SOMOS PRIMOS

March 2018

Editor: Mimi Lozano ©2000-2018

Porque el reloj mas antiguo de Japan 
esta fabricado en Madrid de siglo XVI?
 click



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Letters to the Editor

Thanks for finding and sharing this one. I think my Dad just jumped the joy in heaven to hear that you are doing this work of research. He always resented the "Western Civ" perspective in our school textbooks as one-sided bias, withholding a more accurate and shared accomplishment given to the world. We, too contributed mightily! 

Thanks for listening, your friend 
Dra. Virginia (Ginny) Correa Creager
drvcreager@aol.com
AZ 85340

The Birth of the United States Marines 
HISTORY IGNORED BY THE AMERICAN MEDIA!
Thomas Jefferson and the Barbary Muslim Pirates

Why the Marine Hymn Contains the Verse “… to the shores of Tripoli.” This is very interesting and a must read piece of our history. It points out where we may be heading. Most Americans are unaware of the fact that over two hundred years ago, the United States had declared war on Islam and Thomas Jefferson led the charge!

At the height of the 18th century, Muslim pirates (the “Barbary Pirates”) were the terror of the Mediterranean and a large area of the North Atlantic. They attacked every ship in sight and held the crews for exorbitant ransoms. Those taken hostage were subjected to barbaric treatment and wrote heart-breaking letters home, begging their government and family members to pay whatever their Mohammedan captors demanded.

These extortionists of the high seas represented the North African Islamic nations of Tripoli, Tunis, Morocco, and Algiers – collectively referred to as the Barbary Coast – and presented a dangerous and unprovoked threat to the new American Republic.

Before the Revolutionary War, U.S. merchant ships had been under the protection of Great Britain. When the U.S. declared its independence and entered into war, the ships of the United States were protected by France. However, once the war was won, America had to protect its own fleets.

Thus, the birth of the U.S. Navy. Beginning in 1784, 17 years before he would become president, Thomas Jefferson became America’s Minister to France. That same year, the U.S. Congress sought to appease its Muslim adversaries by following in the footsteps of European nations who paid bribes to the Barbary States rather than engaging them in war.

In July of 1785, Algerian pirates captured American ships, and the Dye of Algiers demanded an unheard-of ransom of $60,000. It was a plain and simple case of extortion, and Thomas Jefferson was vehemently opposed to any further payments. Instead, he proposed to Congress the formation of a coalition of allied nations who together could force the Islamic states into peace. A disinterested Congress decided to pay the ransom.

In 1786, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams met with Tripoli’s ambassador to Great Britain to ask by what right his nation attacked American ships and enslaved American citizens, and why Muslims held so much hostility towards America, a nation with which they had no previous contacts.

The two future presidents reported that Ambassador Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja had answered that Islam “was founded on the Laws of their Prophet, that it was written in their Quran that all nations who would not acknowledge their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as prisoners, and that every Musselman (Muslim) who should be slain in Battle was sure to go to Paradise.”

Despite this stunning admission of premeditated violence on non-Muslim nations, as well as the objections of many notable American leaders, including George Washington, who warned that caving in was both wrong and would only further embolden the enemy, for the following fifteen years the American government paid the Muslims millions of dollars for the safe passage of American ships or the return of American hostages. The payments in ransom and tribute amounted to over 20 percent of the United States government annual revenues in 1800.

Jefferson was disgusted. Shortly after his being sworn in as the third President of the United States in 1801, the Pasha of Tripoli sent him a note demanding the immediate payment of $225,000 plus $25,000 a year for every year forthcoming. That changed everything.

Jefferson let the Pasha know, in no uncertain terms, what he could do with his demand. The Pasha responded by cutting down the flagpole at the American consulate and declared war on the United States. Tunis, Morocco, and Algiers immediately followed suit. Jefferson, until now, had been against America raising a naval force for anything beyond coastal defense, but, having watched his nation be cowed by Islamic thuggery for long enough, decided that it was finally time to meet force with force.

He dispatched a squadron of frigates to the Mediterranean and taught the Muslim nations of the Barbary Coast a lesson he hoped they would never forget. Congress authorized Jefferson to empower U.S. ships to seize all vessels and goods of the Pasha of Tripoli and to “cause to be done all other acts of precaution or hostility as the state of war would justify”.

When Algiers and Tunis, who were both accustomed to American cowardice and acquiescence, saw the newly independent United States had both the will and the right to strike back, they quickly abandoned their allegiance to Tripoli. The war with Tripoli lasted for four more years and raged up again in 1815. The bravery of the U.S. Marine Corps in these wars led to the line”…to the shores of Tripoli” in the Marine Hymn, and they would forever be known as “leathernecks” for the leather collars of their uniforms, designed to prevent their heads from being cut off by the Muslim scimitars when boarding enemy ships.

Islam, and what its Barbary followers justified doing in the name of their prophet and their god, disturbed Jefferson quite deeply. America had a tradition of religious tolerance. In fact Jefferson, himself, had co-authored the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, but fundamentalist Islam was like no other religion the world had ever seen. A religion based on supremacy, whose holy book not only condoned but mandated violence against unbelievers, was unacceptable to him. His greatest fear was that someday this brand of Islam would return and pose an even greater threat to the United States.

This should concern every American. That Muslims have brought about women-only classes and swimming times at taxpayer-funded universities and public pools; that Christians, Jews, and Hindus have been banned from serving on juries where Muslim defendants are being judged; Piggy banks and Porky Pig tissue dispensers have been banned from workplaces because they offend Islamist sensibilities; ice cream has been discontinued at certain Burger King locations because the picture on the wrapper looks similar to the Arabic script for Allah; public schools are pulling pork from their menus. But in turn several American companies have placed the Muslim symbol on their products in the name of Allah; on and on and on and on.

It’s death by a thousand cuts, or inch-by-inch as some refer to it, and most Americans have no idea that this battle is being waged every day across America. By not fighting back, by allowing groups to obfuscate what is really happening, and not insisting that the Islamists adapt to our own culture, the United States is cutting its own throat with a politically correct knife, and helping to further the Islamists agenda. Sadly, it appears that today America’s leaders would rather be politically correct than victorious!

If you have any doubts about the above information, Google “Thomas Jefferson vs. the Muslim World.”  

I really wish I knew who gathered this historical material so I can give credit for their work. Now that American History is no longer taught in our schools future,  Americans will never know how this country was formed.       

C Brewer  
May 23, 2017

https://cb75948.com/2017/05/23/history-ignored-by-the-american-media/  

Sent by Joe Parr  jlskcd2005@aol.com

FACT: In 2017, the Palestinian Authority paid a reported $347 million to terrorists and their families. 
Source: Christians in Support of Israel  alert@cidisrael.cc

170th Anniversary of the Original Signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

Source: The Library of Congress
A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: 
U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774 - 1875

This Month in Immigration and Naturalization History

Informative Webinar- are held by 
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services: U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Friends of the National Museum

AMERICAN LATINO

===================================

===================================

Hello, Rosie

Earlier this week, the Friends of the American Latino Museum (FRIENDS), the only non-profit, charitable organization dedicated to the creation of a Smithsonian National American Latino Museum announced the creation of the Chairman’s Advisory Council (CAC) with its initial cohort. The CAC will play a key role in keeping key players, on and off the Hill, informed, engaged, and help drive a fundraising effort to ensure the creation of the Museum on the National Mall.
As the chairman, I have been incredibly moved and touched by the outpouring of support for our efforts to create a Smithsonian National American Latino Museum. The wonderful people that make up our Chairman’s Advisory Council will help us achieve our goals of getting Congressional authorization, securing financial donations and pledges, as well as build upon the already massive public demand for this museum. Working in collaboration with our board of directors, staff, former NMAL Commissioners and many other supporters, the CAC will help ensure we have a more complete account of American history, honor the contributions of Latinos throughout the last 500 years, celebrate the vitality and complexity of today’s American Latino communities, and inspire future generation.

Working together, we will soon witness the opening of the American Latino Museum within the Smithsonian Institution on the National Mall.

With my friend and Executive Director of FRIENDS, Estuardo Rodriguez, we are inspired by the launch of the CAC that will help the campaign connect with Congressional and public supporters to ensure they understand the importance and benefit of creating a National Latino Museum.

While additions will be made, the inaugural membership of the CAC include:

Nelson Albareda - CEO, Loud and Live and Former NMAL Commissioner
 

Thaddeus Arroyo - CEO, AT&T Business
 

Hector Barreto - Chairman of The Latino Coalition and Former SBA Administrator
 

Juan Carlos Benitez - President Washington Pacific Economic Development Group and Former Special

Counsel, U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division under President Bush
 

Rudy Beserra - Former SVP Coca-Cola and Former Special Assistant to President Reagan
 

Alejandra Castillo - CEO, YWCA and Former National Director, MBDA
 

Luis Fortuno - Former Governor of Puerto Rico
 

Lorraine Garcia-Nakata - Museum & Arts Cultural Specialist, Former NMAL Commissioner
 

Daniel Garza - President, The Libre Initiative
 

Lili Gil-Valletta - CEO & Cofounder CIEN+
 

Carlos Gutierrez - Chair of Albright Stonebridge Group, Former U.S. Secretary of Commerce, Former CEO of

Kellogg Company
 

Sean Reyes - Utah Attorney General and Former NMAL Commissioner
 

Manny Rosales - Board Secretary the Latino Coalition
 

Camille Solberg - Former Federal Drug Free Communities Commissioner
 

Al Zapanta - President/CEO of US-Mexico Chamber of Commerce, Former Chairman of the Reserve Forces

Policy Board, Retired Army Major General
We hope you will join us in welcoming this distinguished group of leaders to our family. We look forward to working in collaboration with them and you to build a home on our National Mall.

