Somos Primos

 February 2006 
Editor: Mimi Lozano ©2000-6

Dedicated to Hispanic Heritage and Diversity Issues
 
Society of Hispanic Historical and Ancestral Research
Celebrating 20th Anniversary 
1986-2006

"Companionship affects not only the quality of our lives, 
but our survival"
Dean Ornish, M.D.
Newsweek, October 3, 2005, pg. 56, 
Information, go to www.pmri.org or www.ornish.com

  Letters to the Editor : 

God bless you for what you have done for us chicanos on Somos Primos. Keep up the great work. 
Love, Your Texano Primo, GEORGE DE LA GARZA  gandldelagarza@verizon.net

United States

Culture 
Rene E. Herrera
Moctesuma Esparza 
Bikers "adopt" buddies to fight child abuse

Business
Brightstar Corp. Tops $2.2 Billion in Annual Revenue

Cyrus Salazar is one of the select few.  Young, Hispanic and motivated to work as a public servant in Washington, he landed a job at the Department of Health and Human Services after leaving New Mexico State University in 1999. But seven years later, the Mexican American has joined a growing list of people who wonder why Hispanics are still the only underrepresented minority group in the federal workplace.

"That has always been a concern of mine," said Salazar, 30. "There is such a low representation of Hispanics. There's not one clear-cut answer. It's a challenge every day."

Hispanics represent 7 percent of employees in federal government when the group's population is growing faster than all others. The five-percentage-point gap between Hispanics working in the public and private domains translates to thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in potential pay, according to a coalition of Hispanic federal employees.

The private sector tracks with the 13 percent of Hispanics in the general population, 40 million people, not including an estimated 11 million undocumented workers living in the country illegally.

Hispanic underemployment has continued for decades despite presidential directives, job programs and recruitment drives, according to numerous federal reports. In a 1996 evaluation of Hispanic employment in the government, the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board said that discrimination "undeniably played a role in the history of Hispanic employment issues" and that "there is no evidence to suggest that it has somehow been totally eliminated from the federal workplace."

Gilbert Sandate, chairman of the Coalition for Fairness for Hispanics in Government, said federal managers, most non-Hispanic and white, lack the will to aggressively recruit Hispanics at universities and private workplaces in the Southwest and West Coast, where they are concentrated.

"Since 2000, Hispanics have accounted for half of the population growth in the United States," Sandate said. "You would think that with all this increase, Hispanics would get a fair shake in the federal government."

As a recruiter, Salazar wonders what happens when Hispanic job applicants are handed off to managers at federal agencies. "If you have three people who are equally qualified -- a Hispanic, an African American and a white person -- who are you going to hire?" he said. "It all comes down to preference."

Preference is just one factor, said John Crum, director of policy and evaluation for the Merit Systems Protection Board. "The government can only hire citizens, and many Hispanics in this country are not citizens." [Please click to a response from Al Gallegos.]

On top of that, recruiting Hispanics is not easy, especially when many federal jobs are clustered in big cities on the East Coast and in the Midwest. "A lower percentage of our jobs happen to be in the Southwest," Crum said.

Federal recruiters restrained by budgets are less likely to build an applicant pool in the Southwest. "It's difficult to say if someone in Detroit should be recruiting someone in Arizona," Crum said, but "the issue is of concern to us." Hispanic hires have grown by a single percentage point since his agency's report 10 years ago.

Money matters, too, Sandate said. The gap between federal and private-sector representation translates to 90,000 jobs and about $4 billion in federal salaries, according to an estimate compiled by Sandate's coalition.

That is all the more reason Hispanics should have a share of the federal pie, said Max Stier, president and chief executive of the Partnership for Public Service. "The federal government needs to represent our entire country, and to do that it needs to be representative of our entire country."

By most standards, the federal government overachieves when it comes to diversity. It has long been hailed as a model of workplace inclusion, particularly for black workers who are over represented relative to the private sector. The 7 percent employment rate of Hispanics is incongruous, considering that they make up 12 percent of the private workforce.

"Our position has always been 'You tell me what the job is and we can find qualified people to fill those positions,' " Sandate said.

Hispanic representation at the Office of Personnel Management, the Department of Commerce and HHS is especially meager -- each has less than 4 percent, according to an OPM report to President Bush, released in June.

The departments of Defense, Energy, Interior and State are not much better, with less than 6 percent each. Homeland Security, needing Spanish speakers at the border, has the largest proportion of Hispanic workers, 18 percent. The Social Security Administration and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission have 12 and 13 percent representation, respectively.

The overall number of Hispanics in the federal government increased in 2004, but not by much. It went from 7 percent in 2003 to 7.3 percent, according to the report. There was also a slight increase in the number of Hispanics hired to senior positions.

"We're trying to correct 40 years of history, programs that haven't worked," Salazar said. "You can have the best recruiters, the best personnel. . . . There's a lot of follow-up, a lot of meetings with graduate students. You want the best and brightest."

4513 Fairfield Drive
Bethesda, MD 20814

January 3, 2006

Letters to the Editor
The Washington Post
Washington, DC 20071

Dear Editor,

Mr. Darryl Fears, author of the article, "Hispanics Underrepresented in the Federal Workforce," (January 3, 2006, page A15) would have done a greater service if he would have pressed Mr. John Crum to clarify his position on the issue. That recruiting Hispanics is not easy, that recruiting in one area of the country for a position in another area is difficult and the implication that the U.S. Hispanic community does not have an ample number of skilled professionals, all views attributed to Mr. Crum, are all cliches that have been voiced over the past 40 years. Such views do not have validity as obstacles to the hiring of Hispanics. They can be surmounted by applying common goodwill to hire qualified Hispanics.

At early as forty years ago, the representation of Hispanics in the federal service was 2.5% compared to then near 5.0% of Hispanics in the nation’s population. Now these numbers are 7.1 % versus 13.1% respectively. The projection is that by 2025 Hispanics will represent 29% of the U.S. population. Anyone believing that these numbers do not convey a forthcoming critical situation, denies that the country is not making the best use of its human capital, an outcome which can only lead to a larger number and more severe social problems than exist today. One would have good reason to assume that the paradigm for inclusion of Hispanics-the only major U.S. ethnic group under represented in the federal workforce-is that Hispanics will forever be represented at half their representation in the nation’s population. I doubt very much this paradigm applies to Hispanics in the military where they have readily distinguished themselves.

What was not cited in the article is that in general at best 6 to 8 months are required to effect a hiring from the time of application submission to a federal agency. Thus, it should not be a surprise to anyone that aside from Mr. Crum’s glass-half-empty attitude, i.e., "not wanted", potential employees are readily disposed to enter the private sector as befits their economic condition. The question is not recruitment but rather it is hiring into the federal service. Perhaps in evaluating the performance of any federal government entity, comparing resources allocated for recruiting to the number of hires and retention by that agency will be an element for review by the authorities responsible for the evaluation. Finally, note is made that Mr. Crum’s reference to the number of Hispanics residing in the U.S. illegally is irrelevant to the issue. It is surprising to me that an incumbent to the position of Director of Policy and Evaluation for the Merit Systems Protection Board as is Mr. Crum would be so unenlightened.

Sincerely,  J. V. Martinez 301/654-3641

Pew Finds Occupational Divide Between Hispanics, Whites Widening
By Christine Senteno
Hispanic Link Weekly Report, Jan 2, 2006

The occupational divide between Latinos and whites, the two largest segments of the workforce in the United States, is widening, according to a Dec. 15 report by the Pew Hispanic Center. Latinos remain concentrated in occupations such as building cleaning and maintenance, construction, industrial jobs and food service, it notes.

Report author Rakesh Kochhar, associate director for research at Pew Hispanic, says many of these workers are undocumented immigrants with little education. "Upward mobility... is pretty much a lost cause."

Those who speak English may get some on-the-job training or an apprenticeship that could land them a supervisory position but that is usually as far as it goes, Kochhar adds.

The report asserts the leading cause in the gap is lack of education. Latinos are much less likely to have a college degree which boosts the socioeconomic status of a worker by 40% over high school graduates.

Changes in the technology industry and the drop in manufacturing jobs led to the decline of Latino employment in several professional occupations with high socioeconomic status from 1990 to 2000.

Latinos total more 19.5 million workers, of 13% of the labor force.  While the last decade saw the nation's largest economic expansion in recent history and there have been gains in employment for Latinos, that has not translated into improvement over the types of jobs Latinos hold, according to the report.

Even though Latinos were 12%  of the work force in 2000, they held more than 40% of the farm work jobs. Also in 2000,16% of Latinos worked in professional occupations, compared to 34% of whites. 

Whites increased their representation in professional jobs while Latino presence showed in construction and service occupations.  Currently, more one than one-third of Latino workers, particularly Mexicans and Puerto Ricans, are employed in construction and factory work. 

A copy of the 29-page report can be found at www.pewhispanic.org

Many of us continue to believe that the key to our success in demanding accountability over the Federal hiring process lies with the last bullet of the recommendations listed.  Without this unified voice, we are left with the occasional individual voice trying to move mountains.

We call once again on the leadership of the major Hispanic organizations to join us in putting a unified voice behind this crisis.  Those of us in the Federal workforce can provide sound technical expertise to address this issue, but we lack the political muscle needed to make lasting changes to the Federal personnel hiring system.

The time is right for a major strategic approach to be undertaken.  Within the next several months the GAO will issue the most comprehensive study on Hispanic Employment in the Federal Government ever completed.  We must be prepared to capitalize on that report and its findings to demand immediate corrective action by the Executive and Legislative branches of government.  We urge the NHLA and other member organizations to step up to the plate and help us take this issue on once and for all. 

Sincerely, Gilbert Sandate     

Gil, The National Hispanic Leadership Agenda will step up to the plate and take this issue on. LULAC currently co-chairs the NHLA Civil Rights committee and we sit on the NHLA Government Accountability committee which this issue falls under.

We would be happy to take the lead within NHLA to bring this issue to the fore. I would like to propose a meeting between the NHLA Government Accountability committee and a delegation of Hispanic federal employees who are actively addressing this issue.

January 24, 2006

Dear NHLA Government Accountability Members and Hispanic Federal Executives:

In speaking with Gil Sandate, the NHLA Government Accountability Committee has agreed to hold a meeting jointly with a delegation of Hispanic Federal Executives on Wednesday, February, 8, 2006 at 12 noon to plan a campaign to address the under representation of Hispanics in the federal government and develop strategies to use the upcoming GAO report to maximum effect.

The meeting will be held in the NCLR 1st floor conference room at the following address:
National Council of La Raza
Raul Yzaguirre Building
1126 16th Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20036

Lunch will be provided courtesy of LULAC.
Please RSVP to Maritza Bosques at MBosques@LULAC.org.

Thank you for your interest in addressing this important issue.

Brent Wilkes, Executive Director
LULAC National
2000 L Street, NW, Suite 610
Washington, DC 20036
(202) 833-6130
FAX (202) 833-6135
BWilkes@LULAC.org

How to become a Certified Federal Job Search Trainer

Dear friends and colleagues,

As you continue to advance in your career and achieve new goals this new year, I would like to direct your attention to this training opportunity to become a Certified Federal Job Search Trainer.  This one-of-a-kind, successful, three-day program at Loyola College, Columbia, MD, developed and taught by Federal job search expert, Kathryn Troutman.  This is an excellent opportunity to learn from the very best.

Kathryn shares all of her techniques of training and working individually with federal jobseekers. She has more than 30-years of successful experience and more than 500 training dates in federal
agencies – teaching jobseekers how to write a Resumix, Fedres, KSA or handle a Federal job interview. Her knowledge and client/ workshop participant communications skills about federal job search will be shared with YOU! Also, your ability to work with clients and train classes will be dramatically increased from Kathryn’s techniques and easy, friendly and motivational communications style.

The certification training program will be held in April (12-14), June (21-24), September (20-23), and November 15-17).

Once you complete the training program, you will be licensed to teach the Ten Steps to a Federal Job Curriculum, as well as Ligaya’s curriculum, The Federal Hiring process; you can use the Ten Step graphic on your business card, office handouts and website to promote your new Federal Job Search Workshops; you can use this new training curriculum to create an entirely new Federal Job Search Training and Counseling program at your military transition center, university career counseling center, Veteran’s R&E, Vocational Rehabilitation Office, One-Step Center, Federal agency or a private practice; and you will develop confidence and knowledge to help your customers with their federal job search questions, vacancy announcements and resume assessments!

Now, as a Certified Federal Job Search Trainer, I strongly encourage you to attend the 3-day certification training program at Loyola College, Columbia, MD.  This is a training investment that you and your agency will benefit.  Take the first step by calling Kathryn Troutman at (410) 744-4324 or via e-mail at Kathryn@resume-place.com and tell her that you are interested in enrolling in this program.  Also, sign up for the Federal Career Corner - bi-monthly free newsletter about federal job search.

Please share this training opportunity with other colleagues...  and visit these websites:  www.resume-place.com   and www.tenstepsforstudents.org

Saludos, Harry

Harry R. Salinas, PhD
HR Salinas Associates
Human Resource Management Consultant
Certified Federal Job Search Trainer
Federal Employment and Career Management Counselor

The Resume Place, Inc.
89 Mellor Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21228
(410) 744 4324;  Fax (410) 744-0112;  (888) 480 8265

Why? . . Our presence, our loyalty, our strength will never be recognized until we become a visible part of the wheels that move the machine towards change.  

