, 1866 J. R. Pico to Governor Stanford, San Jose, January 2, 1863, Box 6, Military and National Guard Collection (MNG), California Archives,
Sacramento.

7. Alta California (San Francisco), March 11, 1863

8. Ibid., March 11, 20,1863; Orton, Records of California Men, pp. 307-310.

9. Muster and Descriptive Roll, Native California Cavalry (NCC), MNG; San Francisco Bulletin, July 8, 1865.

10. Aurora Hunt, The Army of the Pacific: Its operations in California, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, plains region, Mexico, etc. 1860-1866 (Glendale, Calif.: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1951), pp. 246-48; A. J. Bledsoe, Indian Wars of the Northwest: A California Sketch (Oakland, Calif.: Biobooks, 1956), pp. 234, 249-51; Alta California, February 18, 1864.

11. San Pose Patriot, January 18, 1863. J. R. Pico to Governor Stanford, September 9, 1863, Box 6; and Muster and Descriptive Roll, Company Returns, Company B, NCC, both in MNG.

12. A. Dibblee Poett, Rancho San Julian: The Story of a California Ranch and Its People (Santa Barbara: Futhian Press, 1990), pp. 3-38. Maj. S. Vallejo to Lt. Col. Richard C. Drum, Drum Barracks, April 13, 1864; Raymond Hill to Governor Low, Santa Barbara, April 24, 1864; Hill to General Kibbe, Santa Barbara, May 16, 1864, Box 7, MNG. Muster and
Descriptive Roll, Company C, NCC, ibid.

13. Constance Wynn Altshuler, Cavalry Yellow & Infantry Blue: Army Officers in Arizona Between 1851 and 1886 (Tucson: Arizona Historical Society, 1991), pp. 178-79; Stella
Haverland Rouse, "Civil War Volunteers," Noticias (Santa Barbara Historical Society), vol. 27 (Fall 1981), pp. 58-59.

14. Pablo de la Guerra to Low, Los Angeles, May 26,1864; W. G. Still to Low, Los Angeles, May 27, 1864, Box 7, MNG. Alta California, June 18, September 11, 1864.

15. Pitt, The Decline of the Californios, p. 231. Jose J. Moreno to Low, Los Angeles, April 28, 1864; Still to Low, May 27, 1864, Box 7, MNG. Post Returns, Drum Barracks, March 1864, Records of the U.S. Army Commands (RUSAC), Record Group 94, National Archives.

16. William P. Reynolds to Low, Los Angeles, June 9, 1864, Box 7; Vallejo and Pico to Stanford, Presidio of San Francisco, November 30, 1863, Box 6, MNG. Alta California,
June 24, 1864. Post Returns, Drum Barracks, July 1864, RUSAC.

17. Post Returns, Drum Barracks, September 1864, RUSAC; Reynolds to Low, Los Angeles, March 28, 1864, Box 7, MNG; Wilmington Journal, January 14,1865; Haverland Rouse, "Civil War Volunteers."

18. Pitt, Decline of the Californios, p. 233; Orton, Records of California Men, p. 301.

19. Altshuler, Cavalry Yellow & Infantry Blue, p. 85.

20. Parajo Times (Watsonville), November 12, 1864.

21. Alta California, January 24, 1865; Michael O'Brien to Low, Camp Low, San Juan, February 1, 1865, Box 8, MNG.

22. Vallejo to Low, Drum Barracks, February 23, 1865; Captain de la Guerra and Lieutenant Jimeno to Low, March 17, 1865, Box 8, MNG. Orton, Records of California Men, pp.
310-14.

23. Alta California, April 12, 13, 1865.

24. OR., pp. 1150-51; Post Returns, Drum Barracks, March and April 1865, RUSAC.

25. Sacramento Union, March 11, 1865; Alta California, April 12, 1865.

26. Pajaro Times, April 29, 1865; Sacramento Union, April 28, 27, 1865; Alta California, May 14, 1865; Orton, Records of California Men, p. 305.