All my best, Danny Vargas

Chairman, Freinds of the National Museum of the American Latino
info@americanlatinomuseum.org

Sent by Rosie Carbo rosic@aol.com

César Chavez - the Teacher - 
The Role Model  

By Rudy Padilla

When some of us were made aware that “César” had died, it was very hard to accept.  In fact, one could suggest that it took several weeks for it to be accepted as fact, like not willing to say good-by, or maybe I was too busy with planning or taking part in upcoming Cinco de Mayo activities.  In any event, When I was in San Antonio as part of a National Hispanic organizational Conference, I stopped at an exhibit sponsored by the United Farm Workers, when the reality of his not being with us set in.  I purchased some items in his memory to take home with me but I was still saddened and somewhat resentful that he was taken from us at the relatively safe age of 66 in 1993. m

 I have known people who have done a lot of damage to the community for many years and still lived many years past 66…It just didn’t seem fair.  

Although we didn’t receive much news about César Chavez in Kansas City - we always knew he was somewhere - speaking up for the poor - bringing the Mexican American into the consciousness of America. m
Born to a family of five children, César Chavez was born on March 31, 1927 on a small farm near Yuma , Arizona .  After losing the family farm during the Depression, his family joined other migrants following the harvest across Arizona and California .  He grew up in many labor camps and attended more than thirty elementary schools in his youth.  He finally dropped out of school when he was in the seventh grade.  At that time, he could barely read and write.  He would later be self-educated by spending his extra time in libraries where he went to read Gandhi’s autobiography, “The Story of My Experiments with Truth.”  He was so impressed with Gandhi that he would use his philosophy for the rest of his life.  In an interview about his youth: He remembers walking barefoot to school through the mud, fishing in the canals to keep from starving, collecting tinfoil from empty cigarette packages to sell to a junk dealer for a sweatshirt or a pair of shoes.  He remembers his parents getting up at 5:30 in the morning during the Depression to go pick peas all day in the fields and then not earn the seventy cents to pay the cost of their transportation.  He remembers living under bridges for protection against cold and rain, being forcibly ejected from the ‘Anglo’ section of a movie theater by Police, working seven days a week picking wine grapes only to have the contractor disappear with his pay.  

When his father and uncle began attending meetings to improve their situation, César was exposed to union meetings and picket signs.  When he was nineteen he joined the National Agricultural Workers Union.  As the other unions, there was very little success.  During World War II, in 1945 and 1946, he served in the U.S. Navy and after the war, he returned to migrant work.  

After being recruited to serve as an unpaid volunteer and later as a staff member of the Community Service Organization, Chavez led a successful voter registration drive in San Jose ; he helped workers with immigration authorities, welfare boards and organized C.S.O chapters in Oakland and in towns throughout the San Joaquin Valley .  In 1962, when the C.S.O. voted down his proposal to create a Farm Workers union, he resigned.  He would withdraw his savings of $1,200 from the bank to start the National Farm Workers Association on his own.  While trying to build up his union, Chavez took ditch-digging jobs to help feed his family, but even that was not enough.  While touring the fields in behalf of his union, Chavez began asking for food from the workers.  “It turned out to be about the best thing I could have done,” he recalled, “although at first it’s hard on your pride.  Some of our best members came in that way.  If people give you their food, they’ll give you their hearts.”  On September 8, 1965 Chavez and his union joined migrant Filipino farm workers who went on strike for higher wages in Delano , California .  

In discussing unions, he did not want to have his union patterned after other unions, where the power was in the hands of a few officials.  The United Farm Workers organization would later have its headquarters in Delano , in the heartland of the grape industry.  The building was marked with the symbol of the union, a red and white flag with a thunderbird.  Chavez’s office was decorated with pictures of Ghandi, Robert F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., and religious themes.  

I remember in the seventies when a local community activist, Dr. Ladislao (Larry) Lopez commented how special it was to experience a presentation by César Chavez.  His eyes have been described as having a look of “sadness,” but his voice was said to be extremely articulate and had a keen sense of humor.  Wherever he spoke or appeared, Chavez inspired love, dedication, and loyalty.  His wardrobe usually consisted of plain slacks, sport shirt, and a cardigan sweater.  He continued his commitment to the practice of non-violence as taught by his model Ghandi even though his union members were subject to confrontations.  Chavez attempted to bring attention to the cause of the farm worker by taking part in long fasts - which some have thought contributed to his unexpected death.  Commenting on his past work experiences Chavez said, “Working with low income people is a lot different from working with professionals, who like to sit around talking about how to play politics…. We found out that the harder a guy is to convince, the better leader or member they become.”  Chavez also said “And I learned quickly that there is no real appreciation.  Whatever you do, and no matter what reasons you give to others you do it because you want to see it done, or maybe because you want power.  And there shouldn’t be any appreciation.  I know good organizers who were destroyed, washed out, because they expected people to appreciate what they’d done.”  

When one seriously considers the accomplishments of César Chavez, we can only contemplate what we will miss.  He did what he could for the poor, by bringing attention to a segment of American society that was invisible to most Americans.  Anyone who has done the hot, backbreaking work of the farm worker or has observed first-hand the unhealthy working conditions, or the poverty wages has to feel apprehensive for their future.  Unfortunately, there is still much misinformation concerning the Hispanic poor in this country.  According to a report by the Children’s Defense Fund which appeared in June 1991, the rising numbers of the 12 million poor children in the United States are more likely to be Hispanic and living in the areas away from large cities.  The authors of the report were hopeful that they would be able to show the nation that they are wrong in their poverty stereotypes.  One can only hope that another César Chavez will emerge soon.  

As a volunteer producer of a television program on the Public Television station in Kansas City , I had heard that César would be in town to spread the word about their new concerns of toxins which were being sprayed on the vegetables and fruit orchards in California .  I called a local contact and asked about the possibilities of César appearing on the “Hoy En Kansas City” program.  I added that the program was conducted in Spanish and that I understood that César was well versed in Spanish.  It was later confirmed that he would be most pleased to be a guest on the program.  

When I informed the TV crew that they would be working with César Chavez, they were very excited.  Television technicians usually do not get very excited when they are developing a program - but this was a person who was of national prominence and they definitely wanted to be a part of the program.  On May 2, 1986 the day scheduled for taping the program had arrived.  I had developed the script carefully, making sure that certain questions were asked - and leaving time for discussion of his choosing.  The time was drawing near for taping, when a certain amount of nervousness started to set in.  I had covered all of the possible details, and even after producing this program for three years, I should have been confident that everything would work out.  At thirty minutes before the scheduled taping time I received a call from his assistant who informed me that César was behind in his schedule and would be thirty minutes late.  I could observe that after receiving that information, the people in the studio were now wondering if he would show - maybe they thought César was not going to show - maybe he was too big a personality for us.  

César did arrive to do the program.  He was everything we expected - as he shook your hand, he would hold your attention by looking you directly in the eye and would carry on a conversation, which would make you feel as though he was an old friend.  He was surrounded by admiring Hispanic and non-Hispanic people who wanted to shake his hand.  He was part of the 30-minute program in which he asked for understanding and support for his union.  His voice was soft, pleasant and perfectly modulated.  His presence on the screen was what could be considered magnetic and he was very gracious in his interaction with everyone at the station.  Because of his busy schedule, César had to be at another meeting and would have to leave.  He sincerely, appeared to be enjoying his visit with those associated with the Station, but just as quickly as he arrived - he was off to another appointment - what a beautiful day it turned out to be.  

Even after his death, César Chavez is remembered for his sincerity, his perseverance, a spokesperson for the poor and a truly great leader.  The late Robert F. Kennedy referred to him as “one of the heroic figures of our time.”  He was also committed to non-violence even though faced with occasional violence in the fields and cities.  As he once stated “the truest act of courage, the strongest act of manliness, is to sacrifice ourselves for others in a totally non-violent struggle for justice.”  He was a religious person and one can only conclude that he thought we should be the people who we say we are - and in the hearts of many - he surely was.  Rudy Padilla can be contacted at opkansas@swbell.net

Murder by Metropolitan Area in the USA as Reported by the FBI, 2015

Top 10 Cities

Ranking

City

Population

Total Murder

Murder/100,000 persons

1

Chicago

2,728,695

649

23.8

2

Baltimore

621,252

359

57.8

3

Houston

2,275,221

303

13.3

4

Detroit

673,225

292

43.4

5

New York

8,537,673

290

3.4

6

Los Angeles

3,962,726

281

7.1

7

Philadelphia

1,567,810

281

17.9

8

St. Louis

317,095

190

59.8

9

New Orleans

393,447

164

41.7

10

Washington DC

672,228

162

24.1

MARIJUANA QUESTIONS/ANSWERS

Epilepsy and Marijuana by Aury L. Holtzman, M.D.

The Use of Cannabis to Treat Children with Epilepsy

Medical Marijuana & Epilepsy

The Use of Cannabis to Treat Children with Epilepsy

SPANISH PRESENCE in the AMERICAS ROOTS 

Gratitude to Granaderos y Damas member Henry De Leon
A 500 años de la primera circunnavegación del planeta de Magallanes-Elcano 

Gratitude to Granaderos y Damas member Henry De Leon   

The San Antonio (Founding) Chapter of the Granaderos y Damas de Gálvez extends its heartfelt gratitude to founding member Henry De Leon. He was one of the six original uniformed Granaderos back in 1975, when the organization was formed.

Henry, the youngest of the group and now the only surviving original member, was a very active member. He served as Parade Chairman a few times where he organized our participation in events such as the Fiesta Flambeau Parade.