Eliseo Medina has served as international executive vice president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) since 1996, when he made history by becoming the first Mexican American elected to a top post at the 1.8 million-member SEIU.

Based in Los Angeles, Medina has helped make SEIU the fastest-growing union on the West Coast and the largest union in California. Since 1996, more than 900,000 workers across the country have united with SEIU, the nation's largest union of health care workers and the union with the largest membership of immigrant workers.

Medina began his career as a labor activist in 1965 when, as a 19-year-old grape-picker, he participated in the historic United Farm Workers' strike in Delano, Calif. Over the next 13 years, he worked alongside Cesar Chavez and honed his skills as a union organizer and political strategist. He left the Farm Workers in 1978, after rising to the rank of second national vice president.

In 1986, he joined SEIU and helped revive a local union in San Diego, helping build its membership from 1,700 to 10,000 in five years.

Medina was a key strategist in the Los Angeles strike by SEIU Local 1877's building service workers, who in April 2000 won the largest wage increases in the 15-year history of SEIU's Justice for Janitors campaign. He also helped more than 100,000 home care workers in California-most of whom work for minimum wage to assist seniors and people with disabilities to remain independent in their homes-secure $100 million in the state budget for raises and health care benefits.

He currently is leading SEIU's efforts to help workers in 17 states in the Southern and Southwestern United States - including Arizona, Texas, Nevada, Colorado, Louisiana, Florida, and Georgia - unite in SEIU so they will have the strength to improve their jobs and the services they provide in their communities.

Medina also has a deeply felt interest in SEIU's work on immigration policies; when he was 10 years old, he immigrated to the United States from Mexico with his mother and siblings to join their father, who was an immigrant farmworker in the United States. In Los Angeles, he's helped strengthen ties between the Roman Catholic Church and the labor movement to work on common concerns such as immigrant worker rights and access to health care. The Sacramento Bee calls him a "quietly charismatic" leader "who is helping immigrant workers win union representation and make their voice heard in the political arena.

This article and the one below was sent by Ricardo J. Valvarde RValverde@ochca.com

Excerpt: Former Chavez Ally Took His Own Path
By Miriam Pawel, Times Staff Writer, January 11, 2006

Where Eliseo Medina has gone, unions have grown. His successes in organizing immigrants show what farmworkers lost -- but can find again, he believes.

At 21, the farmworker from Delano with an eighth-grade education hopped an airplane for the first time, with $20, a bag of UFW buttons to sell and the name of a Chicago postal worker loyal to the union cause.

The kid from the tiny town in the Central Valley who landed on John Armendariz's doorstep in 1967 was totally green — amazed at the city traffic, baffled by Chicago's El and faced with a daunting task: Get supermarkets to stop selling grapes.

Armendariz had watched his five children grapple with fear in different ways, and he wondered how Eliseo Medina would cope, without even winter clothes.

"His were real fears," Armendariz said. "How do you introduce yourself? How do you talk to people? He did an amazing job of controlling that."

Drawing on the kindness of strangers, his charm and his wits, Medina built a boycott operation that kept grapes out of a major Midwest supermarket chain, helping force California growers to negotiate the first contracts with the UFW.

Today the trademark smile that lights up his whole face is unchanged, but the scared kid has grown into a graying giant of the labor movement. He has helped orchestrate labor's rise in Southern California, has become a key player in the national immigration debate and now oversees locals in 17 states as executive vice president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

If not for Cesar Chavez, Medina might still be in Delano, picking grapes and shooting pool at People's bar. Instead, he is the preeminent example of a generation of activists nurtured by the UFW and its founders.

But Medina is organizing janitors and healthcare workers, not farmworkers. His life illustrates another part of the Chavez legacy: The UFW founder drove out many of the union's most committed labor leaders, who quit the fields and turned their talents to other causes.

Medina was once the obvious heir apparent to Chavez. Even in his youth, he displayed a similar charismatic appeal and tactical brilliance.  "He would have been president if he'd stayed," said Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the union.

In August 1978, Medina resigned as a vice president of the UFW, frustrated by Chavez's insistence on an all-volunteer staff and his reluctance to give workers greater power. "At a time when we should have been focused on consolidating and building the union, we got involved in a lot of things that drew attention from what I felt was our priority mission," Medina said.

Chavez, Medina concluded, was caught up in the idea of creating a poor people's movement. "My interest was building a farmworkers union," Medina said. "The goal was not building a farmworkers movement per se. It created a lot of tension."

Medina's success in the intervening years has proved a union can negotiate better wages and working conditions for undocumented immigrants — a stark counterpoint to the excuses offered by the current leaders of the UFW to justify their failures. 

Around Delano, the farming town where the UFW began, people still ask when Medina is coming back. His older sister hears it all the time. Consuelo Nuño lives in the house where she and Medina grew up. At 63, she works in a vineyard six days a week. Her wages went up a quarter when labor was scarce last summer, to $7 an hour, and the bonus for every full box of grapes is 2 cents more than it was four decades ago when she joined the UFW's first historic grape strike.

Bleak numbers like those encourage some friends to hope Medina might return to tackle the unfinished cause that launched his career. A split in the national labor movement this summer heightened such speculation.

SEIU led several unions that left the AFL-CIO and formed a new coalition, vowing to put more resources into organizing workers. The UFW has joined the coalition, and two other unions in the group have contracts with farmworkers; whether they will join forces remains unclear.

Medina voices enthusiasm for a coordinated campaign to organize farmworkers, but demurs about his own role. "There needs to be a farmworkers union," he said. "I hope that will come out of this. It's certainly going to happen in every other occupation. Why should agriculture be any different?"

From Huanusco to Chicago

The leaders of Huanusco recently commissioned a statue to honor the generations of emigrants who have left the small Mexican town in Zacatecas and traveled north. They are dedicating it to the town's favorite son, Eliseo Vasquez Medina.

He was born there almost 60 years ago, the son of a bracero who worked in the California fields under the guest worker program. At 10, Eliseo moved to Delano, after spending almost two years in Tijuana waiting for permission because his mother insisted on obtaining legal entry. Eliseo entered fourth grade speaking no English; his mother and two older sisters went to work in the Central Valley fields.

Eliseo joined them there full time after eighth grade. He was skilled at trimming grape vines so they would grow out the right way, not in a clump that would be difficult to pick, but so bad at picking tomatoes just when they showed a touch of red that people thought he was colorblind.

Conditions in the fields were difficult; there were no toilets or drinking water, and often workers would have to camp out in front of the grower's office all day Saturday to get paid for the week.
"We all hated the way the system worked," he recalled.

In 1965, El Malcriado, a brash UFW newspaper that combined news with irreverent humor, wrote about how the union had forced the state to fine a major labor contractor who had underpaid his workers. Medina took note: "To see somebody brought up and made to pay back wages, to me that was terribly impressive."

The rest of the story he has told hundreds of times, sometimes in English, sometimes in Spanish, somehow sounding fresh each time, always using his life to gently make points about organizing workers:

How clever Chavez was to call the first mass meeting on Mexican Independence Day, when he would get a good crowd. How Medina was taken aback by Chavez's small stature, doubting someone so unimpressive looking could be a great leader — but then blown away by his speech and moral force. How he went home and scrounged up change to pay $10.50 for three months' dues. How he began to picket because he heard they paid money ("I didn't know what picketing meant, but $1.20 an hour seemed pretty good to me," he told a group of SEIU organizers), and then discovered the power of the picket line.

Barely more than a year after he broke open his piggy bank to pay dues, Medina was on the cover of El Malcriado as one of the UFW's "Young Tigers," Chavez's youthful lieutenants successfully taking on the powerful growers.

When he arrived in Chicago to run the boycott, he opened the phone book and called the A&P. 
"I said, 'Hi, I'm a farmworker and I'd like you to stop selling grapes,' " Medina recalled.

He was, as he often says in speeches, "one scared kid," so shy that his sister remembers seeing him on television at a news conference where he could not open his mouth. He soon was moving confidently in many circles, building support through publicity stunts like pray-ins over grapes in supermarket aisles. The sophisticated boycott operation not only stopped the sale of grapes in major stores but also raised thousands of dollars to support the UFW.

Medina was already attracting followers. In 1971, Dorothy Johnson, a quiet boycott volunteer with a wry wit and quick laugh, picked Chicago for her next assignment because of Medina's reputation for innovative and effective campaigns. She ended up following him to Calexico, Calif.; Florida; Ohio; back to Chicago and then back to California in 1975 when the state adopted a law regulating union activity in the fields. The two were married at his mother's house in Delano in 1976 between election campaigns and contract negotiations.

Medina's years in the union compensated for the education he never got in school; for someone with an insatiable curiosity about people, the UFW was a sumptuous buffet. He showed a knack for devising clever ways around obstacles. When growers began circumventing the union's election victories by filing objections and dragging the appeals out for months, Medina figured out a solution: Keep striking citrus workers off the job just long enough to extract a promise from the company to recognize the union and negotiate a contract.

The tactic was key to the union's winning more than 3,000 new members in the spring of 1978 — nearly half as many farmworkers as the UFW represents altogether today.

Leaving — His Way

When Medina left the UFW in the summer of 1978, his departure was as unexplained as it was sudden. Scott Washburn was at a meeting in Santa Maria where Medina outlined the next organizing battle. They walked outside, and on the way to the car, Medina mentioned that he had quit.

"When something's hard, I struggle with it. But once I decide, I move forward," Medina said in a recent interview. "I thought for months and months; I was having a very difficult time. It took me a while to come to grips with the fact that it would be best if I just moved on."

That internal struggle was all but invisible even to those closest to him. Unlike others who left about the same time and for similar reasons, Medina did not voice criticism. He has always talked publicly about how much Chavez and the UFW did for him, and not about the disappointments that led him to leave, or his conviction that Chavez had taken the union in the wrong direction at the very moment it had an opportunity to become a lasting force. He did not tell his family why he left, and he has never talked about it with his sister.

"Eliseo is a closed box," said Sabino Lopez, a former farmworker who later worked for Medina organizing janitors in San Diego.

Washburn, who has known Medina since 1973 and worked for him at two unions, describes him as a loyal friend who keeps his feelings to himself. It is all about the job. "I'm sure he's concerned with me, and I'm concerned with him, but we're both obsessed with organizing," Washburn said.

That obsession drove Medina's frustration during his last months with the UFW, when he felt Chavez often was focused on everything but organizing workers. The relationship between the two, once warm, deteriorated.

Chavez publicly attacked Medina over a proposal he made about hiring organizers, and the exchange made a big impression on others. "It wasn't unusual for Cesar to do that; it was unusual for him to do it to Eliseo," remembered Washburn.

After Medina resigned, he dismissed entreaties to change his mind, rejecting the idea that his departure would have a profound effect on the union. "It's important not to believe your own PR," he likes to remind people.

In San Diego, more than a decade later, Sabino Lopez confronted Medina about having disappeared with no explanation to farmworkers.  "When you left, we felt like we lost our hope, the next generation," Lopez recalled telling Medina. " … You were, for us, the guy. You were the heart and soul."  Medina told him he had felt as though he was causing problems more than solving them.

"As organizers, our personal credibility is all we have," Medina said recently. "If you don't believe what you're saying, it comes through. At that point, I didn't feel good about what I was doing."

Taking Risks

Medina enjoys playing two games: Chess and pool. "In both," he said, "you have to plan your next moves."  He sharpened his pool game in Delano at the UFW hangout, People's bar. Then in Chicago, where the boycott crew depended on handouts for pretty much everything, a donated chess set provided free entertainment.

In games and work, Medina advocates taking risks. Big risks bring big gains, a lesson he learned from watching Chavez gamble on tactics like the boycott: "Who would have ever thought that sending out a bunch of uneducated farmworkers to stop grapes could work?"

When Medina landed at SEIU in 1986, after organizing university workers in California and public employees in Texas, the task was taking over a failing public employee union in San Diego. Within five years, membership went from 1,700 to 10,000 as he rebuilt the local and then took over a far larger rival union.

"The minnow swallowed the whale," he likes to say, the closest he comes to a boast.

In 1991, Medina got a call asking for help from an old UFW acquaintance. Liza Hirsch Du Brul had become a New York labor lawyer, representing musicians around the country. The San Diego Symphony was in the midst of a contract dispute and the musicians needed to stage a protest, but she was stuck on the East Coast. Medina agreed to organize a human billboard around symphony hall.

When she took him to lunch to thank him, he told her he had been happy to help but pointed out that the musicians shouldn't be relying on "borrowed power" and needed to organize themselves.

He was separated and she was widowed; though they had known each other only slightly, their shared experiences over the same decade in the UFW were a common bond. They got together soon after and were married one morning at City Hall four years later. Medina had to duck out on a celebratory lunch after the ceremony because a candidate running for president of SEIU was in town.

That was a prelude to another big risk: Medina backed the long-shot candidate, Andy Stern. When Stern won, it cemented Medina's position in the leadership of SEIU. In 1996, he became the first Mexican American to assume a top position in the union.

"There is no more dignified, thoughtful, humble person in this movement," Stern said recently. He described Medina as a rare species, the pragmatic dreamer: "Thinking big enough that it's a little bit beyond your reach but not so outrageous — but also building the operation to get it done."