27. Monterey Gazette, June 9, 1865; San Francisco Bulletin, July 8, 1865.

28. Post Returns, Drum Barracks, July 1865, RUASC. Alta California, April 12, 1865. Company Returns, Company D, NCC, June 1865, MNG; Gilbert C. Smith to Low, May 24, 1865, Box 9, ibid.

29. Wilmington Journal July 29, 1865; Post Returns, Drum Barracks, July-August 1865, RUSAC.

30. Jimeno to Pablo de la Guerra, August 3, 1865, Folder 554, de la Guerra Collection, Santa Barbara Mission Archives.

31. Los Angeles Tri-Weekly News, October 24, 1865.

32. Orton, Records of California Men, pp. 307-314.

33. Los Angeles Tri-Weekly News, October 24, 1865.

34. Ibid.; Constance Wynn Altshuler, Chains of Command: Arizona and the Army, 1856-1875 (Tucson: Arizona Historical Society, 1981), pp. 41-44.

35. Constance Wynn Altshuler, "Camp Moore and Fort Mason," Journal of the Council on Abandoned Military Posts, vol. 26 (Winter 1976), pp. 34-36; Sacramento Union, October 19, 1865.

36. Rodolfo F. Acuiia, Sonoran Strongman: Ignacio Pesquiera and His Times (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1974), pp. 79-87.

37. John C. Cremony, "How and Why We Took Santa Cruz," Overland Monthly, vol. 6 (April 1871), pp. 335-40; Los Angeles Tri-Weekly Times, October 24, 1865; Thomas Edwin
Farish, History of Arizona, vol. 4, p. 118, typescript, Special Collections, University of Arizona Library, Tucson; Edward F. Ronstadt, ed., Borderman: Memoirs of Federico Jose Maria Ronstadt (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1993), p. 4.

38. San Francisco Bulletin, October 23, 1865.

39. Ibid.; Sacramento Union, October 19, 1865; Los Angeles Tri-Weekly News, October 24, 1865.

40. Returns, Company D, NCC, October 31 to December 31, 1865, MNG; Porfirio Jimeno to Josefa Maria de la Guerra, October 30, 1865, Folder 551, de la Guerra Collection; San Francisco Bulletin, October 23, 1865.

41. Muster Roll, Field & Staff, NCC, August 31 to October 1865, MNG; Cremony, "How and Why We Took Santa Cruz," p. 337.

42. Cremony, "How and Why We Took Santa Cruz," pp. 337-40; Wilmington Journal, December 30, 1865.

43. Acuna, Sonoran Strongman, pp. 87-93.

44. Returns, Companies A, B, C, and D, NCC, MNG.

45. Jimeno to Josefa Maria de la Guerra, October 30, 1865, Folder 551, de la Guerra Collection.

46. Edwin R. Sweeney, Cochise: Chiricahua Apache Chief (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1991), pp. 239-40.

47. Sacramento Union, October 26, 1865; Los Angeles Tri-Weekly News, December 15, 1865; Returns, Company B, December 1865, NCC, MNG.

48. Wilmington Journal; February 17, March 17, 1865; Returns, Company D, January 31, 1866, Company C, October 31 to December 31, 1865, NCC, MNG; Diblee Poett, Rancho San Julian, p. 42.

49. Wilmington Journal, March 3, 10, 1866; Orton, Records of California Men, pp. 307-14, 317-20; San Francisco Bulletin, March 30, 1866.

50. Don McDowell, "Vaqueros en Azul," Drumbeats, vol. 3 (October 1989); Alta California, March 27, 1866.

51. Orton, Records of California Men, pp. 315-17; Alta California, April 4, 1865.

52. McDowell, "Vaqueros en Azul"; Pitt, Decline of the Californios, pp. 241-42.

53. Altshuler, Cavalry Yellow & Infantry Blue, pp. 178-79.

54. Diblee Poett, Rancho San Julian, p. 42; McDowell, "Vaqueros en Azul."

55. McDowell, "Vaqueros en Azul."

56. Pitt, Decline of the Californios, pp. 247-76.

Tom Prezelski is a graduate of the University of Arizona and a docent at the Arizona Historical Society, Tucson. He presented an earlier version of this article at the 1998 joint New Mexico-Arizona Historical Convention in Santa Fe. 