Henry was the one who organized our very first Fourth of July Patriotic Ceremony at Ft. Sam Houston National Cemetery and we have been sponsoring and presenting that ceremony every year. Last year was the 33rd year that we conducted this patriotic ceremony that Henry started so many years ago.

At the January meeting, we honored Henry for his efforts in making our chapter what it has become today, an active, vibrant history group. At the meeting, Henry was presented with a certificate as an Honorary Granadero, one of only five currently in our chapter and it was long overdue.

Thank you, Henry, for everything you have done throughout the years for the Granaderos y Damas de Gálvez San Antonio Chapter. You are a founding chapter treasure.

Source: Order of Granaderos y Damas de Gálvez
Submitted by Joe Perez
Granaderos Newsletter February 2018



 

A 500 años de la primera circunnavegación
 del planeta de Magallanes-Elcano

Derrotero de la primera vuelta al mundo realizada por la expedición de Magallanes-El Cano. 
Mapa de elaboración propia
 ©José Antonio Crespo-Francés 

“Estamos a las puertas de la Conmemoración 
del V Centenario de la expedición Magallanes-El Cano”

Ayer tarde día 18 de enero hice una sencilla exposición bajo el patrocinio de la Asociación de Amigos de los Grandes Navegantes y Exploradores Españoles con el objetivo de resaltar la presencia y herencia española a lo largo de la Historia en Norteamérica y no solamente en su parte continental sino también en lugares del Pacífico en los que España intervino en su descubrimiento como Hawaii y sobre todo en la perla del Pacífico, la española Guaján (actualmente Guam) pieza fundamental en la navegación de la nao de la China o galeón de Manila.

Estos eventos deben servir para hermanarnos y estrechar lazos con nuestros hermanos en la exploración pero como dice el refrán castellano: “amigos pero el borrico en la linde”, y con ello quiero referirme a que cada cosa debe quedar en su sitio y por supuesto que las conmemoraciones deben servirnos para nuestra mejor proyección dentro de una clara visión de futuro y perspectiva de conjunto en hermandad y amistad con nuestros hermanos y vecinos. Y estamos a las puertas de la Conmemoración del V Centernario de la expedición Magallanes-El Cano.

Una honra inmerecida que acepto de corazón.“Dicho esto sorprende la lentitud de las autoridades responsables españolas con acometer actividades de cara a la importante celebración a diferencia de Portugal que ya tiene una comisión de ciudades y universidades magallánicas”

Dicho esto sorprende la lentitud de las autoridades responsables españolas con acometer actividades de cara a la importante celebración a diferencia de Portugal que ya tiene una comisión de ciudades y universidades “magallánicas”, comisión en la que no sé si habrá autoridades e historiadores españoles, lo cual me lleva al lamento de sospechar que España va a remolque en este asunto de tan grande importancia, al margen de loables iniciativas privadas como la de AGNYEE de rendir homenaje a aquellos bravos navegantes a bordo de un velero que intentará seguir aquella impresionante ruta.

La vuelta al mundo de Fernando de Magallanes y Juan Sebastián El Cano. Mapa de elaboración propia
 ©José Antonio Crespo-Francés

HERITAGE PROJECTS

~THE DREAM ~ A  REMEMBRANCE ~

    I have been graced with custodianship of a noble and honored survivor of this period...a remnant of the original Spanish horse. This fundamental priceless thread of our cultural past still exists and has enriched my life in ways I feel compelled to share.  With time these Spanish horses have led me to view history from an exceptional place from the heart, spirit, and soul of our World. They arrived with the peoples of an unequaled period of history and this glimpse of a golden moment of colonial western history still remains with their presence.

      Since being given the responsibility of their precious lives, these horses have gifted me with an awareness of who they are and where they are from and empowered me with a desire to become more knowledgeable about my own heritage. That is why I am giving back to them by trying to conserve the quickly fading segments of their history, re-create their distinguished past and tell of the stories of the peoples they served and the lives they changed by founding the Heritage Discovery Center, Inc. (HDC), a 501(c) 3, non-profit since 1992.

Through the years I have found that this is a task that I cannot achieve alone. Until now the project has been limited to our site at Rancho Del Sueño, the equine division of the HDC. However, through time and dedication, we now have the opportunity for ‘Living History Museums’ in two historical locations in California. Lompoc/La Purisima Mission in Santa Barbara for our early Colonial Center and Pacheco Pass near Monterey for our Californios Ranching Center. 

Information on Our Opportunities

La Purisima Mission and State Park 

In beautiful historic Santa Barbara County, Purisima Mission State Historic Park represents our exploration, colonization and mission period of California. It was the eleventh mission of the twenty-one Spanish Missions established in what became California. Franciscan Padre Presidente Fermin Francisco Lasuen founded Mission La Purisima Concepcion de Maria Santisima on December 8, 1787. It also aids in representing the influential Chumash culture, whose home was the Central Coast. 

This impressive interpretive center would be a significant advantage to be associated with their “mission” experience in conjunction with the HDC it would create a complete re-visitation of a time long ago.

Pacheco State Park is the last remaining portion of the Mexican land grant, El Rancho San Luis Gonzaga. Francisco Pacheco and his son Juan were granted the property and built the first house in Merced County on this land in 1843. At the time of Francisco Pacheco’s passing he was the richest ranchero of Monterey County and his land grants included more acreage than any other individual in the state. The land remained in the Pacheco family through five generations until Paula Fatjo, the great-great granddaughter of Francisco Pacheco, donated the land in 1992 to be a park for future generations who share her love of animals, horse back riding, history, and unspoiled land. This land has been a horse and a cattle ranch since 1843. Because of the spirit behind her donation, I believe that this would be a perfect partnership with our Ranchero Period Center to ensure that her intentions for this property would be fulfilled. 

What you can do to get involved.

Now that you’re on our website, you have already taken a step in the right direction. There are many things from here that you can do. You can start by becoming a member. There are two different types of membership, donor and sponsor. As a donor member you will be supporting the development of the HDC, ‘Living History Museum’ Projects and of course, our horses. Upon donation to any of these categories you will receive a letter with explanations of what your donation has done for the HDC. 

As a sponsor member you will be able to view a list of pictures and descriptions of all of our horses and choose from a vast selection of foals, juveniles, mares, stallions and our select performance horses to sponsor. Upon sponsorship you will receive a certificate, photo and a monthly update on your sponsored horse as long as your sponsorship is sustained. All donations are tax-deductible. 

It is with my deepest gratitude that I acknowledge the time you have taken to even, just for this moment, share my dream and the dreams of these horses along with the many lives they have enhanced. As you read these words, I invite you to join us and live the dream …

 
Libre

Central Valley Business, hosted by Steve Walling  
Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBdYDWWM7wo 
https://www.facebook.com/heritagediscoverycenter  

THE VISION

Rancho del Sueño leads in the development of a 
Heritage Discovery Center 
in California

HDC Letter of Intent – Land Use – Purpose

The Heritage Discovery Center would serve as an unparalleled awareness and educational experience.

Nowhere else in the United States is there as comprehensive interpretative presentation of our Western exploration, colonization period.  

The benefits of this endeavor are extensively multi-layered.  Not only is it a unique visitor experience but also it will compliment education at all levels.  HDC would provide an experiential living classroom that would inform and involve students/people of any interests or endeavors in six distinctly different cultural lifestyles. These presentations/reenactments of our (Hispanic) colonial period would include, Native American, Maritime, Military, Mission , Agriculture and Ranching.  

These unique Areas would present/interpret the similarities and differences in lifestyle:

 Foods: acquired, gathered, hunted, raised-bartered, stored, prepared, cookware, shared,  ceremonial-medicinal
 Clothing 
 Customs/Ceremonies: weddings, change to adulthood, seasonal, religious

       Languages/Storytelling 
       Religions
       Architecture

       Tools/building materials
       Arts/Humanities
       Music/Instruments
       Dance

HDC will provide natural living classrooms to assist in developing aware and informed stewards of our unique and diverse cultures and natural resources.  

This location is surrounded by opportunities for extended visitation of the still active lifestyles created by our western Colonial period. Central California hosts Native American, Mission/Presidio, Agricultural, Ranching, and Maritime visitor experiences throughout the county. The locations/directions for these other visitor opportunities will be encouraged and presented in the HDC Visitor Center .

The benefits to the Heritage Discovery Center developing a ‘ Living History Museum ’ on this site Are the following:

Compatibility with the County’s Environmental preservation and good stewardship role  

Compatibility with the State Parks goals, missions, purpose and role  

Partnership with Pacheco State Park to provide the public with a more comprehensive and extended visitation, compatible with the values, natural presentations-without un-natural lighting and sounds.  

Development of a wiser, more informed and involved public about our State’s natural Resources  

Development of a better-educated public about the wealth of our cultural diversity and lifestyles  

Conservation of Hispanic and Native American histories.

Conservation of Wildlife and Habitat  

Preservation/Presentation of Period Animals brought here by the Spanish (horses, cattle, asses,

goats, sheep and fowl)  

Preservation/Conservation of early Hispanic/Western /American culture, collections, language, histories, genealogy, archeology, and natural resources  

Presentation and Conservation of California’s diverse LEGACY

 PART II  

The Heritage Discovery Center will assume the responsibility to carry on the proud heritage of Stewardship to preserve, protect and balance our Natural Resources.  

This Stewardship is our pathway to clarity of purpose, wisdom, and sound decisions to preserve the legacy of California .  

HDC will help inform and support environmental efforts toward good stewardship and preservation.  