While based in Los Angeles, Medina was the behind-the-scenes architect of two recent campaigns that organized workers who had never been unionized: Justice for Janitors, and a new union for home healthcare workers. In 1997, SEIU signed up 74,000 home healthcare workers in Los Angeles County, then expanded across Southern California.

"He continues to push people beyond what they think they can do," said Marion Steeg, who worked for Medina both in the UFW and SEIU. And the work always comes first. "No matter how much he loves you, he will move you around to get the job done…. But it's never vindictive. It's never personal."

Medina's role within SEIU gradually expanded. In 2000, his arguments were key to the AFL-CIO's decision to shift its position on immigration reform; until then the labor federation had opposed any efforts to regularize the status of illegal immigrants.

Stern has watched Medina grow over the years into a more forceful advocate willing to challenge authority.  "I think he's sort of gained a level of confidence and appreciation that he has an opportunity to become a voice for lots of people like him when he was growing up," Stern said.

Today Medina oversees SEIU's operations in 17 states in the South and Southwest, organizing campaigns in states with little record of embracing unions. He describes the mission as a risk.

"Most people think that's for young kids. At my age, I could fail," he said. He shrugs, unconcerned. "Nobody ever guarantees you you're going to win. You can't ever just do things when you have a guarantee. You can't."

Medina resides in Los Angeles. He is married and the father of three children.

Addy,  

These are good comments. I too am a son a farm worker.  His struggle helped inspire all of us.
 
Henry Mendoza, CPA
Chairman of the Board
California Hispanic Chambers of Commerce
949/387-9850   Fax 949/387-9652
mendozacpa@mendozaberger.com
http://www.mendozaberger.com

Construction is scheduled to begin in the spring. After the city's park commissioners approved the Dec. 9, a committee headed by Julio Cesar, director of the Mexican American Association of Rhode Island, was established to oversee the project. The committee is busy raising $70,000 for its construction.

Aragon told Weekly Report he hopes this memorial will send the message widely that the legacy of Cesar Chavez is "not just for Mexican only."
Hispanic Link Weekly Report, Jan. 2, 2006

Pregnant Migrant Workers Forced To Work In The Fields Despite Major Risks by Christine Evans, 
Sent by Howard Shorr  howardshorr@msn.com

Palm Beach Post (December 30, 2005) Immokalee, FL--When her infant son was just 20 days old, Cristina Matias, 28, poor, Mexican, abandoned by her two brothers, went back to work.  

A man named Oscar offered her a job digging ditches, in the same tomato fields where she had worked while pregnant. Desperate, she kissed her baby goodbye for a day, put him in the arms of another woman and took up her shovel.

The pay was set at $60 for two days, but after the second, still not healed from childbirth, Matias began to bleed. Before she knew it, the paramedics had whisked her to a Naples hospital, while her baby boy was placed in temporary foster care.  ''I was not well up here,'' Matias says, tapping a sun-browned finger against her temple.

``I couldn't remember anything. I didn't recognize my landlord's face. ``I didn't even remember I had had a baby!''  But have one she did, a little boy named Juan Matias Pascual, born with a cleft lip and palate, and though Matias' one-thing-after-another existence might seem unusual, just the opposite is true.

Up and down this state, in all the tiny, tough, dirt-under-the-fingernails farming towns that prop up a multibillion-dollar industry, in every place where oranges drip like jewels from fruit trees and rows of vegetables cry out for picking, there are thousands of stories just like hers, varying in details, perhaps, but identical in sentiment. Stories about women planting and picking and sorting and stooping and carrying and standing for hours at a time -- all while pregnant.

So many stories, in fact, spread over so many years, decades, right back to the Harvest of Shame days -- when black hands, not brown, did the work -- that sometimes it seems nobody pays any mind anymore.

''I was in the fields back in the '60s and '70s,'' says Geraldean Matthew, an African-American who used to work the muck farms around Lake Apopka, back before pollution shut them down.

``There were so many abuses, it hurt your heart. Still hurts, to this day.''  But now the old stories have a new spin. They come with a caution sign, a warning.

It was near Immokalee, in Southwest Florida, where Matias tries to eke out a living in the ruby-red tomato fields, that three deformed babies were born last winter to fieldworker parents, raising questions about what role, if any, pesticides might have played in the birth defects.

Carlitos Candelario was born Dec. 17 without arms and legs; Jesus Salazar, born Feb. 4, has an underdeveloped jaw; and Violeta Rueda Meza, who came along three days later, died from multiple deformities, including uncertain gender.  ``Los tres niños,'' the locals call them, with affection. ``The three kids.''

PESTICIDES CULPRIT?

An outreach worker in Immokalee took note of the three births last spring, and he told a reporter, and this set in motion a chain of events that prompted health and agriculture investigators to tackle one tough question: Did pesticides make the babies the way they are?

The short answer is: Nobody knows. Scientific research hasn't caught up with current events. ''We need a closer look,'' says Anne Lindsay of the Environmental Protection Agency, who promises one. ``There are lots and lots of confounding factors.''

By now, just about anybody who can find Immokalee on a map has heard about the three babies.
Almost nobody has heard of Matias.  She is practically invisible. But hardly alone.

She and thousands of other women, many of whom cross from Mexico, summoned by crew bosses who need them to fill the farmers' fields, work in the shadows. They are part of a special class of farmworkers who pick the crops and have their babies up and down the migrant stream, experiencing two kinds of labor, the back-breaking kind and the belly-aching kind, sometimes in a single day.

''I had this one woman working for me,'' labor contractor Juan Anzualda says. ``She was pregnant with twins, and she was huge. Two days after her due date, she says to me, `You know what, Juan? I think I'd better go home.'

``She went home, took a shower -- and then she slipped, and the twins popped out right there on the restroom floor. The thing is, if these ladies don't work, they don't pay the rent, which is $45 a week right now. So this is the kind of thing that can happen.''  Nobody knows how many Cristina Matiases there are.

Nobody knows, even, with any precision, how many migrant and seasonal farmworkers attend to U.S. crops each season -- hundreds of thousands? More than a million? -- let alone how many of those workers are women or, a finer point still, pregnant. But ask any farmer, crew boss or worker and he -- or she -- will say this:  There are plenty.  And these ladies are tough. ''They have total guts,'' one nurse-midwife in Collier County says. ``For some, not working is simply not an option.''

PREGNANCY TOUGH

Rosie Ramirez, a clinical assistant at the Marion E. Fether Medical Center in Immokalee, estimates that ''a good 95 percent'' of every 200 women the clinic sees have worked in the fields. Of those, perhaps 75 women keep on working right through their seventh month of pregnancy. 

''After that,'' Ramirez says, ``nobody gives them a job. A lot of these ladies, whatever little money they save, they try to keep it going until after they deliver. ``That's one of our main problems. They won't eat the way they should because they're saving for rent. It's an amazing number. Plus, a lot of them, once they become pregnant, the spouses don't want the responsibility of taking them on the migrant stream -- they're viewed as an extra burden -- and they split up from the women.''

Sometimes, the real hard work and the complications come not in the labor room but after. 
This spring, in a rough-hewn trailer in Pahokee, 24-year-old Nora Fonseca found herself trying in vain to navigate the health-care system. Her newborn had medical problems, and doctors had urged her to make an appointment with a specialist -- in West Palm Beach, 30 miles away.

Her first obstacle was that she had no car, and her husband was working in the cane fields and could not get her there. Her second was that, every time she tried to call the specialist's office, a machine was on -- in English. ''I didn't know what to say,'' Fonseca says. ``Or how to make an appointment.''

Other women speak of begging field bosses to take them to the clinic (the good ones do); of making prenatal appointments in one state, only to find on the scheduled day that they're picking vegetables in another; of securing doctors' notes giving them permission to put down their buckets to take an extra bathroom break; and of scrubbing their hands before making dinner to take out the chemical taint.

It's a hard life, but they signed up for it. As difficult as things are, times usually were tougher in Mexico, where a majority of this country's field laborers were born.

There is this, too:  ''These Hispanic women, at least they have laws and regulations to help them out,'' Geraldean Matthew says. ``So as bad as things are, they were a whole lot worse in the old days.''

''We'd get sprayed on without any warning,'' Matthew recalls as she sits on the plump couches that fill up her friend Betty Jean Dubose's living room. They used to work the Lake Apopka muck farms together, part of a generation -- black, American farmhands who labored for pennies and brought up their babies in the fields -- that is fading out.

``You come home, take a shower, you smell it coming right out of your skin. We were so uneducated! We didn't know anything at all. At all.''

Hispanic High School Students

Pew Hispanic Center Report  http://pewhispanic.org/reports/report.php?ReportID=54
http://www.hispanicvista.com/HVC/Opinion/NEWS/110305Knews.htm, November 1, 2005

WASHINGTON, DC – Hispanic teens are more likely than blacks and whites to attend public high schools that have the most students, the highest concentrations of poor students and highest student-teacher ratios, according to a new Pew Hispanic Center analysis. The findings came in one of three studies released today by the Center that examined youths in high schools and colleges.

The report found that more than half of Latinos (56%) attend the nation's largest public high schools – those schools whose enrollment size ranks them in the 90th percentile or higher. That's compared with 32 percent of blacks and 26 percent of whites.

The report also found that about 37 percent of Latinos attend the 10 percent of schools with the highest student-teacher ratios. Just 14 percent of black students and 13 percent of whites attend those schools, which have a student-teacher ratio greater than 22-to-1 compared with the national average of 16-to-1.

While much of the research on the achievement gap between Hispanics and whites has focused on characteristics of students, the new study examines the structural characteristics of the high schools attended by different racial and ethnic groups.

"The characteristics of high schools matter for student performance," said Richard Fry, senior research associate at the Center and the author of the three reports. "Hispanic teens are more likely than any other racial or ethnic group to attend public high schools that have the dual characteristics of extreme size and poverty."

A second report released by the Center on the high school attendance of foreign-born teens points to the importance of schooling abroad in understanding the dropout problem for immigrant teens, finding that those teens have often fallen behind in their education before coming to the United States. Immigrant teens contribute disproportionately to the overall number of the nation's dropouts, often calculated as the number of school-aged teens not enrolled in school.

In a third report released today, the Center found that the number of young Hispanics going to college is increasing. But the study, which examined the latest available enrollment data from individual colleges, found that the number of whites enrolling in four-year colleges is increasing even more rapidly – widening a large gap between whites and Latinos in key states. "When it comes to college enrollment, Hispanics are chasing a target that is accelerating ahead of them," Fry said.

Key findings from the three reports:

Structural Characteristics of Public High Schools Attended by Hispanic, White and Black Youth
• One-in-four Hispanic high school students attends one of the 300 public high schools that are in the top decile in size of student enrollment and also have a high proportion of students eligible for free or reduced-price school lunches. That's compared with fewer than 1-in-10 black students and just 1-in-100 white students.

• Some, but not all, of the difference in school environment experienced by Hispanic students and others can be explained by the fact that the Hispanic population is concentrated in a few states that have larger public high schools, on average, than the rest of the nation.

The Higher Drop-Out Rate of Foreign-Born Teens
• Only 8 percent of the nation's teens are foreign-born, but nearly 25 percent of the teen school dropouts are foreign-born. Nearly 40 percent of these foreign-born dropouts are recent arrivals who interrupted their schooling before coming to the United States.
• Regardless of what country they come from, teens who interrupted their schooling prior to immigration are much less likely to re-enroll and complete their educations here.
• Many of the male recent arrivals with educational difficulties before migration are likely to be labor migrants, who came to the United States specifically to work.

Latinos and College Enrollment Rates
• Nationally, there was a 24 percent increase in the number of Latino freshmen in postsecondary institutions in 2001 compared with 1996. Among four-year colleges, Latino freshmen enrollment increased by 29 percent over the same period, and among two-year colleges, it increased by 14 percent.
• Between 1996 and 2001, first-time, full-time Hispanic freshmen enrollment in four-year colleges increased in the seven states where the nation's college-going Latino population is concentrated – Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, New York and Texas. The largest gain – 55 percent – came in Florida.
• The growth in Hispanic enrollment was spread across both two-year and four-year colleges. Over the same period, growth in white enrollment tilted in the direction of four-year colleges. As a result, despite Hispanic gains, the gap between whites and Hispanics in four-year college enrollment actually grew larger in key states: In California, for example, a 9 point gap in 1996 widened to 16 points in 2001.

The Pew Hispanic Center is a nonpartisan research organization supported by The Pew Charitable Trusts. Its mission is to improve understanding of the U.S. Hispanic population and to chronicle Latinos' growing impact on the entire nation. The Center does not advocate for or take positions on policy issues. It is a project of the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan "fact tank" in Washington, D.C., that provides information on the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world.

Faxes and phone calls poured in from more than 400 Fort Worth school district employees eager to learn simple sentences in Spanish. The free language classes filled up in the first two hours of enrollment. 

"We knew it would be popular, but not like it was rock concert tickets," said Charles Hoffman, executive director of student services for the Fort Worth school district. "I had no idea the response would be so overwhelming." 

The Command Spanish classes, which begin in January, will accommodate 260 employees through next fall. There are 140-plus employees on a waiting list. 

Money for the classes came through a $20,000 grant from Texas Christian University's Strategic Initiatives Fund – established to help pay for community outreach, said Julie Lovett, TCU assistant director for extended education. 