The Pima County Board of Supervisors appointed Tom Prezelski to the House of Representatives in February 2003 to fill the vacancy left in District 29 by Representative Victor Soltero, who resigned to accept an appointment to a vacancy in the State Senate.

Representative Prezelski is a Tucson native with deep roots in the Old Pueblo and Southern Arizona. His father had a distinguished twenty-two year career in the United States Air Force, retiring with the rank of Senior Master Sergeant. His mother, who had a long and varied career at the University of Arizona, is a descendent of several pioneer families of the Arizona-Sonora border region, including some ancestors who served as soldiers in the Spanish garrison at Tucson in the 18th Century. His family’s tradition of public service extends at least as far back as his grandfather, Francisco Ronquillo Villa, a cowboy, rancher, union railroad worker and Cochise County Democrat who served on a school board in the San Pedro Valley in the 1930s.

Representative Prezelski is a graduate of the University of Arizona, where he was active in the Arizona Students Association and received a degree in Geography.

Representative Prezelski is an amateur historian, and some of his articles have seen print. For this article he received the James F. Elliot II award for the best article by a non-professional historian. He has worked as a docent and volunteer at the Arizona Historical Society in Tucson. He also participates in a reenactment group that recreates the Segunda Compania de Voluntarios de Cataluña, a Spanish infantry company that served in what is now Arizona, California and Sonora in the 1780s. In 1995, he was appointed to the Tucson-Pima County Historical Commission, a board that advises local government about historical and cultural preservation issues in the greater Tucson area.

Representative Prezelski worked as a planner for the Tohono O’odham Nation from since 1999 to 2003.

Representative Prezelski lives in the Barrio Viejo neighborhood of Tucson on the same block where his grandmother grew up.

NORTHWESTERN UNITED STATES 

SOUTHWESTERN UNITED STATES   

Soldados del Presidio San Agustin del Tucson
In 2017: Blacksmithing demonstrations, every 4th Saturday 
10 a.m. - 1 p.m. 
Jan 28  |  Feb 25  |  March 25  |  April 22

Join us for the new Presidio District Historic 
Walking Tour and Lunch!
February 1 and February 4, 10:30 am - 1:30 pm
$40/person

Discover the stories of Tucson's past that have made the city what it is today! Experience how history comes alive at the Presidio Museum featuring:

The excavation site of a Native American pit house 
European technology and how it changed daily Presidio life 
Blacksmith and musket demonstrations, 
plus old and new world food tastings 
Pre-railroad Sonoran row house, most likely made from bricks that were once in the Presidio walls 
Following the tour at the Presidio Museum, enjoy a delicious pre-selected lunch at La Cocina!

Virgil Trujillo

The Santo Tomas fiesta moves from the church grounds to the home of the festival chairman. A trio of musicians entertains. People sit at outdoor tables in a chill wind, eating bowls of steaming pozole, or hominy stew, with red chile.  

"Genizaro, the term, was actually used as a racial slur by people, especially here in northern New Mexico, the equivalent of the N-word," he says. 

What's happening in New Mexico today is a sort of genizaro renaissance.

TEXAS

Dr. Dr. Félix D. Almaraz Jr. & Gilberto Quezada, teacher/student friendship of 49 years. 
March 2-4th: 121st Texas State Historical Association Annual Meeting
Tejano and the Rise of Commercial: Ranching in Texas, 1848-1920 
        by Dr. Armando Alonzo
April 8: 5th Anniversary Celebration: Unveiling of Tejano Monument, Texas State Capitol 
January 13th, 1847 -- Future scalp hunter enlists in army
January 19th, 1858 -- German school chartered in Austin
Tejano History Matters by Dan Arellano, St. Mary's University 
Spanish Archives of Laredo by J. Gilberto Quezada
A Tribute to Miss Carmen Perry by J. Gilberto Quezada
Texas Alliance of Land Grant Descendants (TALGD)
Texas State Historical Association Newsletter 