HDC will provide for the inspiration and education of the people of California by helping them to appreciate, preserve the State’s extraordinary natural biological diversity and protect and interpret our colonial cultural resources.  

HDC would serve as a host to some of the most significant historic, cultural, and archeological sites, artifacts, and structures (relocated), in California .  Preserving and presenting these priceless cultural assets is one of our most important goals.  

Education and interpretation is another essential goal to assist the public to foster/gain an appreciation and insight into California ’s natural and cultural riches.  

HDC will strive to go beyond the role of caretaker of the land and past histories, but serve as a vital experience that will inform and educate, teaching lifestyles and cultural customs...preserving the vanishing remnants of our State’s heritage.  

As a ‘ Living History Museum ’ it is inherent that the public will experience an outdoor recreational/educational opportunity.  

This experience will help develop awareness, respect of both the natural and cultural environments and to the definition of the Colonial California identity and California ’s valuable natural resources.  

This experience will be made visitor friendly to the physically or mentally challenged.  All who seek to have an experience at HDC will have the opportunity to do so, regardless of their economic means or physical abilities.  HDC is committed to ensuring a safe environment and accident free visitor experience.  

We believe that HDC shares the goals of State, public, private, and non-profit organizations.  HDC will work to develop a good report and working relationship/partnership with nearby neighbors, communities, the Department of Parks, organizations, governmental partners, associations and foundations, user groups, and environmental organizations.  

Peoples from all parts of the world, of all ages and interests, of all means and nationality will feel connected to the natural and cultural resources presented by the HDC.  

Our programs will not be limited to the center’s borders, but rather will hope to encourage its visitors to go beyond their experience at HDC and become fully engaged and empowered in the surrounding communities and other places where California's history comes alive.

The HDC will protect and perpetuate the State’s magnificent natural bounty and beauty.  HDC will offer an experience that will connect the past, present and future.  HDC will interpret lifestyles and events that made up California ’s rich cultural heritage in the ‘spirit’ of an outdoor setting that foster continuing pride and interest in our legacy and promise of our Golden State .

CONCLUSION  

HDC will demonstrate our heritage, nature, and culture and help peoples develop their visions, values and missions...  

The power of the past helps us meet the challenges of the future and create a commitment to be greater and preserve our destiny...  

To provide a unique experience for the diverse people who live in and visit our State  
* Create better decision-making  
* Maintain/Restore California ’s colonial Legacy  
* Empower us for the challenge of tomorrow  
* Implement stewardship to manage natural resources and history

HDC will employ/include:  
Management   |    Staff   |   Docents   |   Volunteers   |  Artists/cultural crafts   |  Musicians  
Indigenous peoples of California ’s heritage to re-enact lifestyles and present arts and customs  
Students from any/all educational institutions to learn cultural lifestyles and serve as presenters in our re-enactment of culture/arts/humanities/dance/music/historic characters  

The HDC is based on an educational philosophy that places at least as much emphasis on experience as it does on knowledge, that seeks to empower, engage and to responsibly teach.  Thus making our colonial history more accessible by providing educational experiences not available through other institutions.  HDC will present these subjects and themes in a diverse way to a broad audience, thus developing tolerance of our cultural differences and enriching the lives of generations to come. Musano and Robin Lea Collins

Themes:

Historic Themes:  

Pacheco Pass – The history of Pacheco Pass is the history of California . For the last 10,000 years the pass has served as the major transportation artery between California ’s Central Valley and the south valley.  

Once known as San Luis Gonzaga, named after a nearby creek by explorer Gabriel Moraga, is now one of the few easy passages between the coast and the great Central Valley .  

It was once a part of the Butterfield Overland Mail stagecoach route.  

Salt that was gathered from the shores of Soap Lake (between Gilroy and Casa de Fruta) was sold to the military. The salt was used as an ingredient to make soap (hence the name).  

It is also home to Casa De Fruta, the Bell Station, the San Luis Reservoir, and a wind farm.  

Francisco Pacheco – Arrival in 1819 – A gun-carriage maker and skilled artisan to Ranchero, cattle/land barren.

Ranches – 1833, Rancho Ausaymus y San Felipe (8,870 acres); 1836 additional 8,870 acres; from

35,504 acres to at the end of 1830’s a total of 42,299 acres. In 1844 additional 26,660 acres of Rancho Orestimba increased Pacheco family holdings to over 150,000acres. At the time of his passing he was the richest ranchero of Monterey County and his land grants included more acreage than any other individual in the state. The land remained in the Pacheco family through five generations.  

Pacheco Family – all members and their holdings  

Paula Fatjo – The last member of the Pacheco family to hold the land until donating it in 1992 to be a park for future generations who share her love of animals, horse back riding, history and unspoiled land. As an avid horseperson she also wished that the ranch would preserve the history of the horses that helped to make the family ranch a rich part of our western heritage/history. This land has been a horse and cattle ranch since 1843 and because of the spirit behind her donation, I believe that this would be a perfect partnership with our Ranchero Period Center , to ensure that her intentions for this property would be fulfilled.    

Supporting Themes:  

Adobe – Pacheco built his adobe at the trail head, so he would always know what was going on.  

In 1843, Governor Manuel Michel-torena proposed that a stockade be built on Pacheco Pass. This was not erected, however, because the Pacheco’s constructed a resilient adobe, with gun ports, which became the guardian of the east entrance of the pass.  

Ranching- Francisco Pacheco developed his brand ‘Y’ to represent the North, the South and the Coast. All of where his property laid.  

Cattle - Upon their arrival, the Spanish cattle found an environment initially free of devastating diseases and parasites, and the cattle rapidly increased in numbers. These cattle formed an essential part of the extensive livestock production systems that were so characteristic of these colonies. They were generally left free to fend for themselves, with the excess being gathered as needed  

Sheep – In 1864, the San Luis de Gonzaga Ranch suffered greatly from the drought, the cattle could not survive, so they became dependent on the sheep that were hardy enough to withstand the cruel weather.  

Land Grants – Rancho de San Luis Gonzaga

HISTORICAL TIDBITS

Maria Coronel becomes "the Woman in Blue"
Hay que acabar con la leyenda negra que pesa sobre la conquista español

February 2nd, 1620 -- María Coronel becomes "the Woman in Blue"

HONORING HISPANIC LEADERSHIP

Romana Acosta Bañuelos: First Latina treasurer paved path by Alejandra Reyes-Velarde

First Latina treasurer paved path

By Alejandra Reyes-Velarde

L.A. Times, January 23, 2018

Romana Acosta Bañuelos sat quietly at a White House budget meeting in 1971 and listened intently to the economists discussing numbers of a size she couldn’t have even dreamed of when she was young.

When a man asked for a math calculation, Acosta Bañuelos piped up with the answer, but none of the men in the room even glanced in her direction, said Ramona Bañuelos, recalling the story her mother told her.

“Mrs. Acosta Bañuelos is right,” an economist said moments later, after punching the numbers into his calculator.

Treasury Secretary John Connally asked her after the meeting how she figured out so quickly what it took an economist with a machine to calculate. “In Mexico, we learned to do numbers in our head,” she replied. She had attended school only up to sixth grade.

It was that self-sufficient, entrepreneurial mentality Acosta Bañuelos learned as a young girl in rural Mexico that led President Nixon to appoint her as U.S. treasurer in 1971, the first Latina to hold that position and the highest-ranking Mexican American appointee in the Nixon administration.

In a career that stretched from a small Arizona town to the heights of the business world as head of a multimillion-dollar Mexican food company and a founder of the first bank for Mexican Americans in California, Acosta Bañuelos helped open doors

that Latinos in the U.S. often found closed to them.

She died of pneumonia in Redondo Beach on Jan. 15, surrounded by family. She was 92 and had been suffering from dementia.

Acosta Bañuelos was born in the small mining town of Miami, Ariz., in 1925 to immigrant parents, but was one of thousands who left the country during the Great Depression when the government ordered the mass repatriation of Mexicans and Mexican Americans. She was 7 when she moved to her parents’ native Sonora, Mexico. At 15, she married and by 18, she had two sons.

She later divorced and moved to Los Angeles, where she worked as a waitress and met her second husband. She taught herself English by reading comic books, and with $500 in savings she invested in a tortilla business.

Eventually, she bought out her business partners and the business grew as people requested items such as tamales and Ramona’s signature frozen burritos.

When a group of businessmen seeking to establish a bank approached her husband, he directed them to his wife.

“You don’t know my wife,” he would tell the hesitant men, Bañuelos said. “Once you meet her, you will forget I ever existed.”

Acosta Bañuelos steered the Pan American Bank through discrimination from officials, who would tell the board that they didn’t understand why “peons” would want to start a bank, Bañuelos said. Acosta Bañuelos always stood her ground.

The bank taught many Mexican Americans who didn’t trust financial institutions how to use banks, take out loans and make deposits, which eventually helped the community buy homes, start businesses and spur economic growth, said Herman Sillas, Acosta Bañuelos’ attorney and friend.

When the Nixon administration was seeking a Mexican American woman to work for the White House, officials were impressed by Acosta Bañuelos’ accomplishments and asked her to submit her name as a U.S. treasurer nominee.

“She was extremely nervous,” her daughter said. “She told my father ‘Alejandro, que voy a hacer? I don’t know what a treasurer does.’ ”

He told her to do it anyway, because it wasn’t likely she would get the job and it would be an honor just to be considered, Bañuelos said.

She got the nomination, but it was not without controversy. Immigration officials raided Ramona’s and found workers in the U.S. illegally, leaving her nomination in doubt.