The university has been teaching Spanish for about three years to businesses, churches and other school systems and was eager to offer it to the Fort Worth school district, Ms. Lovett said. "We knew there was a strong need and interest," she said. "The reality is adults don't always have the luxury of time to learn another language. 

Administrators, maintenance workers, office workers and others will learn phrases and sentences applicable to their jobs. All employees will learn general courtesies, greetings and conversational exchanges such as, "How are you?" and "May I help you?" 

Rachel Newman, a human resources coordinator for the Fort Worth school district, was among about 40 employees who took the classes a year ago through funding from her department. 

"It was customized to meet our needs, and it's made a difference," said Ms. Newman, who learned such phrases as: "What is your name?" and "Can we have your address?" "The clients appreciate it, and they appreciate that we're making an effort," Ms. Newman said 

Margaret Balandran, the district's executive director of the bilingual/English as a second language program, said she was not surprised by the overwhelming interest. "To be more inviting to parents at school, it's important to have someone on site to speak to them in their language," Ms. Balandran said. "It really does help facilitate an environment where students and their families feel more welcome." 

NEW YORK — The National Endowment for the Arts and the publisher of Poetry Magazine have organized a national poetry reading competition for high school students, with the winner receiving a $20,000 college scholarship.

"There's a twofold importance in a program like this," Dana Gioia, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, told The Associated Press in a recent interview.

"One half is education; students come into contact with great poetry and language and learn it by heart. There's also an equal, and often overlooked practical importance. It will improve the student's command of language, and will provide much needed training for speaking in public. A student speaking well will do better in the job market and better in life."

The program, co-sponsored by the NBA and the Chicago-based Poetry Foundation, was officially announced Thursday in Pittsburgh at the annual convention of the National Council of Teachers of English. "Poetry Out Loud: The National Recitation Contest" expands upon a pilot program for which competitions were held last year in Chicago and Washington, D.C.

The contests, which start in early 2006, will take place in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, from local classroom readings to state finals, in April, then national finals, scheduled for May 16 in Washington.  "I think the competitive energy you see in sports can be brought into the English classroom," Gioia said. "And you'll have a different set of stars than you find on the basketball court or baseball field."

Poetry Out Loud is one of several NBA responses to the endowment's 2004 report "Reading at Risk," which noted a stagnant reading population and rapidly expanding numbers of nonreaders. "We need to find engaging, fun and substantial way of reintroducing arts education in schools," Gioia said. "And the poetry project fits naturally into the high school English curriculum."

The NEA and the Poetry Foundation each will contribute $500,000 to Poetry Out Loud, and Gioia expects at least 250,000 students to participate. Prizes will range from $200 for state winners to $500 stipends for the state winners' schools to a $20,000 college scholarship for the national
 champion. Judges have not yet been named. (AP)

Rene E. Herrera
December 24, 2005, Associated Press
Sent by Elsa Herbeck epherbeck@juno.com
Walter L. Herbeck Jr.  wlherbeck@sbcglobal.net

Rene E. Herrera, a pop-Tejano musician who scored two crossover hits in the 1960s and performed on American Bandstand, has died of cancer at age 70, December 20th.

Mr. Herrera, of Laredo, died Tuesday in a Houston hospital. He was a member of the duo Rene and Rene – along with Rene Ornelas of San Antonio. After working in music throughout the 1950s with groups including the Casa Blanca Quartet and the Quarternotes, Rene and Rene hit it big with "Angelito" in 1964 and "Lo Mucho Que Te Quiero" in 1968.

English and Spanish radio stations picked up on the songs, which led to an appearance on Dick Clark's American Bandstand. The songs were recorded by artists including Peter Nero and Herb Alpert.

"Rene y Rene were among the first Chicano artists to break the culture barrier by appearing on American Bandstand," said Javier Villanueva, executive director of the Tejano ROOTS (Recognize Our Own Tejano Stars) Hall of Fame in Alice.

Mr. Herrera and Mr. Ornelas were inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2001.

At the suggestion of San Antonio producer Abie Epstein, Mr. Herrera added English to his original Spanish version of "Angelito." The duo recorded the single at Mr. Epstein's studio and released it on his JOX label. The single sold 30,000 copies in Texas in less than a month, Mr. Epstein said.

"Before you knew it, it was an explosion," he said. "It was fun, and we were getting money," Mr. Herrera told the San Antonio Express-News in 2001. "And that's what we both bought homes in Laredo with – our first hit records. I was happy, but I had just gotten married, and I didn't like to be away from my wife. But it was a great experience."

Mr. Herrera went on to work for the city of Laredo, Union National Bank and the Laredo Independent School District after he retired from music in 1969. He is survived by his wife, Velia C. Herrera; brother Eloy Herrera; and sisters Eva Araiza and Trinidad Ramirez.

Anti-Spanish Legends

Military Heroes and Research

"I do not want to depict the Latino experience…
I want to validate it."  Alfredo Lugo

Cold Water Ministry in Iraq 
By Shayla Ashmore, Managing Editor
Lassen Conty Times Tuesday, Aug 31 2004
Sent by Cindy LoBuglio

Members of  the U.S. military on duty at camp Fallujah, Iraq, prepare to drink the cold cokes 
they received from Marine 1st Sgt. Beto Guerra           photos submitted

It is that time again to have a great evening dining and dancing. Help us, the Los Angeles Chapter of the 11th Airborne Division Association of Southern California, build up our scholarship fund and program. We need to help more students this year with their scholarships. As you may know, going to college is a very expensive investment for parents for their children. We have helped in the past and want to continue assisting students with a scholarship. But, at the same time we want to have a good time doing so and you will be impressed with our veterans who have served so courageously! We will be there to please and serve.

COME JOIN US FOR A GRAND BALL. GREAT DINING AND DANCING! 
WE DRESS TO IMPRESS.

Looking forward to seeing our friends and supporters. Ask your friends to join us. Thank you for your support.

Sincerely,  Sgt.Alfred Lugo
alfredo.lugo@verizon.net
Public Affairs Officer, Los Angeles Chapter

Bittersweet Memories

El Monte's La Historia Society
3240 Tyler Ave. El Monte, CA 91731
For information: 626-279-1954

American GI Forum, Felix Longoria, Sr. Chapter , press release

The American GI Forum (Felix Longoria, Sr. Chapter) recently met and elected its Officers for 2006. The officers elected were as follow:

COMMANDER------------------WILLIE PEREZ
VICE-COMMANDER-----------HENRY MARTINEZ
TREASURER---------------------SALVADOR SANCHEZ
SECRETRARY-------------------FRANK REYES

SGT-AT-ARMS*-----------------SUSIE LUNA
CHAPLAIN*-----------------------SARA POSAS

CIVIL RIGHTS*-------------------LEO VASQUEZ
EDUCATION*---------------------BENITO BARRERA
HISTORIAN*----------------------MARIA BARRERA

According to Commander Perez, "The legacy which we received from our honorable founder Dr. Hector Garcia is now more meaningful and essential in assuring that veterans and their families receive all the benefits and rights to which they are entitled to. It is no secret that veterans are losing pensions and other rights which were earned while in combat or serving our country.

The War in Iraq is now producing veterans who are uprooted from their jobs, homes, etc. Needless to say, we in the GI Forum will continue to promote Dr. Hector's legacy and ideals...."

For further information contact: 
Historian Willie Perez, gillermoperez@sbcglobal.net  537-5490 or Leo Vasquez at 232-6301

Outstanding site for oral histories of Hispanics serving during WWII
http://www.utexas.edu/projects/latinoarchives/

PATRIOT ANCESTORS FROM CUBA, Part 1

Researched and written by 
Granville Hough, Ph.D.

SURNAME

Apellido castellano muy extendido por toda Peninsula Iberica, del genero de los denominados toponimicos, por cuya razon nacieron indistintamente en diferentes lugares donde existia esta variedad arborea.

Fueron Caballeros de la Orden de Santiago, despues de acreditar su calidad:

Silva, Toledo, 1672, y don Antonio de Robles y de Torres Quijada, Villafafila, Zamora, 1630.

Vistieron el Habito de Calatrava, tambien despues de aportar las probanzas sobre su calidad:

En la Real y Distinguida Orden Espanola de Carlos III, fueron admitidos:

En la Real Chancilleria de Valladolid, litigaron su hidalguia en numerosaN ocasiones, entre los anos 1523 a 1827. |

A principles del siglo XVIII, una hidalga rama procedente de las Montanas de Leon, se establecio en la villa de Manati, en Puerto Rico, donde sus miembros poseyeron propiedades cafetaleras, pasando a radicar despues a Loaiza y finalmente a Rio Piedras, donde esta familia ostento diferentes cargos en el gobiemo municipal y estatal.

De alii precede el Ilustrisimo senor doctor don Hector Robles y Gonzalez, natural de Rio Piedras, Caballero de las Ordenes Soberana Militar y Hospitalaria de San Juan de Jerusalen de Rodas y de Malta, la Ecuestre del Santo Sepulcro de Jerusalen, y la Sacra Militar Orden Constantiniana de San Jorge, hijo de don David Robles Ocasio y de dona-> Guillermina Gonzalez y Perez, casado, con dona Mayra E. Gonzalez Velasquez, tambien puertomquena, de distinguida estirpe.

El Rey de Armas de la Real Casa de Borbon dos Sicilias, vistos los antecedentes genealogicos del mencionado doctor don Hector Robles Gonzalez, Ie otorgo el 25 de abril del ano 2001, personal certificacion de blasones, donde se confbrmo el siguiente:

Generatión No. 1.- Jeronimo del Rosario Robles, nacido aproximadamente en 1695 en la Tinaja. Casado con doña María Gertrudis Rentería.

No.2 -Juan Tomás Robles Renteria.Tinaja aproximadamente 1760.Casado con Ma. de Jesús Arellano Luevano. Hija de D. Juan N. Arellano y doña Ma. Isabel Luévano.

No. 3.- José Severo Jesús Robles Arellano. La Tinaja noviembre 6 de 1812. Casado 1 o. con Ma. Petra Casas Fernández, 2o. con Ma. Teodosia de Jesús Nava Silva.

Book: Mis Recuerdos, José León Robles de la Torre, page 15. Click for more information. 

Por Sonia M. Rosa M.A. 
smros1@yahoo.com

Tabla 1: 
Los veinte nombres más comunes en los Estados Unidos
VARONES MUJERES

Patricia 2. John 
Linda 3. Robert
Barbara 4. Michael
Elizabeth 5. William
Jennifer 6. David
Maria 7. Richard
Susan 8. Charles
Margaret 9. Joseph
Dorothy 10. Thomas
Lisa 11. Christopher
Nancy 12. Daniel
Karen 13. Paul
Betty 14. Mark
Helen 15. Donald
Sandra 16. George
Donna 17. Kenneth
Carol 18. Steven
Ruth 19. Edward
Sharon 20. Brian

ALEJANDRO 1 LUCIA
DAVID 2 MARIA
DANIEL 3 PAULA
PABLO 4 LAURA
ADRIAN 5 MARTA
ALVARO 6 ALBA
JAVIER 7 ANDREA
SERGIO 8 CLAUDIA
CARLOS 9 SARA
MARCOS 10 NEREA
IVAN 11 CARLA
HUGO 12 ANA
MARIO 13 NATALIA
JORGE 14 IRENE
DIEGO 15 MARINA
MIGUEL 16 CRISTINA
MANUEL 17 ELENA
RAUL 18 CARMEN
RUBEN 19 JULIA
ANTONIO 20 AINHOA

Listas de los nombres más comunes en Estados Unidos: http://names.mongabay.com/
Santoral: http://www.reicaz.es/miscelan/santoral/santoral.htm
Nombres indígenas: ttp://www.gacenet.com.ar/vernotae.asp?id_seccion=8&id_nota=140529
Nombres Mapuches: http://www.indigenas.bioetica.org/base1-3.htm
Censo de Estados Unidos año 2000: www.census.gov
Listado de nombres aceptados en Argentina: http://www.sitiosargentina.com.ar/Nombres/index.htm
Nombres favoritos de los españoles: http://www.ine.es/daco/daco42/mnp/nomnac.htm

CUENTOS

I have always had a great love and admiration for the viejitas, abuelitas, daughters and survivors of the Mexican revolution. These are the women with real backbone, con fuerza y fortaleza. They are afraid of nothing, and when it comes down to the nitty gritty, hasta el Diablo se les raja!

She looked like a sweet old lady, quiet and forlorn. Staring out the window, she seemed to be watching the buildings; streets and muted cities roll on by. The journey would be long and it appeared that I would share the cabin space with the old one.

I greeted her as I walked in, tucked my carry-on bag under the seat and sat down across from her. She briefly glanced my way and nodded a polite hello. She grabbed a crumpled tissue paper and wiped away a tear.

After several silent moments, I cautiously engaged the woman in polite conversation. She smiled, answered briefly and looked away.

"My name is Richard," I introduced myself. "Have you been traveling long? Going to see your family?"

She smiled wearily and looked out the window at nothing in particular. "A very long time, I travel." was her response. "My name is Genoveva," she smiled. "I’m pleased to meet you."

"That is a beautiful scarf," I offered, in hopes of starting a conversation. "It looks nice on you."

"Gracias, joven. Thank you. It is a reboso. The women of my generation wear this back home." She sighed. "Aye! The last generation."

"Where are you traveling to?" I asked. "Is someone meeting you at the station?"