March 2-4th: 
Texas State Historical Association Annual Meeting will
celebrate its 121st annual event
at the Hyatt Regency Houston Hotel

Tejanos and the Rise of Commercial
Ranching in Texas, 1848-1920

by Dr. Armando Alonzo
Texas A&M University 

With the adjudication of their rights to the land grants in the Trans-Nueces district under state agencies, Mexicans returned to the land and restarted the ranching economy in the 1850s. It was a slow recovery that involved local sales of livestock and some overland drives to Texas packeries along the coast and to New Orleans. Ranchmen and women herded on a moderate-scale of a few hundred horses and cattle. Limited marketing opportunities prevailed on account of revolutions, political disorders in Mexico, and the effects of the Civil War on the region, which restricted the expansion of stock- raising. 

Ranchers also herded sheep and goats, usually in conjunction with the raising of horses and cattle. Wool, hides, and skins were profitable because the merchants in the countryside and the more important ones in Laredo, Brownsville, Corpus Christi, and San Antonio had connections to buyers at New Orleans, New York, and other places. 

April 8, 2017: 5th Anniversary Celebration: Unveiling of Tejano Monument at Texas State Capitol

April 8, 2017---- 5th Anniversary Celebration: Unveiling of Tejano Monument at Texas State Capitol

March*----- 2017 Tejano Book Award contest begins.

June*--------- 2017 Members' Choice Award, contest for Self-Published works begins

September 28 –30, 2017--- 38th Hispanic Genealogical and Historical Conference, Austin, Texas

January 13th, 1847 -- Future scalp hunter enlists in army

January 19th, 1858 -- German school chartered in Austin

1. Friday February 10^th 2017 , 9 A.M. 10 A.M. The First Texas Republic and the Battle of Medina .
2. Wednesday February 15^th  9 A.M. 10 A.M. The French Connection to the Alamo
3. Thursday February 16^th. 9A.M. 10 A.M. ‘Cinco de Mayo” and the real reason we celebrate.

 Spanish Archives of Laredo
by J. Gilberto Quezada

The documents are kept inside this walk-in steel vault in a heavy four-drawer steel filing cabinet, which was kept locked at all times and the vault door had a combination lock. Miss Perry was the only one who knew the combination. Each document was kept in a separate Lancaster bond folder. I found out from Miss Perry that these were the conditions that were stipulated in the agreement on December 10, 1961, when the university formally accepted to be the custodian of the Spanish Archives of Laredo. 

We would take one document at a time, study it, and fill in the information on a 5x8 index card. On the upper left hand side, we filled: Provence and Destination. On the upper right hand side, we filled in the box number where we found the document and the date. Then, we filled in the FROM and TO of the document, the type of communication, and the condition of the document. And, finally we wrote a brief description of the content. The cards were then cross-referenced with numerous sources so that a researcher could quickly find a document dealing with a specific subject. There were a total of 3,245 separate documents for a total of 13, 343 pages. The oldest document was dated 1749 and the most recent one was from 1868.

This is the oldest document from the Spanish period, dated 1749.

This document is dated 1771 and is signed by the founder of Laredo, Don Tomás Sánches.

In 1959, Seb S. Wilcox passed away to his eternal reward. He was a graduate of St. Mary's University, and his wish was that the Spanish Archives of Laredo should be donated to the university. Accordingly, after his death, the Wilcox family sent the archival collection in fourteen crates. At a special ceremony held in the library of St. Mary's University in San Antonio, Texas, on Sunday morning, December 10, 1961, Mrs. Stella Marie Wilcox and her son William Wilcox officially presented the Spanish Archives of Laredo to the president of the university and to the librarian for safekeeping. Another important stipulation was that they were to be made available for historical research. The university also had them microfilmed.

A Tribute to Miss Carmen Perry
by J. Gilberto Quezada

A Tribute to Miss Carmen Perry

Texas State Historical Association Newsletter 
In this Issue:
TSHA's 121st Annual Meeting Illuminating Texas History for 120 Years
Book Bundles for National History Month FREE eBook: William B. Travis 
Workshop Opportunities for Educators