The company’s union withdrew from the company and persuaded workers to go on strike, protesting the exploitation of immigrants. Civil rights activist Cesar Chavez testified against Acosta Bañuelos at the nomination hearing.

The Senate committee ruled that Acosta Bañuelos had no knowledge of the workers and that she had been unfairly targeted in order to embarrass the Nixon administration, clearing the way for her to become U.S. treasurer.

In office, she found the department too shortstaffed and ill-equipped to handle a backlog of work. She personally went through a batch of applications and discovered many applications from minorities were pushed to the bottom of the stack, Bañuelos said.

Her assistants complained to Connally about her work style, but he responded by saying: “By God, you mean to tell me she’s actually working?” Bañuelos said.

Washington, she said, had rarely seen a treasurer roll up one’s sleeves and do this brand of work.

Three years later, after the Treasury Department was downsized and restructured, Acosta Bañuelos resigned.

“There was nothing for me to do,” she told the Associated Press. So she returned to Ramona’s Mexican Food Products.

A photograph of Acosta Bañuelos and Nixon hangs in a conference room at Ramona’s, and the family still has frames of the first printouts of dollar bills with her signature. But besides the memorabilia, she was humble and didn’t gloat about her accomplishments. The company she founded was sold in May to her grandson and other partners and earns about $13 million annually, said Edward Medina, chief executive of Ramona’s Food Group.

“When you realize there’s this young girl who rises from a little business and winds up going to Washington ... that’s a pretty good step,” Sillas said. “She was a great example for her generation.”

Acosta Bañuelos is survived by her daughter, son and 12 grandchildren.

https://www.pressreader.com/usa/los-angeles-times/20180123/281749859777031 
Sent by Sister Mary Sevilla, CSJ  
msevilla@mac.com 

 Cebu, Phillipines, WW II

AMERICAN PATRIOTS

Remember the heroic acts of four Army chaplains on February 4, 1943

The American Legion:  Feb. 3 will mark the 75th anniversary of the sinking of the United States Army Transport Dorchester and the selfless acts of four Army chaplains who were aboard. American Legion posts nationwide are encouraged to commemorate the anniversary each February and honor Four Chaplains Day.

The Dorchester tragically sunk on Feb. 3, 1943, while crossing the North Atlantic, transporting troops to an American base in Greenland. A German U-boat fired a torpedo that struck the Dorchester, killing 672 of the 902 officers and enlisted men, merchant seamen and civilian workers aboard. 

Many of those survivors owe their lives to the courage and leadership exhibited by four chaplains of different faiths, who, in sacrificing their lives, created a unique legacy of brotherhood. 

As soldiers rushed to lifeboats, Reverend George Fox (Methodist), Jewish Rabbi Alexander Goode, Reverend Clark Poling (Dutch Reformed) and Father John Washington (Roman Catholic) comforted the wounded and directed others to safety. One survivor watched the chaplains distribute life jackets, and when they ran out, they removed theirs and gave them to four young men.

As the Dorchester sank, the chaplains were seen linked arm in arm, praying.

Fox, Goode, Poling and Washington were posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and the Purple Heart. And in 1948, Congress declared Feb. 3 to be Four Chaplains Day.

American Legion posts nationwide remember Four Chaplains Day with memorial services that pay tribute to the courageous chaplains and the brave young men who lost their lives on that fateful night. This year, Four Chaplains Sunday is Feb. 4.

Posts interested in conducting a Four Chaplains memorial service can learn how to through the Legion’s Chaplain’s Manual here. The manual provides biographies of the four chaplains, music ideas, a suggested format for the service and more.

American Legion Family members are encouraged to share how they honored Four Chaplains Day on 
www.legiontown.org . 

Learn more:  Visit the Four Chaplains Memorial Foundation at www.fourchaplains.org

Veterans group honors Pico Rivera student who recorded teacher's anti-military rant.
By: Amy Powell  San Pedro, Los Angeles (KABC)

American Legion Post 61 honored Quinonez for making the recording. The ceremony was held on the battleship Iowa, which served during World War II, Korea and the Cold War, and is now a military museum.

"I can say myself, the post - we're damn proud of him," said David Demos, first vice commander of the legion post. "And I think every military person would be."

Quinonez said he was gratified for the recognition.  "As a kid I've always seen them as my heroes," he said. "Now they're telling me I'm their hero. It makes me feel really honored."

Quinonez has also been invited to Washington D.C. to visit the White House and the Pentagon. He hopes to join the Marines after graduating.

http://abc7.com/society/veterans-honor-pico-rivera-student-who-recorded-anti-military-rant/3065240/

24 Medals of Honor, March 18, 2018
Eddie Morin 
eddie_morin@sbcglobal.net 

As pleasing as it is to see some Latino heroes finally receiving the recognition they deserve, it is sad that most of the veterans cited will receive a posthumous award. Time has not dealt fairly with our heroes nor has the recognition been complete and so I have mixed feelings about this belated ceremony that has what has to be considered some glaring omissions.  I would like to explain some simple facts.

            Several notable leaders in the Latino community have been attempting for years to gain recognition of some impressive narratives that describe our hero veterans. These individuals include: Pete Limon, Placido Salazar , Alfred Lugo, the late John Lopez and myself, Eddie Morin. We have sought help and publicity from the politicians and the public sector with little to show for it. Even though it is gratifying to see the list of heroes honored that are being honored we have to ask: "Why are there so many omissions?"

            During WWII, Guy Gabaldon single handedly captured over 1,500 enemy soldiers who were indoctrinated to kill as many Americans as the could before laying down their lives for the emperor, There can be no doubt that a great many lives were saved by Guy Gabaldon and yet no Medal of Honor was ever awarded him even though he truly deserves one. And so it goes, as anyone who has examined the facts can tell you.

            Im a combat mission in Fallujah, Iraq Marine sergeant Rafael Peralta led his men on an assault of enemy positions. When a grenade was tossed his way he selflessly threw his body over it to absorb the blast. This devotion to his men has been negated by the reviewers who have over-ridden the eyewitness testimony of the others who were there and insist that he was probably fatally wounded and must have just fallen in that direction. He was a hero and should be acknowledge as one!

            Here is a list of other veterans that should have been considered: 

VIETNAM:  Ramon Rodriguez, Isaac Camacho, Manuel F. Martinez Jr., Fred Ogas, 
KOREA: Ray B. Gonzales
WWII: Guy Gabaldon, Rumaldo Medina, Rufino Gallegos,  Miguel Encinas. and Gabriel Navarette.

            I'm certain that there are more and I realize that not every case can be closely scrutinized and yet I believe a lot more credibility can be had by better examination of eyewitness accounts.

            Consider that during the War with Mexico, the Civil War and the Indian Wars the Congressional Medal of Honor was common and not really elevated until later. Today it stands as a testament to the highest valor above and beyond the call of duty. It should never be regarded lightly but then never should our heroes.  

EARLY LATINO AMERICAN PATRIOTS

“EL QUE TENGA VALOR QUE ME SIGA”  Bernardo de Galvez
                                           He who has courage will follow me                                             

 FREE LECTURE:  Saturday, March 17, 2018
SPANISH PATRIOTS DURING THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

by 
Letty Rodella, President, Society of Hispanic Historical Ancestral Research (SHHAR), Orange County
Invitation by Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI), for the mature 50+yrs adult 

Registration REQUIRED: 
310-243-3741 Must be 50+ years to register*
Open to the Public (OTTP), 
OLLI membership not required
Non-OLLI member Course #23828
*OLLI online catalog (see page 23)

*Website: www.csudh.edu/olli
Parking fee: $8.00 
Lot 3 is closest to EE-1213; map in catalog

OLLI is a non-credit educational program offered at colleges and universities for the mature adult, 50+years.   Additional info: https://www.osherfoundation.org/index.php?olli 

“Spanish Patriots during the American Revolution” is the topic of a presentation by Letty Peña Rodella.  She presents a brief background history of the involvement and the contributions by the Spanish Government and the Spanish Patriots to the Continental Congress and to George Washington’s Army during the American Revolution.  The contributions named include both monetary and military support.  She will speak of the Spanish military battles fought on land and sea against the British during the period from 1779-1783.  

Letty will name notable Spaniards who played important roles in assisting the Colonist in our fight for independence.  Among the notable patriots are the thousands of Spanish soldiers that lived in the presidios (forts) along the borderland states from Florida to California.   Today, many descendants of these Spanish Soldiers and Sailors have researched and found out that their ancestors participated in or supported our American Revolution. 

Letty’s love of genealogy started 18 years ago.  She has traced her ancestry to the early 1500s, among those pioneers who settled in what is now West Texas and New Mexico. 

Daughters of the Revolution 
Hear talk on Don Bernardo de Galvez by Connie Vasquez in El Paso, Texas 
and are Moved to Action

January 19, 2018 The Daughters of the Revolution were given a talk on Don Bernardo de Galvez by Connie Vasquez in El Paso, Texas

Thanks to that talk the chapter decided to purchase books to donate to different schools and libraries in order to disseminate the wonderful achievements that this great Spanish Patriots contributed to our founding fathers during the war of Independence.

It was back in 2003 that Connie attended the induction of Maria Galvez a descendent of Don Bernardo in Long Beach, California into the DAR. At that time,  Connie as an International Cultural Liaison working for the US Department of State was escorting  a Magistrate from Barcelona to the celebration of Bernardo de Galvez. The celebration was reported by Somos primos back in 2003.

It is very important to remain alert and interested in presentations that might be life changing or that might enlighten us about our heritage.  For me this was a very important event. Why? Because as an American of Hispanic Roots I did not know that we had a cultural ancestor that for all practical purposes was the first tri-national patriot that gives all of us a wonderful example of respect and admiration by a non-American to the work that our founding fathers were engaging in in trying to achieve independence.