"Yes," came her reply. "My daughter and her children will be there. My journey ends in San Antonio. And then again, the battle begins."

"Are you alright, senora? You seem sad. A grandma traveling to see her children should be happy. No?"

"Yes, a grandma traveling to see her children should be happy, yes. But I am sad. Very sad."

"A funeral? Did someone pass away?" I asked bravely.

"No, she whispered in despair. It was not a someone. More like a something. Young people, they don’t understand."

Wanting to be helpful and supportive, I encouraged Dona Veva to speak. She took an ancient-looking rosary from her handbag and crossed herself with it. Then, with much difficulty, she shared her story with me.

"No, joven. A person did not die. The dream is dying, and that is very sad. It is the end of an era, the end of a civilization. Once, my people were a culture, rich and powerful. Now, as a people we are faint and dying. Despojados y destrosados, we are lost. We have lost everything and now, even the dream is lost."

"Many years ago, my people suffered through the cruelty of the revolution. We lived poor but happy in our village. The country was restless and at war with itself. In the hunger for power, money and land, everything was destroyed. Soldiers and guerrilleros came to our village and plundered our lands. They took what they needed, burned and killed what was left. They killed our men; they took the women."

"After much hardship, we managed to escape to the north and we found sanctuary in south Texas. The struggle was very difficult. We left our fertile valleys, los rios crystalinos, los cerros y los montes Our neighbors, we never saw again. They were good people. Como una tempestad, la guerra se los trago."

"My father lost three brothers in the revolution and that was enough. Fearing greater family losses, he gathered what was left of la familia and led us north to Texas. We came with our dreams. We only brought our children, our seed."

Veva wept and with feeble hands smoothed the fabric of her dress. I looked out the window and watched as the panorama floated by.

"Times have changed," she continued. "Now our children are scattered to the four winds and their children have lost the dream. They do not want to go to school. They do not want to work. They no longer want to be our people. The children are strangers in our homes. They forgot the reason that we left. They have lost the dream."

"Your daughter has children?" I asked, trying to lighten the conversation.

"Yes. My daughter Teresa sent for me. She lives in San Antonio. Pobrecita, she works all day. Los chamacos are in school and alone the rest of the night. They are lost in a crazy world. Andan en pandillas, gangs, they are using drugs, little girls are getting pregnant and nobody knows anything. Es una verguenza. That is what it is, a shame."

"Your grandchildren are in trouble in the big city?" I asked.

"We came to escape, to get educated, to become better people with good jobs and better lives. Y mira lo que sucedio! We are no better than the people that took our lands. Perhaps it was better that we die en nuestra tierra y no en tierras desconocidas."

"Yes, my voyage is long, and for now I weep like an old woman. But once I get to San Antonio, my heart will be strong. And you know why, because in here, dentro de mi, I have the dream. I will be the strength for my people, and I will right the wrong."

"Lo que falta en estas familias es el respeto, and that is where I come in. When wuela Veva comes to town, there are no drugs and there are no pandillas. And if the little chulitas think that wuela Veva sleeps at night so they can sneak out the window, aqui llevo un leno de mesquite para darles en las ancas."

"I have seen the world and I have lived through hell. Con migo no andan con chingaderas. I will plant my feet firm in the ground, like the roots of the ancient mesquite, not even the storms from hell will sway me. Right is right and to protect my people I will swing this leno con todo gusto."

There was a huge battle going on in this grandma's heart. As the train pulled into the station, Veva picked up her bundles and walked to the exit. At the door, she turned to look at me. She smiled. As she stepped into battle zone of busy streets and crowed neighborhoods, I heard her sing a los cuatro vientos. "Viva Mexico!" She screamed.

I looked out the window and watched the crowed Time stopped. The multitude looked at the old women standing on the exit ramp. They raised a thousand fists in the air and together shouted "Que Viva!"

Mamagrande Guadalupe's Story of the 1917 Flue Epidemic
by Frank 'Kiki" Moreno Sifuentes   fsconzafos@verizon.net

Mamagrande Lupe once told me the story of the winter l917 "Spanish' Flu epidemic that struck the South Texas areas in a terrible way.

Mamagrande(Guadalupe Lozano Moreno) and papagrande Miguel Moreno had become bed-ridden and were growing weaker by the day. 

They had five children: Nash, Enrique, Clotilde (mama) and two girls who were toddlers.

Mamagrande told me she was so weak she could barely move. And that she felt the moment grandfather stopped breathing.  That though she knew he had died, she couldn't even feel his loss.

And when she came to, she found out that the two youngest children had also died. The number of deaths had mounted to the point they needed wagons to go out to gather the dead.

She clearly remembers hearing them shout: Saquen lo muertos! And realized her children had been taken to a mass grave. She never found out where they had been buried and in a way spent all her life searching for them.

IN A PICKLE  Dedicated to Victoria and Rebecca
By Ben Romero

"Beningno, make sure you feed Rebecca and comb her hair before you take her to the sitter. I don't want the other mothers thinking that we're not good parents. You know how people like to talk."
I nodded my head. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've been a parent for years. In one ear and out the other.
I let Evelyn give me instructions, just to keep the peace. Once she left for work, I delegated the task to my twelve year-old daughter and went back to sleep. I'd been working nights for fourteen years and had a routine. I'd get up at eight, take Becca to the sitter, and come back home to sleep a few more hours. The other three kids were old enough to stay home and occupied until I got up at noon. Rebecca was only four and cried loud enough to disturb my sleep, otherwise I'd let her stay home as well.

At eight my body clock woke me and I staggered to the kitchen. "Is Rebecca ready?" I asked.
"Yes, Dad," said Victoria. "How come I always get stuck getting her dressed? Andy never has to do anything."

"He watches your brother."
"No he doesn't. He fights with him so I get stuck with him too."

"Would you rather go to summer school?"
"No. But Andy doesn't go to summer school either. I think you use double standards."
"We'll discuss all that later. Did you feed your sister?"

"Yes."
"Comb her hair?"
"Yes."

Rebecca sat on the living room sofa. "Come on," I said. "Time to go to Linda's." She didn't move.
"What's the hold up? Come on." "My tummy hurts," she said.

Oh, great. That's all I need. "Come here. I'll give you something to make you better." I filled a small glass with water and mixed a spoonful of baking soda. "Drink it fast. See? It's not so bad. Let's go."

I lifted her in my arms and buckled her in the seat of my pickup. "Dad," she squeaked. "I don't feel go..."  A rush of foam exploded from her lips, splashing on my shirt, the instrument panel, and my new seat covers. Holy Moses! What's wrong with this kid? "I told you. Dad. I told you," she gasped.

I carried her back in the house, holding her with outstretched arms. "Victoria, what did you feed this girl? She's puking like a volcano. And it's all foam!" I held her over the kitchen sink.

"She wanted a sweet pickle," said Victoria, "but Andy ate the last one. So I gave her the pickle juice. She didn't want anything else."

"Pickle juice? That's pure vinegar! And I just gave her a glass of baking soda. No wonder she erupted!"

"What are you gonna tell Mom?" Asked Andy, enjoying the sight of clear barf.  "Nothing. We don't want to worry your mother. I'll just wash your sister up, put clean clothes on her, feed her some soup, and take her to Linda's."

Unfortunately, life isn't that simple. That evening, while I was at work, Andy, Victoria and Gabriel told on me.

"Brown eggs make you brown and white eggs make you white. We wanna be dark like Mamma."

"Yeah," agreed Kylee.

"Who told you brown eggs make you brown?" Both of them turned and pointed at me. "Grampee did!"

 
CHIHUAHUA, Mexico (Reuters, 12-20-05) - Peering through the glass at a mannequin's veined hands, sparkling eyes and eerie smile, the small crowd gathered outside a store in northern Mexico tries to settle a macabre riddle beguiling many. 

Is the tall, slender bridal figure in the window a richly detailed shop's dummy or, as a local legend says, the decades-old embalmed corpse of the former store owner's daughter?.

The haunting figure known as 'La Pascualita,' or 'Little Pascuala' first appeared 75 years ago in the window of the bridal gown store in the city of Chihuahua.

Since then, the striking realism of the dummy has spawned supernatural tales and reports of a miracle, and even inspired a foot-stomping accordion ballad played on local radio.

The figure has drawn a stream of people from across the desert state of Chihuahua over the past eight decades, and is now attracting curious visitors from South America, the United States and Europe, the owners of the La Popular store say.

As cars and trucks rumble by the shop on a busy city street, the entranced visitors smudge their noses up against the store window and try to decide for themselves if it's a corpse.

"She looks good for all the years that she's been here," Yolanda Robles, who trekked to the shop out of curiosity from Phoenix, Arizona, said as she studied the rosary-clutching figurine.

"There are just so many details, like her hair and the nails on her hand, that it just has to be true," she added.

CORPSE BRIDE

Through the years the story has bloomed into a tale with all the rich characteristics of magic realist fiction. It all began on March 25, 1930, when the dummy was first placed in the store front window.

Dressed in a spring-season bridal gown, the figure immediately gripped the attention of passers by with its disquieting, wide-set glass eyes, real hair and blushing skin tones. Pascualita is unique among other shop mannequins in the sleepy backwater state capital.

Rapt locals soon began to notice a striking resemblance to the shop's then owner, Pascuala Esparza. A rumor quickly spread that the figure was not a dummy, but her daughter who, it was said, died from the bite of a Black Widow spider on her wedding day.

"She started to receive abusive phone calls from angry citizens who accused her of embalming her daughter," the store's present owner Mario Gonzalez said in his office above the wood-paneled shop floor.

"She decided to issue a formal denial through a public notary in the city, but by then it was too late. Nobody believed her and the name 'Pascualita' stuck," he added.

The name of the daughter, if Esparza ever had one, became lost in time.

Down the years, the tale has been embellished with claims of supernatural happenings, including visits by a love-sick French magician who is said to bring the dummy magically to life at night, and take her out on the town.

Others say that her gaze follows them around the store, or that she shifts positions at night in the darkened shop window to the surprise of passers by.

Spooked by the tales, several jittery shop workers say they dread being the last to leave the store in the evening, and some of them refuse to change the dummy's outfits. 

Indeed, twice a week her outfits are changed, always using the more classic bridal styles that Gonzalez and his staff consider more appropriate and dignified. The changing is done -- perhaps a bit theatrically -- behind curtains put up in the shop window to preserve the dummy's modesty. 

"Every time I go near Pascualita my hands break out in a sweat," shopworker Sonia Burciaga said. 

"Her hands are very realistic and she even has varicose veins on her legs. I believe she's a real person." 

MIRACLES AND SUGAR SKULLS 

While Pascualita is more of a curio than a religious draw in devoutly Catholic Mexico, a few people have left votive candles outside the shop and even attribute a miracle to her. 

"One woman was having a violent argument with her boyfriend close to the store. As she turned to walk away from her lover, he pulled out a pistol and shot her," Gonzalez said. 

"As she fell she looked up and saw the figure in the shop window and said, 'Save me Pascualita, save me!' And you know what? She survived," he adds. 

Other tributes to the mannequin have included an altar of sugar skulls, flowers and candles left by local school children each year on November 2 -- Mexico's Day of the Dead -- and a ballad by popular Tex-Mex combo 'Los Archies.' 

Among those to visit the bride have been popular television figures such as Mario Kreutzberger, better known as 'Don Francisco', whose syndicated show has stirred up interest in the figure throughout Latin America. 

As more visitors come to the shop each year, Gonzalez says he is thinking of getting a visitors' book and even opening a small museum to Pascualita. 

But asked to settle once and for all whether she is a dummy or a corpse, he just smiles and shakes his head. "Is it true? A lot of people believe it is, but I really couldn't say." 

DICHOS

[[Editor:  I wonder what changes in intent and emphasis were in the original Chinese.]]

ORANGE COUNTY, CA

Century High School Students, Somos Primos readers
Feb 4: Stay Connected,1980's Reunion/Birthday Party for Ruben Alvarez  
Feb 11:  Concierto del Amor 
Feb 18:  Mendez vs Westminster Civil Rights Tour 
March 1:  Hispanic Family-Owned Business Conference
Folklorico troupe Relámpago del Cielo Celebrated its 30th anniversary
Project Looking for Interviewees For California Story Fund Project  
Recap:  SHHAR Quarterly meeting, Book: "Mayan Lives, Mayan Utopias"

March 11th, Save the date, SHHAR second quarterly meeting of the year
    Ruben Salaz Marquez, author of  "Epic of the Greater Southwest"

George Aguirre and Century High students
Leaders of tomorrow, Somos Primos readers
Santa Ana, California

You are Connected
Risa, Ruben and Rey Alvarez

Stay Connected is a free service. Here to serve our community!

We are in proud partnership with: National Latina Business Women Association – Orange County Chapter, the Orange County Chapter of the National Association of Hispanic MBA's, National Hispanic Business Women Association, The Fullerton Flyers Baseball Team, together reaching out to over 5,000 people monthly.

It will feature two dynamic speakers: Maria Marin at 9 a.m. on "The Art of Negotiation." and at Noon, Monica Lozano, 3rd generation President and CEO of La Opinion.