Don Bernardo de Galvez was a very successful and accomplished Spaniard commanding armies and representing the Spanish crown yet he was able to evaluate what Gen Washington was trying to accomplish and did not spare resources, contacts and even endangered his life in order to help him accomplish independence.

In this times when our people are being questioned about their allegiance to the USA, General Galvez gave us a powerful example of what good neighbors and friends can do for one another.  He managed to fundraise enormous amounts of donations of Gold, arms, cattle, uniforms and put together an army of people from the Spanish colonies, Louisiana, freed slaves, indigenous people, Cajuns and people from the canary Islands into an army that did not permit the British to advance and kept the Americans fed and armed,

On the first celebration of the 4^th of July it was Galvez who was at the right side of Gen Washington celebrating Independence.  For all his efforts his portraits now hangs in the Congress and he has been the 8^th non American to be given honorary American citizenship in 2014.

It is really uplifting to have such a hero and Gen Galvez is now honored not only by the US Government but by the Governments  of Mexico and Spain.

As for me, I am enticed to continue enlightening our Hispanic youth of the deeds of this tri-national hero.  Gen Bernardo de Galvez.

Spanish SURNAMES

Acuna       Aguayo       Alba       Alaniz       Amador       Andrade

ACUNA
This surname traces back to the Spanish provinces of Galicia and Leon. Family histories have been recorded in Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Mexico and Peru.

California records show that Maria Josefa de Acuna and her husband, Jose Antonio Garcia, were among the first settlers of San Francisco. The couple was originally from Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico.

In 1820, Gertrudis Acuna was living with her husband, military rifleman Jose Tirado, in Tucson, Arizona-then part of Spain. The couple raised a son and three daughters. Other Tucson residents included: Josefa Acuna, wife of Juan Castillo, and Luis and Crisostomo Acuna.

In 1831, Juan, Josefa and Maxima Acuna and Maxima's son, Fernando Otero, were all living in Tucson. Juan Leon and his wife, Francisca Acuna, were also living there with Juan's son, Solano.

AGUAYO

This surname can be traced to the 13th-century Aguayo family of Molledo in the Santander Mountains of Spain.

Bernardo de Aguayo, a native of Puente de Don Gonzalo, Spain, presented his genealogy to the Inquisition in 1649. Two Madrid natives, Juan Raimundo de Aguayo y Valdes and Luis de Aguayo y Valdes filed their family records with the tribunal in 1652 and 1658, respectively.

In 1796, Miguel Aguayo was an ayudante mayor, or adjunct major, with the Campeche militias. Three years later, Capt. Jose Aguayo was with the infantry in Merida, Yucatán.

A man identified as W. Aguayo, 31, arrived in New Orleans from Havana, Cuba, in January 1850. This surname is also mentioned in California mission records. Aguayo is the 603rd most common Spanish surname in the U.S. today.

ALBA (ALVA)

This surname, meaning "dawn," has existed for centuries in the Spanish provinces of Cataluña, Vizcaya, Castilla, Andalucia and  Extremadura. There are a number of villages bearing the name in these areas.

  Some historians claim Alba originated in Germany and was brought to Spain by Mos én Pedro Albaney
(or Alabanés). He fought the Moors in Cataluña and assisted in recapturing the city of Villafranca del Panadés.

Several generations later, his descendants began using the surname Alba. One branch of this family settled in Cascante in Navarra and another went to Vitoria.

Others claim that the surname originated in Alba de Quiros during the 12^th-century reign of King Alfonso VII. Still others claim that the surname began in Castilla la Vieja.

Family histories have been written in Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Mexico.

In June 1797 at the San Gabriel mission in California, Onofre Villa Alba was married to Mar ía Francisca Osuna. Onofre, a native of Valencia, Spain, was a soldier in the Cataluña volunteer battalion.

In 1784 Pensacola, Florida, Pedro de Alba y Velez, 22, was a member of the household of the Rev. Pedro de Vélez Malaga. Pedro was in charge of admissions of the Royal Hospital in Pensacola in 1791.

ALANIZ

Genealogists are not sure about the origins of the surname Alaniz (Alanis), but a branch of the family has been traced to the Spanish province of Leon.

Alaniz is the 281st most common Spanish surname of 4,500 studied in the U.S. Most Alaniz families in the U.S. have roots in Mexico; others trace their ancestry to Puerto Rico, Cuba and the Dominican Republic.

 Family histories have been identified in California. In 1790, José Maximo Alaniz, 32, was a soldier stationed in San Diego. He and his wife, Juana María Miranda, raised six children: Maria Juliana Tomasa, Eugenio Nicolas, Antonio, Maria Dolores Dorotea, María Paula Josefa, and Isidro. In 1819, he was living in Los Angeles; he owned the San José de Buenos Aires ranch from 1840 to 1843.

José and his second wife, María Juana Inocencia Reyes, also had six children: Maria Concepcion, Marcos, María Nicolasa Tolentina Susana, María Josefa, José and Felipa. He died in Los Angeles in 1851.

Other Alanises included Mariano, who lived in Los Angeles from 1800-1839; Nicolas, who settled there in 1807; and Marcos, who lived there in 1846 and may have been Nicolas' son.

AMADOR (AMADO)

The name derives from the Castillian surname Amado, Spanish for “lover” or “beloved.”

According to some genealogist, Amador’s ancient roots can be traced to Son Alvaro Amador, a Goth nicknamed “el Amado” who lived prior to the 11^th century. His descendants settled near Huesca, Spain. Today, the name is found in Aragon, Valencia, Leon and the Canary Islands.

The Amado version is found in Colombia, while Amador is found in Mexico. Domingo and Juan Amador were residents of Antioquia, Colombia, during the colonial period. Juan de Dios Amador was governor of Cartagena, Colombia, in 1815. Today, some of his descendants can be found in that region. In 1816, Columbian patriot Martin Amador was shot as a traitor to Spain.

Based on a 1987 survey, Amador spread to the U.S. from the Caribbean and Mexico and can be found predominantly in South Florida, South Texas and, to a lesser extent in California and Arizona.

Sgt. Pedro Amador served in a 1769 Mexican expedition to California. He died in 1824. His son, Jose Maria Amador, was born in San Francisco in 1794 and died in Gilroy, California, in 1833.

In 1793, Don Vicente Amador- a 55-year-old farmer and native of Celaya, Spain – was living in San Fernando de Austria near San Antonio. According to one account, he arrived in San Antonio from Spain in 1756 and in 1793 was caretaker of the Valero Mission land grants. Married to Manuela Banul, he sired six children and left many descendants.

ANDRADE

Some contend the surname Andrade (or Andrade) was introduced to Spain through an Italian mercenary who went to La Coruna province to fight the Moors. The family seat is now located in La Coruna. Some family lines can be traced back to 1150.

Andrades have also been found in Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador and Peru.

In Colonial California, 26-year-old Jose Andrade, a native of San Luis Potosi, Mexico, was living at the Santa Barbara mission in 1834. He may have been the same Jose Andrade who was granted land at San Francisco in 1846.

In 1831, Francisco Andrade was a soldier living at the fort or presidio in Tucson, Arizona territory. Farther south, Manuel Andrade and his wife, Mariana Pamplón, were living at the Tubac mission.

In 1793, Serafina Andrade, a widow, was living at the San Francisco de la Espada mission in Texas. In 1795, 40-year-old Jose Andrade and his wife, Encarnación Padrona, 20, were living at San Juan Capistrano

In the mid-19^th century two Spaniards from the Caribbean settled in New Orleans, Louisiana. They were William Andrade, who arrived from Havana, Cuba, in June of 1841, and F. Andrade, 30, who arrived in January 1842 from Jamaica.

DNA

Eva Longoria’s Surprising DNA Test  
How DNA Testing Blotched My Family's Heritage, and Probably Yours, Too
Ancient Human Genomes DNA Research 

Eva Longoria’s Surprising DNA Test

By: Sabrina Rojas Weiss

Many Americans are used to describing their heritage in terms of fractions — half this, a quarter that, an eighth of the other.

But if you asked actress and producer Eva Longoria about her identity, she’d say “Texican,” to describe her Mexican-American family from Corpus Christi, Texas.  

                   Was Dad Right All Along?  

When she took a DNA test for the PBS program Faces of America with Henry Louis Gates Jr., the results showed her a much more complex story.

Good-Bye Spain, Hello Wild West

Gates was able to help trace the Longoria family back to 16th-century Spain, when a dispute over land inspired Lorenzo Longoria to travel to the New World.

Over 150 years later, in 1767, the king of Spain gave Pedro Longoria 4,000 acres of land in what is now Texas, just north of the Mexican border.

After the Mexican-American War in 1848, her ancestors endured more conflicts over land with Anglo-American ranchers. Such an argument resulted in the stabbing death of her great-great-grandfather Ponciano Longoria in 1913.  

Despite generations of history on this continent, Longoria said her father always calls her family Spanish.

“When I go to Spain, I feel a connection, but I feel more at home in Mexico — maybe just because it’s closer and it’s what I know,” the Desperate Housewives alumna told Gates in an interview excerpted from his Faces of America book in The Huffington Post.

“In my family, I am the one who claims Mexico ancestry the strongest. Every time they ask, ‘Where are you from?’ my dad says, ‘Spain.’

‘Dad, we’re from Corpus Christi.’ We’re not from Spain; we’re from Texas.  He would always talk about our ancestors, and I never really understood that when I was younger.”  