In between we will have panel presentations/discussions on three subjects:
"Financing the Business for Growth"..Bob Schult, Danny Villanueva Jr., and Ray Vasquez/BofA
"Developing a Marketing Plan That Works"..Francisco Valle, and Ray Arroyo/Excelsior
"Having the Right Business Plan"..AQ Quijada/SBA, Linda Hoitt/SBDC
It's free to family businesses, $250 to resource providers.
Location, Delhi Center 505 E. Central Avenue • Santa Ana

Attendees can register on line at: http://business.fullerton.edu/centers/fambusiness/index.html 

Contact Information email: stayconnected2004@yahoo.com   714-675-2962

Steeped in Tradition,
Folklorico troupe Relámpago del Cielo, founded in 1975, 
Celebrating its 30th anniversary at a special performance, 
Held Jan 21st at the La Mirada Theatre for the Performaning Arts 
by Laura Bleiberg

Rosario Zourelli demonstrates a move.

Rosie Peña laughs as she give instruction.

Caught during rehearsals, Orange Country Register, January 15, 2006
Photos: Armando Brown

Sent by Zeke Hernandez zekeher@yahoo.com
and Judge Rick Aguirre  faguirre@occourts.org

Speaker, guests and Board members 
at the SHHAR, January 23 quarterly
Five Generations of Mayan Indians

Front row, left to right:  Mary Vargas, Yolanda Magdaleno, Laura Shane, Mimi Lozano
Back row, Bea Dever,  Benny Vargas, Jan Rus, Chuck Sadler, Charles Sadler.  
Photo by Viola Sadler.

Jan and his wife lived on and off in Chiapas for 10 years forming very strong friendships with several indigenous families.  As Dr. Rus said, "They are family.  We are compadres."   

An added dimension is the fact that Yolanda and Dr. Rus were childhood friends. Also attending were Benny and Mary Vargas,  childhood friends of Jan, his wife Diane, and Yolanda.  They all met at Washington  Junior High, in the city of  La Habra and graduting together in 1965 from La Habra High School.

Dr. Rus' book "Mayan Lives, Mayan Utopias,"  is available now at Barnes & Noble.  
For more information on Dr. Rus' work  http://www.aaanet.org/slaa/SlaaChiapas.htm
Society for Latin American Anthropology & Association of Latina and Latino Anthropologists

Speaker:  Ruben Salaz Marquez, 
EPIC OF THE GREATER SOUTHWEST
Website information: www.historynothype.com
Information in the following issues of Somos Primos: 
www.somosprimos.com/spnov02.htm
www.somosprimos.com/sp2003/spjan03.htm
www.somosprimos.com/sp2005/spjan05/spjan05.htm
www.somosprimos.com/sp2005/spfeb05/spfeb05.htm
www.somosprimos.com/sp2005/spapr05/spapr05.htm
www.somosprimos.com/sp2005/spaug05/spaug05.htm

Santa Cecilia Orchestra
Sonia Marie De Leon De Vega, music director and conductor 
Sunday February 12 @ 4 PM, Occidental College Thorne Hall 
For more information, call 323-259-3011 or visit www.scorchestra.org 

Conference of California Historical Societies, Southern Symposium
Feb 17 &18
Hacienda Hotel, 525 N. Sepulveda Blvd, El Segundo
Stockton, CA 95211 (209) 946-2169 cchs@pacific.edu

19th Century California artists
February 18: Lecture, 10 a.m.
Historic Rancho Los Cerritos
4600 Virginia Road, Long Beach, CA 90807   

Artist’s Forum on Art & Politics


Dozens of people packed Avenue 50 Studio for a slide show-lecture on the subject of art, religion, and politics

Paintings from the "Station of the Cross" series by Gwyneth Leech 

Since the evening started late, I showed only a few slides of my own work, setting the pace for the show but also leaving plenty of time for the presentation of other artists. One of my projected artworks was created in homage to Oscar Arnulfo Romero, the Archibishop of El Salvador who was murdered by right-wing death squads in 1980, and I explained how Latin America’s Liberation Theology informed and affected my work as an American artist. Next came John Paul Thornton, who wowed those gathered with his presentation of paintings based upon his travels in Nepal and India. I have the utmost respect for John Paul, a painter whose commitment to the medium is rivaled by no one I’ve ever met. We’ve agreed to collaborate on another major project together, details of which you’ll be able to read about on this web log in months to come. Then it was Sergio Hernandez’s turn to share paintings and drawings that reflected a Mexican-American perspective on religion - with his The Last Slap being a real show stopper. Poli Marichal followed with a stunning slide display of her feminist "retablos" (devotional paintings), and last but certainly not least, Gwyneth Leech showed a series of slides about her Stations of the Cross project - a major work of deep historical significance.

A local university student attending the forum asked permission to make an audio recording of the lecture, and afterwards he posted it to the L.A. Indymedia website. The sound quality of the mp3 recording is uneven at best, with lots of extraneous noise - and since the presentation was basically a lecture punctuated with images from a slide show, you miss the rich visual component of the presentation. That being said, the recording does offer a glimpse of the excitement felt by all that evening, and it gives remarkable insight into the personal philosophies and political ideas of the five artists involved in the show. Plus, the interaction with audience members is also highly informative. You can hear the mp3 audio recording at: http://la.indymedia.org. The audio file begins halfway through my opening presentation - so it’s a 
bit awkward and takes a while to become oriented - but stick with it and you’ll be rewarded with some remarkable dialogue. The Don’t Talk About Religion or Politics exhibition runs until February 6th, 2006.  For more info on the show, visit: 

Sent by Frank Sifuentes  fsconzafos@verizon.net    
Source: Sergio Hernandez  chiliverde@earthlink.net                                            With God On Our Side 
www.art-for-a-change.com/exhibits/religion.htm                                          Oil on  wood panel. 
The permanent link for the above web log post, is:                                            Vallen 2006  www.art-for-a-change.com/blog/2006/01/artists-forum-on-art-politics.html

CALIFORNIA

Californians were not "granted" statehood as the CDE curriculum framework falsely suggests. Though the CDE framework ignores the fact, Californians had already made themselves a State before their admission to the Union as one.

Given the demographic trends in California-and California classrooms- statehood, the unique cooperative accomplishment of English-speaking and Spanish-speaking Californians, should not only be taught but celebrated.

The State of California was born on November 13, 1849, in a bilingual election in which voters overwhelmingly approved its Constitution and elected its first State executive officers and legislators. They met for the First Session of our State Legislature the following month in San Jose.

Proceedings of the Monterey Convention that wrote California's bilingual Constitution -together with copies of it-were published and delivered to the U.S. President and Members of Congress in February, 1850. With them went a formal request that the State of California be admitted to the Union. The State of California was admitted as the 31st State in the United States on September 9, 1850.

The CDE curriculum framework favors teaching slanted, triumphalist conquest in spite of historical records demonstrating that was not what happened.

On July 7. 1846, Commodore John Drake Sloat took Monterey, California's Capital, after a brief, noisy show of force, proclaimed:'.. .henceforward California will be a portion of the United States, and its peaceful inhabitants will enjoy the same rights and privileges as the citizens of any other portion of that territory. .."

That should have marked the culmination of historical trends leading to an American California. One was scattered Hispanic Californians' sense of remoteness; they knew they could never expect effective support from Mexico City. The other was growing evidence that several world powers-England, France, Russia and America-were interested in their part of the world and one would eventually act on that interest.

On October 18, 1842, when U.S. Commodore Thomas ap Catesby Jones prematurely accomplished what Sloat repeated less than four years later, it was clear that California's future would be American. Jones, under the impression that France-or perhaps England-was about to seize California, beat them to the punch.

Thomas Larkin, a Monterey trader, showed him papers with news more recent than the rumors of hostilities to which he had reacted in seizing Monterey. Within hours, Jones made amends and sailed for Los Angeles to make his apologies to the Governor.

A rider bringing Jones' surrender demand from Monterey by land reached the Governor before the Commodore could make it to Southern California down the coast by sea. The Governor signed the surrender papers making California American! When Jones got there, it took fancy dancing-verbal and at a fiesta-to straighten things out.

                                                       CONCLUSION:

The CDE curriculum framework treats bluster and theatrics as the reason the State of California came into being.

A breath-taking Superman story is a major obstacle to teaching Early California History in our public schools. The heroic press image John Fremont's loyal wife created for him was almost justified for the first two-and-a-half of his five western treks.

Then, in California, another image began to replace it. Many came to peg him an opportunistic "loose cannon." (During the Civil War, he tried to upstage President Lincoln's "Emancipation Proclamation" with one of his own. Lincoln reassigned him from St. Louis to Shenandoah, where Confederate General "Stonewall" Jackson toyed with him.)

Fremont's trouble was that he would not follow orders nor long abide any action in which he couldn't play the heroic, central role. His wife stuck by him unto death in 1890.. .ever suffering tight-lipped through his extramarital affairs and sick self-worship.

In his third western expedition, his orders were to explore only "the streams that run east from the Rocky Mountains" and return home before the end of the year (1845). Instead, aching for fighting glory, he went to California as conflict with Mexico neared.

He tried to provoke hostilities to get a head start on the brewing war. Just as Larkin had with Commodore Jones in 1842, now as official U.S. Consul, the trader, after Fremont had taken up a position threatening Monterey, had to calm him and get him to go away.

While impatiently awaiting hostilities, Fremont and his party withdrew north of Sacramento as if Oregon-bound. There he led a wholesale killing of Indians (recorded only in personal papers of men with him.). Slaughter of men, women and children was in a class with later massacres of Native Americans at Sand Creek and Wounded Knee. Kit Carson called it "a perfect butchery."

After returning to his camp, he was sought out by edgy American squatters. He incited them up to attack the deactivated Mexican strongpoint at Sonoma and seize from his home there/former commander Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo (a pro-American friend of Thomas Larkin) and imprison him at Sutler's Fort.

This gave rise to a 25-day occupation of Sonoma called the "Bear Flag Republic." Inspired by the Lone Star Republic of Texas (just folded into the Union as its 28th State), Bear Flaggers were impatient for rewards of war. Fremont unceremoniously demoted their self-styled leader, William Ide, to "Second Class Bear' when they morphed into his 'Osos" band of fighters and rode off with him. They made a mockery of Commodore Sloat's Monterey Peace Proclamation.

The underside of what followed is documented in testimony at Fremont's 1848 Court Martial in Washington D.C. He was found guilty of mutiny, disobedience and conduct prejudicial to good order and military discipline.

The CDE curriculum framework falls for white supremacist fables. It fails to recognize that what diverse Californians accomplish together is not only important and teachable, it is grounded in sound historical research.

Galal Kemahan (949) 581-3625 Galal@Kernahan.org

They've dubbed themselves the "Banged-Up Boomers" because most of them are retired and have creaky knees, joint replacements or artificial limbs.
But what this small cadre of volunteers has accomplished in transforming a pile of rubble into a historical garden in three years is truly amazing.

It's called the "Old Mission Huerta Project," 
a work in progress as a "living museum and repository for vanishing and heritage plants" from California's mission period (1769 to 1834).

California Pioneer Register and Index
1542—1848
Extracted from History of California, 7 volumes,
originally published 1884-90, Hubert Howe Bancroft.

Examples below show the variety of helpful information online. 

Abbott (Austin R.), 1847, Co. K, N.Y. Vol. (v. 499), living at Sacramento '82.

Abeck (François), 1847, a Swiss in Sutter's empoy at N. Helv. in '47-8. One of the earliest gold-miners.

Abell (Alex. G.), 1847, native of N.Y., who went to Honolulu in '45; arrived at S. F. in Nov. on the Currency Lass. Member of the firm J. B. McClurg & Co. at Los Angeles till Feb. '48. From '49 well known as a business man at S. F., member of the state senate in '63, and prominent in the masonic order in later years. Living at S.F. in '85. A son, John, came with him in '47; another son, E. A., died in '84.

Abella (Juan), 1842, Mex. captain, of Ind. race, who came with Micheltorena and departed with him in '45. Acting comandante of the batallon fijo (iv. 287, 351, et seq.), after the departure of Tellez, and com. of the post at Monterey in '45. He left his business affairs in charge of Larkin, at whose house he had lived, and wrote to L. from S. Blas. He signed his name 'Abeya.' See vol. iv. p. 289, 357, 405, 460, 487, 514-15, 652.

Abella (Ramon), 1798, Span. friar, who served chiefly at S. F., S. Cárlos, and S. Luis Ob., dying in 1842; for many years the only survivor of those who came before 1800. Biog., iv. 647; mention in i. list of auth., p. 432, 577, 712, 732; ii. 130-2, 159-60, 198, 288, 321-3, 329-30, 373, 375, 383, 394, 616, 655; iii. 92, 96, 191, 319, 356, 396, 446, 588, 622, 679, 681, 683; iv. 46, 372, 657.

Abernethy (John J.), 1847, asst surgeon, U. S. Lexington.

Aborn (John), 1846, in Sta Clara val., apparently an overland immig., serving perhaps in Co. F, Cal. Bat. (v. 358-60).

Ábrego (Emigdio), 1842, Mex. lieut of the batallon fijo, '42-5. See iv. 289.