Surprising DNA Test Results

The DNA test revealed that both Longorias were correct. According to Eva’s genetic markers, she is:

·       70 percent European

·       27 percent Native American

·       3 percent African

Regarding her DNA results, Longoria told Gates:

“I thought the percentages would be flipped. I mean, the Spanish conquistadors were the minority when they conquered and eventually overtook the society of Aztecs and Mayans. I guess I thought I would be a little more native, because, like I said, I feel closer to Mexico. But this makes sense.”

Another surprise revealed on that Faces of America episode: Because the Native Americans descended from people who migrated from Asia about 16,000 years ago, Longoria found that she is actually distantly related to Chinese-American cellist Yo-Yo Ma.

Are You Right About Your Ancestry?

Do you know where you come from? Taking an AncestryDNA test could help you find out.

The test will show you a breakdown of your ethnicity across over 150 regions around the world.

And your results could help you find distant relatives through a database of more than 6 million people (and growing) who have also taken the test.

Discover your unique DNA story today.

https://blogs.ancestry.com/cm/eva-longorias-surprising-dna-test/

Extract from:
How DNA Testing Botched My Family's Heritage, and Probably Yours, Too

“They’re not telling you where your DNA comes from in the past. 
They’re telling you where on Earth your DNA is from today.”

In truth, your specific ancestors actually have relatively little impact on your DNA. Some 99.99 percent of your DNA is identical to every other human’s. We’re mostly just all the same. But instead of embracing our genetic similarities, we cling to those differences as symbols of what makes us unique. Consumer DNA testing tends to reinforce that—even though the difference that one test reveals might not even exist in another.

“These companies are asking people to pay for something that is at best trivial and at worst astrology,” said Rutherford. “The biggest lesson we can teach people is that DNA is probabilistic and not deterministic.”

Your DNA is only part of what determines who you are, even if the analysis of it is correct.

Learning he was Syrian did not seem to impact my grandfather’s identity as a Mexican man. And how could it? His life story was the story of so many children of immigrants. His father, Manuel, had swum the Rio Grande from Mexico to America in hopes of a better future. He worked as a waiter, and my great-grandmother as a seamstress. At age 10, my grandfather was sent to work at a Coca-Cola bottling plant to help the family make ends meet. He lost a finger. Eventually, he met my blonde-haired, blue-eyed grandmother and moved to California, hoping to raise their children somewhere it would matter less that one of their parents spoke Spanish as a first language.

In the end, I finally found the same wisdom my grandfather never seemed to question. Sometimes your heritage doesn’t have anything at all to do with your genetics—and I didn’t even have to spit in a test tube to figure it out.

Sent by Dr. Carlos Campos y Escalante

FAMILY HISTORY RESEARCH

Spain: Christianity Arrives During the First Century AD 

Family Search Quietly Starts Releasing Indexed Mexican Civil Registration Collection

This may interest some of you. Family search is starting to release index Mexican civil records:
John P. Schmal

RELIGION

Children Born between 1999-2015 are Most Non-Christian Generation, 
Study Finds by Amanda Casanova
Religion Today, January 24, 2018
ChristianHeadlines.com

Does God use world leaders to accomplish His geopolitical will. 
Extracted Segments from Perspective on the News 
by Pete Garcia on Monday, January 22, 2018

I believe that God uses world leaders to accomplish His geopolitical will. That is not my opinion, but Scripture confirms this repeatedly. In our current situation, God will continue to use President Trump to accomplish exactly what He needs to done to set the prophetic stage on this accelerated time-line we find ourselves. The list below are leaders who God used to accomplish specific things that advanced God’s prophetic agenda. This is not a list showing Godly men who stood out in history for being righteous or holy.

• Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar: God used him as prophetic punishment on Judah (Jer. 21:7)
• Medo-Persian King Cyrus: God used him to free the enslaved Jews in Babylon (2 Chronicles 36:22-23)
• Persian King Artaxerxes: God used him to allow Jerusalem to be rebuilt (Dan. 9:25, Neh. 2)
• Seleucid King Antiochus IV Epiphanes: created an example of what the abomination of desolation would look like (Dan. 9:27, 11:29-35, Matt. 24:15)
• Roman Prefect Pontius Pilate: God used him so that Christ would be crucified (according to Scripture) (Matt. 27:1-26)
• Roman General Titus: God used him as prophetic judgment on Jerusalem (Luke 21:20-24)
• Roman Emperor Hadrian: God used him to finalize the Diaspora (Deuteronomy 30:3-4)
• British Foreign Secretary Balfour: God used him to set aside the newly freed land of Palestine (as it was known then) from the Ottoman Turks (Ezekiel 36) for the Jews
• German Fuhrer Hitler: God used him and the Holocaust so that the nation of Israel could be reborn (Isaiah 11:11, Amos 9:14-15)
• US President Truman:  God used him to be the first leader to recognize national Israel (Isaiah 66:8)
• US President Nixon: God used him to aid Israel during the Yom Kippur War (Psalm 2:1-3)
• US President Carter: God used him to begin the judgment/trial period (40 years) of “land for peace” (Isaiah 28:15)
• US President Trump: God used him to be the first gentile leader in more than 2,000 years to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s sovereign capital (Luke 21:24)

NEW HARVARD RESEARCH SAYS U.S. CHRISTIANITY IS NOT SHRINKING,
BUT GROWING STRONGER
By Glenn T. Stanton
January 22, 2018

Odell Harwell odell.harwell74@att.net 

EDUCATION

The University That Produces the Most Graduates 
Who Go on to Complete M.D./Ph.D. Programs
Filed in STEM Fields on January 23, 2018

The Meyerhoff Scholars program has produced 1,100 graduates since it began in 1993. Nearly 275 Meyerhoff Scholars have gone on to earn a Ph.D. and 49 have completed M.D./Ph.D. programs. 

Valley Educators Call for Mexican-American Studies

San Diego State Selects New President
 Adela de la Torre
 

Above: Adela de la Torre, ninth president of San Diego State University' Photo Credit: UC Davis


The new president will succeed Elliot Hirshman, who held the position for six years. He left at the end of the last school year to become president of Stevenson College in Maryland.

The California State University Board of Trustees has appointed Adela de la Torre to serve as president of San Diego State University. SDSU released a statement Wednesday morning announcing de la Torre will be the ninth permanent president of SDSU and the first woman to serve in that role.

She currently serves as vice chancellor, student affairs and campus diversity at the University of California, Davis. She will join the campus in late June 2018.

“I am excited to join the vibrant university community that exists both in San Diego and the Imperial Valley, and I look forward to meeting and working with faculty, staff, students, alumni and supporters to further the SDSU mission,” de la Torre said in a statement.

Longtime SDSU executive Sally Roush came out of retirement to take his place in an interim role, making her the 121-year-old university's first woman president.

San Diego-area CSU trustee Adam Day chaired the six-member search committee, which first convened Sept. 25 and included trustees Silas Abrego, Lillian Kimbell, Hugo Morales, Rebecca Eisen and CSU Chancellor Timothy White.

The new president will come aboard at a critical time for the roughly 35,000-student university, which is bursting at the seams of its nearly 290- acre campus.

A proposal known as SDSU West is being pushed by university supporters, who recently submitted more than 106,000 petition signatures in hopes of getting the concept on the ballot, likely in November. They're hoping the recent success of an SDSU fundraising campaign that raised more than $800 million is a sign of momentum in support of the university's expansion efforts.  Under the proposal, the SDCCU Stadium property would be sold to the university, which would then create a development plan for the land.

The Friends of SDSU group that is leading the SDSU West project commended the university system for the hire.

"President de la Torre will play a critical role in shaping the university's future, including the potential expansion in Mission Valley made possible by the SDSU West initiative," the group said in a statement. "SDSU West creates a path forward for the landlocked university to grow its enrollment capabilities, bolster its academic research power and continue to meet the higher education needs of our region."

School officials last fall outlined their vision for the project, including 1.6 million square feet of classroom and research buildings, a river park and open space, 4,500 housing units, retail shops, a pair of hotels and a multi-use, 35,000-seat stadium for college football and other sports.

SDSU Interim President Roush and JMI Realty CEO John Kratzer said the project would be mostly funded by public-private partnerships and not rely on taxpayer financing. The main exception would be the stadium, which would be funded by bonds to be paid back by future revenues.

M

Fighting Bullying Through Hip Hop
 

Source: http://www.karmatube.org/videos.php?id=6563 

CULTURE

Luz de Naciones, which means “light of the nations,” is an annual musical production celebrating cultures and stories from Latin America and featuring over 1,000 people in the cast, including a youth and young adult choir, musicians, storytellers, and dance groups.

All interested persons are invited to attend this free, non-ticketed event. The production is multilingual and will be easily understood and enjoyed regardless of language.

Children perform during the Luz de las Naciones event December 17, 2016, in the Conference Center.

Dancers perform during the Luz de las Naciones event December 17, 2016, in the Conference Center.

Dancers perform during the Luz de las Naciones event in the Conference Center.

Dancers perform during the Luz de las Naciones event December 17, 2016, in the Conference Center.

Dancers perform during the Luz de las Naciones event December 17, 2016, in the Conference Center.

La Filosofia de Jose Bacedoni Bravo
Pensamientos

Huelva 2017
Texto libre

Cuando hay una education
verbal en el matrimonio
se evitan muchos disgustos.
(Armando De la Torre)

La mujer ideal: dulce en el trato, 
carinosa, y con sentido del humor.

Cuando al Papa Francisco lo
llame el Senor para que este
a su lado, espero que el proximo
Papa sea tambien jesuita,
para que continue con. la
misma. politica pastoral, humanista
y revolucionaria que
el Papa Francisco.