Ábrego (José), 1834, Mex. hatter and trader, who came with the H. & P. colony (iii. 259 et seq.), and opened a store at Mont. Young, intelligent, with some capital, and of good repute, he soon became a prominent citizen, holding office continuously from '36, as comisario de policía, administrator of S. Antonio mission, customs officer, member of the assembly, substitute member of the tribunal superior, and treasurer. As sub-comisario and treasurer he was in charge of the territorial finances in 1839-46, possessing the confidence of all classes. In '41-2 he was involved in controversies with Gen. Vallejo in the matter of distributing funds, as also in '45-6 with Pico's administration; but these quarrels resulted from his position rather than his character, no one questioning his integrity or ability. He revisited Mex. in '43-4. In '44 he was the grantee of the Pt Pinos rancho, and later claimant for S. Francisquito. After the U. S. occupation he deemed it his duty as a Mex. to decline office for a time, but later held some local positions. He continued his career as hatter, soap-manufacturer, and merchant, with more or less success and undiminished popularity, till his death in '78, at the age of 65. In '36 he married Josefa Estrada, half-sister of Gov. Alvarado, who survived him with six of their children. The two daughters were married to Judge Webb of Salinas and J. Bolado of S. F. One of the sons married a daughter of Jacob P. Leese. For mention of Ábrego, see vol. i. list of auth.; iii. 263, 592, 597, 601-2, 672, 675, 678, 687-8; iv. 97, 99, 198, 210, 282, 327-8, 341, 357, 377, 401-3, 432, 520, 522, 532, 540, 557-8, 563; v. 35, 38, 41, 289, 455, 570, 636.

Acacio, Indian of S. José‚ involved in troubles with Sutter's Ind. in 1840. iv. 137-8.

Accolti (M.), 1848, Jesuit prominent in educational affairs at Sta Clara college, and St Ignatius, S. F., dying in '78; perhaps from Or. in '48.

Acebedo (Francisco), soldier who came before 1780, sergeant of the S. Diego Co. from 1798, and a settler at Los Ang. in 1808-19. i. 647; ii. 101, 350, 354.

Acebedo (José). i. 569.

Acebedo (Julian), i. 303. See also list i. 732.

Acedo (Ignacio), resid. of Brancif. 1801-10; com. de policía, Mont., '33; Mex. convict, '34; cavalry sold. at Mont., and employé at S. F. Solano, '36. Doubtless several distinct persons. ii. 167; iii. 673, 720.

Acedo (Tiburcio), had a Cal. claim in '46 (v. 462-8) for $3,670.

Aceves (Antonio), settler at S. José and grantee of Salinas rancho 1790-5. i. 478, 683; ii. 664.

Aceves (José), hero of the 1st marriage at Sta Cruz in 1794-5. i. 495. See also list i. 732.

Ackerman (J. Howard), 1847, clerk for Wm A. Leidesdorff at S. F., '47-8, and owner of a town lot. v. 685.

Ackley (Henry), 1847, Co. E, N. Y. Vol. (v. 499).

Acres (Hiram), 1845, Amer. immig. from Or. in the McMahon-Clyman co. (iv. 472-4, 587). At N. Helv., Sonoma, and Napa in '46-8, perhaps later. B. Akers, probably the same or a son, served in the Cal. Bat. (v. 358-60).

Acuña, 1818, one of Bouchard's men. ii. 220-49, 232.

Adair (Wesley), 1847, Co. C, Morm. Bat. (v. 469-98). In '82 an Ariz. farmer.

Adams, 1847, mr of the Loo Choo. v. 511, 576.

Adams, master of the Forrester, on the coast perhaps in '15. ii. 274.

Adams, Amer., aged 30, at Branciforte, padron of '45.

Adams (Charles), 1840, Scotch sailor, who left the Columbia and became a lumberman in '41.

Adams (David L.), 1846, Amer. immig. from Indiana, age 10 (v. 528). His father died on the way, and he lived on the Yuba a while with his mother—who married Abner Bryan—and sisters. At S. José '47 and from '49; Placerville mines '48-9. After a course of study at the Univ. of the Pac. in '59-61, he settled on a farm near Sta Cruz in '62, marrying Julia Bennett of the '43 immig. in '63. In '81, and I suppose later, he lived in the town of Sta Cruz with a family of 6 children, being in the lumber trade. Sta Cruz Co. Hist., 27-8. In March '85 he writes me from S. Bernardino.

Adams (Elisha), 1846, said by Hall to have come to the Sta Clara val.

Adams (Henry), mr of the Paradise in '27. iii. 148. Another Henry Adams is vaguely accredited to '44. iv. 453; and another, or the same, is named by Tinkham as a boy on Howard's vessel in '46, later pres. of the Stockton Pion. Soc.

Adams (James Harmon), 1847, Co. A, N. Y. Vol., trans. to Co. G (v. 499). Born in N. Y. '19; opened a shoe-shop at L. Ang. '47, while still in the service; policeman at S. F. '49-54; at Vallejo '55-60; and at S. F. '61-85. His wife of '39, Matilda Smith, one of the original members of the 1st Presb. church of S. F., died in '79. A son, James Hardie Adams, born on the voy. to Cal., died in '49; a daughter died at L. Ang. in '48. Another son, John Quincy Adams, 3 years old on arrival, was educated in the 1st public schools at S. F.; presented with a gold nugget on the plaza by a miner as the 1st school-boy he had seen in Cal.; played juvenile parts in the Jenny Lind theatre; served on the U. S. Warren '55-6; office-boy for Com. Farragut at Mare Isl. '57-8; law student at Benicia '66-7; lawyer at S. F. from '73. He has been orator at pioneer celebrations, sec. of surviving N. Y. Vol., and has afforded me some aid in the collection of historical material.

Adams (John), 1846, lieut Co. C, 1st U. S. Dragoons (v. 536).

Adams (John), 1846, midshipman on the U. S. Dale. Another John Adams had a Cal. claim (v. 462-8) of $200 in '46; voted at S. Diego in '48; and settled near Napa—perhaps 2 or 3 different men.

Adams (Jos. H.), lieut on the Savannah and Levant in '44-5.

Adams (Orson B.), sergt in Co. C, Morm. Bat. '47-8. v. 477.

Adams (Walter W.), 1840, Boston sailor arrested at Mont. but not exiled. iv. 17, 120. Shipped on the California in '42, and later on the Laura. In '44 disabled at Sta B. and Mont., being aided by the U. S. consulate, and getting a carta; but in Aug. he shipped on the Chas W. Morgan.

Adams (Washington), 1847, Co. B, N. Y. Vol. (v. 499).

Adams (Wm), named by Hall as having come to Sta Clara val. in '46.

Addison (Isaac), 1846, a Mormon of the Brooklyn colony, v. 546, with his wife and daughter. He was excommunicated from the church, and returned east before Jan. '47.

Addison (S.K.) bought a town lot at S. F. in '48.

Adler (Lewis), 1846, German cooper who came from Honolulu on the Euphemia. Clerk for Leidesdorff and Dickson & Hay, at S. F. in '46-7, also owning a town lot. A trader from '48 at Son., where he still lived in '85, at the age of 65.

Adrian (Geo.), 1836, named in a S. José padron as a foreign resident.

Afanadon, or Afanador, chaplain who came in '22 with the Canónigo Fernandez. ii. 458.

Agate, scientist attaché of the U. S. ex. exped. in '41. iv. 243.

Agazini (Flaminio), '25, mr of the transport Morelos. iii. 148.

Agnew (Hugh) 1847, Co. H, N. Y. Vol. (v. 499).

Agredo, doubtful name of a school-boy at Mont. '15-20. ii. 429.

Agricia (José) grantee of the Laureles rancho in '44. iv. 655.

Aguado (Ignacio), Mex. lieut of the batallon fijo in '42-5. iv. 289.

Aguiar (Francisco), soldier of 1769 et seq.; sergt at S. Diego in 1777. i. 314, 732.

Águila (José), Mex. settler at S. F. in 1791-1800. i. 716; munic. elector at S. F. in 1827. ii. 592. From '28 José Águila, or José M. Aguilar (between which names there is evident confusion), was a somewhat prominent citizen of Mont. In '31-34 he was síndico; in '32-3 regidor and com. de policía. iii. 672-3; in '33 vocal of the diputacion. iii. 246; in '36 admin. at Soledad. iii. 690-1; in '38-9 clerk to admin. of S. Antonio. iii. 687-8; and in '44 grantee of the Cañada de Nogales rancho. iv. 634. In a Mont. padron of '36 José Águila is described as a painter, 50 years of age, native of Celaya, married to María Fran. García, a native of Mont., aged 37.

Águila (Felipe), land near Mont. in '35. iii. 678.

Águila (Joaquin), claimant for land at Sta Inés in '47.

Águila (Lugardo), resid. of S. Gabriel in '46.

Águila (Ramon), soldier of S. F. in '37-43. iv. 667. See list i. 732.

Aguilar (Blas), son of Rosario A., born at S. Diego about 1808. In '31 majordomo of S. D. mission, and in '34 at Temécula. Lived in '38-43 at the Palomares rancho, Los Ang. Co. In '41 got land at S. Juan Cap., where in '46 he was living at the age of 38 with his wife Antonia Gutierrez, aged 29. Padron; where he was alcalde in '48, and where he still lived in '76. See mention in ii. 443, 550; iii. 620; iv. 626; v. 624. An Aguilar is ment. as one of Bouchard's men in '18. ii. 232.

Aguilar (Antonio), soldier at S. F. '19-23; resid. of Los Ang. in '38, murdered in '42. iii. 564-5; iv. 632.

Aguilar (Casildo), trader at Los Ang., age 26, in '39; juez de aguas in '46. iv. 625; claimant for La Ciénega.

Aguilar (Cristóbal), resid. of Los Ang., age 24, from '38, when he was alcalde suplente; in '44-5, regidor. iii. 636; iv. 633.

Aguilar (Francisco Javier), soldier of the Loreto co., who served in the exped. of 1769 et seq. to S. Diego and Mont., but never came to live in Cal. A sergt from 1795; in command at C. S. Lúcas of a militia co. 1795-1800.

Aguilar (Gabino), at San Juan Cap. in '46, age 30, with his wife María Ant. Sesena and 6 children. Padron.

Aguilar (Ignacio), said to have fired the gun at Mervine's defeat '46. v. 319.

Aguilar (José M.), settler at Los Ang. fr. '14; regidor '21, '25-6; in trouble with Gov. Victoria in '31. In the padron of '39 he is noted as a bricklayer, age 54. ii. 349, 359, 559-60; iii. 196. (See also Águila, José.)

Aguilar (Macedonio), resid. of Los Ang. in '39, age 30; juez de campo in '43-5. iv. 632-4.

Aguilar (Martin), Span. com. of one of Vizcaino's explor. vessels in 1602-3. i. 98, 104, 242.

Aguilar (Ramon), killed by the Ind. in '46. v. 617.

Aguilar (Rosario), corporal of the escolta at S. Diego and S. Luis Rey missions from shortly after 1800. Lived at S. Diego fr. about '30, being majordomo of the mission in '38, and getting a grant of the Paguai rancho—which he is said to have refused—in '39. In '41 he was juez de paz at S. D., but obtained land at S. Juan Cap., where he was juez in '43-4, and where he died about '45. ii. 546; iii. 612, 619, 620-3, 626-7. His daughter married José Ant. Serrano.

Aguilar (Santiago), Mex. sergt, age 22, at Mont. in '36. In charge of the printing-office, and took part in the revolt against Alvarado, '37. iii. 470, 523-5.

Aguilar (Simon), executed at Mont. '31. iii. 190-1, 669, 673, 679.

Aguirre (José Antonio), 1834, Span. Basque, born about 1793; a wealthy trader at Guaymas, when in '33-4 he engaged in the Cal. trade, owning several vessels, and visiting Cal. frequently. From about '38 he made Sta B. his home, marrying María del Rosario, a daughter of José Ant. Estudillo, in '42. His second wife was a sister of the first. Grantee of the Tejon rancho in '43, and his wife of S. Jacinto Viejo y Nuevo in '46. On account of his great size he was sometimes nicknamed Aguirron; of fine presence, affable in manner, and well liked by all. An excellent type of the old-time Spanish merchant, keeping aloof for the most part from smuggling and politics, though often employed by the government. Still a resident of Sta B. after 1854. Ment. in iii. 620, 637, 659, 660, 727; iv. 12, 61, 100, 104, 332, 621, 635; v. 587, 619.

Aguirre (Juan B.), 1775, Span. mate and master of different transport ships on the coast in 1775-90. i. 246, 287, 328, 444.

Aguirre (Severo), 1842, Mex. sergt in the batallon fijo '43-5. iv. 289.

Copyright © 2005 Ron Filion and Pamela Storm Wolfskill. All rights reserved.
Sent by Ron Filion to the Californios
ron@sfgenealogy.com To: CA-SPANISH-L@rootsweb.com

The complete text for Spanish Colonial Terms is at: www.somosprimos.com/spanishterms/spanishterms.htm

The City of Hemet & The Hemet-San Jacinto Genealogical Society
Presents A Family History Seminar
Saturday, February 25, 2006, 9:00 am - 3:30 P.M.
featuring Henry Z (Hank) Jones, Jr.

Speaking on 4 Subjects
A. When the Sources Are Wrong
B. Tracing the Origins of Early 18th Century Palatine & Other Emigrants
C. Family Tradition: How to Separate Fact From Fiction in Research
D. Genealogy in the New Millennium: Where We've Been & Where We're Going

Henry Z (Hank) Jones, Jr, FASG is without a doubt the most motivating and entertaining speaker you will hear on genealogical research. (Heritage Quest Magazine) Hank has written many articles on the Palatines over the years, and several books; Physic Roots: Serendipity & Intuition in Genealogy, The Palatine Families of New York, The Palatine Families of Ireland, & Even More Palatine Families.

Hemet Public Library Community Room - 2nd Floor 300 E. Latham Ave., Hemet 
Handicapped Accessible
Catered Luncheon: Luncheon will NOT be available for tickets purchased at the door
PRE-REGISTRATION MUST BE POSTMARKED BY: 5 February 2006
pre-Registration $ 22.50 Luncheon $ 7.50 At the door (no Lunch) $25.00
P. 0. Box 2516, Hemet, CA 92546
(951) 765-2372 

NORTHWESTERN UNITED STATES

Golden Spike National Site
Center Receives Two Research Grants

Fronteras
2005 Vol. 14 No. 2, Fall 2005
Center for Greater Southwestern Studies and the History of Cartography

• The National Park Service has granted $80,000 to the Center, which will prepare a report on the Golden Spike National Historic Site. The report will involve two years' research in the area of Utah's Promontory Mountains, where the rails of the first transcontinental railway were joined on May 10, 1869. This is now a designated historic site where the joining of the rails is regularly re-enacted, but it has experienced many changes over a long period. Home to the Shoshoni Indians, it was explored by the early scientists in the West; then became part of the Mormon state of' Deseret"; was temporarily on the route of the transcontinental railroad until the Lucin Cutoff was built across the Great Salt Lake in 1904. By the time the railroad line over Promontory Summit was abandoned in 1942, parts of the surrounding area had become ranches and farms. More recently (1965), Promontory became a historic site that celebrates the joining of the rails. The report will be written as a well-documented book.

Ryskamp's participation at the thirteenth Reunion Americana de Genealogia in Antigua, Guatemala, were he delivered a paper in Spanish on utilizing ancient genealogies, such as one he found written for the Sosa family in 1617.

Seven week trip to Europe, was comprised of client research, work with BYU students interns, and the Immigrant Ancestor Project, highlighted by two weeks of French research wit BYU librarian Howard Bybee and his wife Susan, and a week of research in Spanish sixteenth century records with client Raul Guerra.

Source: Peggy Ryskamp

SOUTHWESTERN UNITED STATES

BLACK

Picture By: Mark Dufrene, Contra Costa Times

The Orange County Register 
Friday, Jan 20, 2006
DNA pinpoints family histories
By Nathanial Hoffman Knight Ridder Newspapers

Melvyn Gillette knows her people are from Gum Springs, Ark.

She knew a great-grandfather was born in Alabama, became an African Methodist Episcopal minister and married in Gum Springs in 1866. She recently heard about Aunt Lula's high cheekbones.

But without older relatives to interview, and with cousins spread all over the United States, the amateur genealogist and president of the African American Genealogical Society of Northern California, did not know much more about her family history.

Then she had her DNA tested and it linked to the Tikar people of Cameroon in West Africa.  
"Even though I don't know who that person is who came from Cameroon, I'm still related to them," Gillette said, thumbing through birth and death records that she has collected in her Oakland home.

A growing sector of the genetics industry, genetic genealogy, is changing the way African Americans and other groups of people see their history. Companies that have compiled DNA data from Africa or from Native American tribes can take anyone's DNA and compare it to a database, possibly matching them to a specific population somewhere in the world.

Getting beyond the history of the slave trade is important to some."Having a history of enslavement isn't the most positive thing to identify with," said Gina Paige, president and co-founder of Washington, D.C.-based African Ancestry.

Many African American families can trace their roots back only a few generations and when students do family history projects in school they often come up short. "When kids are saying my family comes from Poland or Russia, you have to say my family comes from Georgia or my family comes from Tennessee," Paige said. DNA testing gives African Americans a more specific point of reference for their identity.

Gillette now refers to her cousin in Eureka on the Tikar side of the family and her cousins in Southern California on the Kru side, a Liberian tribe.

Gillette has been to West Africa twice and has some interest in the cultures of Africa, but many African Americans have a large psychological stake in the continent. "Some people go into this with preconceived notions of who they are," said genetic ethicist Charmaine Royal.

Royal, director of the GenEthics unit at Howard University's National Human Genome Center, is studying why people get tested and how they react to the results.  "The information that people get is only a part of their ancestry," she said.

Adoptees have found even partial answers useful. Roseville resident Debra Anne Royer always wore Native American jewelry and was told she looked Indian, but she had no information on her birth parents. A few years ago, Richmond-based Trace Genetics confirmed that she shared DNA mutations specific to a Northern California tribe.  "I saw it in my daughter," Royer said. "She looked like a little papoose."

Some people have used Trace Genetics testing as evidence to prove tribal membership or to confirm a native link in their family lore.

"The best stories are when people use it as a starting point for genealogy ... people who find out unexpectedly that they have mitochondrial DNA that's from a part of the Middle East that they weren't really aware of," senior research scientist Jason Eshleman said.

Eshleman, and Trace Genetics senior research director Ripan Malhi are molecular anthropologists and are aware that anthropologists have abused and ignored indigenous people for a century, even using disease and information gathered in the name of science against them.

Many Native American tribes are hesitant to work with the company given a history of racist science, Malhi said. But Malhi said he tries to show tribal councils how DNA can also be used to identify the most likely descendant when Native American remains are unearthed and how it can be used to develop new medicines.

Royal, who has worked with both African Ancestry and Trace Genetics, said that Native Americans and African Americans have different concerns about the use of genetic material and information. Some Africa scholars say they fear DNA could be used to drive more wedges between African people.

"Some people are concerned about this information resulting in more division than unification," she said. Many African Americans already have an African identity and are not interested in more specific details.

"It doesn't matter whether it's Igbo or Ewe, I know culturally my base is in Africa," said Hattie Carwell, director of the Museum of African American Technology Science Village in Oakland.
Carwell would rather know who passed on her personality and what diseases she may be predisposed to, but she also has concerns that genetic profiles could lead to new forms of discrimination. "Society will take any kind of information and use it against you if they can," Royal said.

Both companies say that the information they provide is confidential and only for customers' use.
Malhi and Eshleman also note that the tests are not about race. "We don't tell people their race or their ethnicity," Eshleman said. "We tell them their ancestry."

Melvyn Gillette has tested four different family lines with three different companies. She found African and European genetic heritage, but, so far, no Native American evidence.  "Who knows where Aunt Lula's high cheekbones came from?"

Nathaniel Hoffman covers immigration and demographics for the Times. Reach him at 925-943-8345 or nhoffman@cctimes.com. 

ARCHAEOLOGY

 
Picture From:
http://www.raphaelk.co.uk/web%20pics/Mexico
/first/Teotihuacan%20Pyramid%20of%
20the%20sun.JPG

Using picks, shovels, and high-tech forensic sleuthing, scientists are beginning to cobble together the grisly ancient history and fiery demise of Teotihuacán, the first major metropolis of the Americas. 
Picture From:
The size of Shakespeare's London, Teotihuacán was built by an unknown people almost 2,000 years ago. The site sits about 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of present-day Mexico City. Temples, palaces, and some of the largest pyramids on Earth line its ancient main street. 

Scientists believe Teotihuacán was the hub of trade and commerce in Mesoamerica until the city's civilization collapsed around A.D. 650. When the Aztecs stumbled upon the metropolis centuries later, they dubbed it the "City of the Gods," because they believed it was where the Gods met to create the present universe and sun.   Saburo Sugiyama, an archaeologist at Japan's Aichi Prefectural University, says recent excavations and analysis put a mortal face on Teotihuacán's mythological builders. The research is also providing clues to the city's final days. 
"We are renewing the early history of Teotihuacán," he said. 

One researcher investigating the site is Michael Spence, an anthropologist at the University of Western Ontario, Canada. He says a flurry of research activity at Teotihuacán since the 1980s is allowing scientists to understand the city's history. But "we still have a lot more science to work out," he added. 

Tunneling for a Tomb: Sugiyama has concentrated his efforts at Teotihuacán's Pyramid of the Moon. The archaeologist has tunneled deep into the heart of the structure to search for the ruler thought to have ordered the pyramid's construction.  "We've not found the ruler's tomb yet, but we really feel we are very close to these people, the history, of who made this great pyramid," he said. 

Sugiyama has made some intriguing finds, including dozens of beheaded people with bound hands. The bodies suggest bloody sacrificial rituals ripe with symbolism of military power, he said. 
Excavations also reveal that the pyramid was constructed in seven stages, each stage an enlargement of the last. The work started in A.D. 100 and ended around A.D. 400. 

Analyses by Spence of the University of Western Ontario suggest the sacrificed victims came from outside Teotihuacán, possibly as captives brought back from distant territories or battles. The clues come from oxygen isotopes in bones, which act as geological markers. "They tell you where a person was at a particular time," he said. Climate and altitude are among factors that affect the isotopes. The isotopes found in remains of pyramid victims differ from those unearthed in city homes. 

Bad Teeth : Spence has also found evidence that the health of Teotihuacán's population declined in the city's final century. Residents' teeth have tell-tale lines that form in childhood during episodes of severe stress, such as malnutrition or infection. 

"Basically growth stops as the body concentrates on survival and repair," he said. "Then as the stress passes, the growth continues again. But there's a line left in the tooth that represents the stress episode."  Because teeth only grow during childhood, scientists can put a general age to when the stress happened. These signatures of bodily stress remain in adult teeth. "We have shown that in the last century of the city there is a growing problem of some sort. We get more and more indications showing up in adult teeth," he said. 

Teotihuacán's Demise: The largest unanswered questions about Teotihuacán concern its demise. Why, for example, was the city largely abandoned around A.D. 650? 

The recent excavations are revealing new bits of information that help piece together an answer. 
"We don't know exactly what happened at the final stage, but we know certainly the city was destroyed by man, not by natural disaster," Sugiyama said. 

Researchers are uncertain whether insiders or outsiders caused the destruction, Sugiyama said, but they do know that the instrument was fire, particularly on Teotihuacán's monuments. 
The archaeologist says an invading army could have set fires to the monuments as a signature of their conquest. Spence, however, says the evidence suggests to him the fires were set during an internal revolt. 

According to his theory, the deteriorating health of the city's poor was likely exacerbated by a drought or a disruption to the food supply. This spurred a revolution against the ruling elite and their symbols of power-temples, pyramids, and palaces. 
"The destruction seems to have skipped the vast majority of the city and focused on the elite and punished the elite. That suggests a revolt to me," he said. 

Lima  - In the Peru's Andean foothills, a group of archaeologists say they have found remnants of the oldest known irrigation canals in South America, which they hope will provide clues to the origin of the region's agriculturally based societies. 

"There are four sites in the area that have canals that date minimally 5,300 years ago, maybe a little earlier," team leader Tom D. Dillehay, an archaeologist at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, told The Associated Press.

Dillehay started his research nearly 30 years ago in the Zana Valley, 37 miles inland from the Pacific Ocean and about 385 miles northwest of Lima.

The conclusions, reported in a recent issue of The Proceedings of the National Academy of Science
National Academy of Sciences — a peer reviewed publication of the Washington-based National Academy of Sciences — offer evidence, long suspected by archaeologists, that irrigation technology was critical to the development of Peru's early civilization, Dillehay said.

"The Zana Valley canals are the earliest known in South America," wrote the authors of the journal article, Dillehay, Herbert H. Eling Jr. of the National Institute of Anthropology and History in Mexico and Jack Rossen of Ithaca College.

Dr. Daniel Morales, director of the school of archaeology at Peru's San Marcos University, said he had not seen the article, but was familiar with Dillehay's work. He said the "discovery of the Zana canals is very important because it could be linked to the first form of irrigated agriculture" in Peru.

Dillehay, in a telephone interview from Chile, said the team first discovered some of the canals and agricultural features in 1985 and dated them for the first time in 1989.

But he said his team waited until now to publish its findings to better understand the hydraulic engineering of the hunters and gatherers who made a historic break from their ancestors to tend "early gardens."

Carbon dating of the four silt-filled canals, buried under sediments, showed that they were used to irrigate cultivated fields about 5,400 years ago, in one case possibly as early as 6,700 years ago, the article said. The team found evidence of domesticated cotton, beans and squash and stone hoe-like tools near the site.

Peru was one of the only places in the world where a complex society flourished, largely independent of outside influence, at the same time the pyramids of Egypt were being built.

In recent years, Peruvian archaeologist Ruth Shady discovered the ruins of Caral, the earliest known city in the Americas, about 300 miles southeast of Zana. Jonathan Haas and Winifred Creamer, a Chicago-area husband-and-wife team, later documented more than 20 other major residential centers nearby with platform mounds and pyramids along the Peruvian coast, known collectively as the Norte Chico.

"Those settlements come at least 800 to 1,000 years later," Dillehay said, explaining that what his team documented are earlier pieces of the puzzle: small communities with the beginnings of "social mobility, social complexity" that over centuries "percolated" into the complex societies that followed.

"These huts and residential camp sites we have found that are above the canal, they had to share the water, first of all," he said.

"They had to keep the canals clean, so we're talking about some sense of communal labor and sharing and coordination and planning over a distance of at least two kilometers. So it's not just scattered individual households, but some initial social aggregation with communal responsibility."

MISCELLANEOUS

If I Had My Life to Live Over 
by Erma Bombeck 
(Written after she found out she was dying from cancer.)
Sent by Willis Papillion willis35@earthlink.net