Para set libres necesitamos
normas, leyes, no podemos
hacer lo que nos de la gana,
leyes respetuosas "leyes justas".

El que no sabe lo que quiere
no puede ser feliz.

Dicen algunos, que la felieidad
consiste en tener buena salud
y mala memoria.

Tres palabras fundamentales
para la vida: amor, trabajo
v cultura.

Amar es 
vivir con plenitud.

Editor Mimi:  I plan to publish more of Jose Bacedoni Bravo.  For readers who are not inclined to write a personal history, perhaps sharing thoughts in free verse style, as Mr. Bacedoni Bravo has done, will be a treasure for your children.  

MEDICINE/HEALTH

Rehab Riviera: Industry struggling to get clean,   Part 1
California testing Vermont’s model to fight addiction, Part 2

Rehab Riviera: Industry struggling to get clean

By 
Teri Sforza, Tony Saavedra  Scott Schwebke 
Orange County Register

Extracts by Ashley Wolfe
Published December 29, 2017 | Updated January 1, 2018 

Rapists, child molesters and pedophiles served in positions of trust inside state-licensed addiction treatment centers because, in California, no criminal background checks were required.

Addiction counselors preached abstinence to clients even as they racked up fresh drug and alcohol charges of their own; no system for reporting new offenses existed.

State regulators overseeing the rehab industry often failed to catch life-threatening problems and, when they did, failed to follow up to ensure that dangerous practices ceased.

These blistering critiques of California’s weak regulation of addiction treatment — delivered in a pair of reports from the Senate Office of Oversight and Outcomes more than four years ago — indicted a system that far too often produced deadly results for people at perhaps the most vulnerable point in their lives.

Shortly after the reports were written, the agency overseeing rehabs ceased to exist, its responsibilities transferred to a different department. Hopes ran high that California would modernize its approach to better protect those who need help. Since then, some has changed for the better — but much has changed for the worse:

• As opioid addiction has soared, inexperienced and unscrupulous rehab operators have rushed in to take advantage of mandatory mental health treatment coverage required by the Affordable Care Act.

• California’s notoriously hands-off approach to regulating the industry — still predominantly non-medical even as other states push hard for a more medical approach to care — makes it easy for almost anyone to open a treatment center and bill insurance companies hundreds of thousands of dollars per client.

• California’s easy-enroll health insurance marketplace also has helped cement the state as a go-to destination for addicts seeking to get clean — or cash in — on what has become known as the Rehab Riviera.

• Residential treatment facilities bring chaos to neighborhoods and swell the homeless population with rehab rejects who are kicked to the curb when their insurance runs dry.

• Addicts trying to get clean — and their families — often mistake California’s non-medical rehabs for facilities that provide medical treatment, thanks in part to slick advertising. In non-medical facilities, many are dying for want of proper medical care.

Since the Southern California News Group’s investigation of the Rehab Riviera began last winter, criminal probes of industry players have been confirmed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and several local district attorneys, including those in Orange and Riverside counties. The California Department of Insurance is investigating irregularities as well.

But proposed laws aimed at closing loopholes in the regulatory system — such as forbidding patient-brokering, the buying and selling of well-insured addicts to the centers willing to pay the most for them — have languished or died in the Legislature.

The department charged with regulating the industry has advanced no comprehensive plan to lawmakers to help correct problems that fester in plain sight.

And as lawmakers debate where rehab inspectors should be stationed, the qualifications of drug counselors and how many rehabs should be allowed per block (many are in ordinary tract houses in residential neighborhoods) they don’t address the decidedly non-medical nature of much addiction treatment in California.

“This is a crisis and it’s growing,” said Mike Pearce, whose daughter, Shannon, floated in and out of treatment centers until she was killed Dec. 16 at the Santa Ana apartment she shared with another recovering addict.

“The governor should take the direct lead on this…It’s going to take inspired leadership at the top. And we haven’t had inspired leadership for a long, long time,” Pearce said.

“It just galls me that they don’t care.”

Shannon might still be alive if she had gotten some kind of care from the people she turned to in faith, Pearce said. She seemed to be making progress with one counselor, he said, until that counselor relapsed.

“Something is seriously wrong with how we’re approaching this, and we’re not confronting it,” said Walter Ling, professor of psychiatry and founding director of the Integrated Substance Abuse Programs at UCLA. “There is no leadership. We know it’s not working. We’ve known that for years.”

Buck stops nowhere

While governors in other states — Vermont’s Peter Shumlin, Ohio’s John Kasich, Florida’s Rick Scott — have unveiled aggressive plans to fight drug addiction and reform the treatment industry, Gov. Jerry Brown has largely declined to engage.

When the Southern California News Group summarized its findings for Brown — including the deaths of at least a dozen people in non-medical detox facilities, which are not allowed in several other states because of the extreme health risks posed by withdrawal — the governor’s press secretary, Ali Bay, said, “I don’t expect our office will have additional information for you.”

The department that Brown’s office referred us to for answers, the Department of Health Care Services’ Substance Use Disorder Compliance Division, is headed by Marlies Perez.

This year, Perez’s department is rolling out a system to bring medication-assisted treatment to California’s hard-hit northern reaches. It also has hired more inspectors. But addressing the problems outlined by the Southern California News Group’s probe are not her department’s purview, she said.

“Our authority is around the licensing of the facilities. Patient-brokering is not within our jurisdictional authority. That’s the jurisdiction of the Department of Insurance. And the state department that oversees managed health care, that is not with the Department of Health Care,” she said.

Nor is it her department’s job, as the state’s regulatory experts, to bring reform proposals to lawmakers. “We have the opportunity to weigh in on bills and things brought forward, but the ultimate authority is going to lie with the Legislature and the governor to make those decisions,” Perez said.

Over in the Legislature, several lawmakers are seeking reforms, without much success.

A bill that would forbid patient brokering was introduced by Sen. Steven Bradford, D-Gardena, but stalled in committee over the summer. It has been amended and awaits a new hearing.

Criminal background checks are required for acupuncturists, dental hygienists, optometrists and veterinarians, but substance abuse counselors can work with vulnerable addicts for five years without officials probing their background, noted a bill by Assemblyman Reggie Jones-Sawyer, D-Los Angeles. His bill requiring such screening was overwhelmingly approved by the Assembly, but stalled in the Senate.

A bill by Sen. Tony Mendoza, D-Artesia, seeks to address over-concentration of rehab centers by requiring at least 300 feet between new facilities – a distance critics say should be at least twice that. A hearing is set for that in January.

Sen. Pat Bates, R-Laguna Niguel, sought a study examining whether sober living group homes should be licensed if they provide counseling, manage a resident’s schedule or do urine tests to ensure a drug-free environment. That effort stalled, and her bill has been amended to ask the Department of Health Care Services to figure out how to evaluate neighborhood complaints about over-concentration; determine how many rehab facilities are actually needed in the state; and figure out how to track their outcomes.

Assemblywoman Sharon Quirk-Silva’s bill placing a state complaint investigator directly in Orange County — home to the highest concentration of licensed rehabs in the state — faced stiff opposition. “The system right now isn’t broken,” said Sherry Daley of the California Consortium of Addiction Programs and Professionals at a public hearing. Quirk-Silva’s bill has been amended, but no hearing has been scheduled yet.

“You’re right to feel as if the (issue) isn’t being resolved in a satisfactory way,” said Quirk-Silva, D-Fullerton. “It’s frustrating.”

Part of the problem is that too many people are profiting from the current setup, she added.

“I think there is some pushback from the addiction centers. They don’t want to see these programs closed. They’re still making money.”

Treatment in a non-medical facility can reap $3,410 per day, with monthly bills topping $100,000 for some clients, according to documents filed in court.

A woman from Washington state ran up a $416,050 bill over several months of treatment with San Clemente-based Sovereign Health.

Some critics even suggest the basic model of the rehab industry isn’t focused on wellness.

“There is no money in sobriety,” said Dave Aronberg, state attorney for Palm Beach County, Florida. “There is no incentive to recover in this process. It will cost you your free housing, your free illegal gifts, your friends. And now you have to move back home to live with Mom and Dad and find a job.

“But the insurance benefits will renew, and the cycle will start again if you just test dirty. Because you can’t be denied coverage for a pre-existing condition,” Aronberg added.

“Instead of a recovery model, we have a relapse model.”

Community chaos

Much addiction treatment in California happens in 6-bed homes in residential communities.

Neighbors of such facilities have, for years, complained about the chaos these homes bring, but those complaints often are dismissed as NIMBY — “not my backyard syndrome.” And because rehab homes are legally protected under the Americans With Disabilities Act they don’t need special permits to operate, leaving neighbors with little recourse.

Records obtained by the Southern California News Group show that police and emergency workers in Southern California routinely respond to complaints connected to state-licensed, neighborhood rehabs. Calls come in for rape, assault, suicide, attempted suicide, burglary, public intoxication, child endangerment and indecent exposure, among others.

In Pasadena, since 2012, police responded to 1,666 calls for service at just 17 rehab addresses. Those included 91 mental health-related calls, 33 public intoxications, 16 sex offender registrations, 16 burglaries, a dozen vehicle thefts, 11 batteries, four overdoses, two indecent exposures, and one each of assault with a deadly weapon, lewd conduct, prostitution, and child endangerment, according to call logs.

In the eight south Orange County cities patrolled by the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, there were 2,500 calls for service during that same period. The heaviest-hit were San Clemente, where there were 926 calls, the majority to just six addresses; and San Juan Capistrano, where there were 667 calls, the majority to just 10 addresses.

In the city of Riverside, there were 1,052 calls for service at 26 licensed rehab centers, including 186 mental health-related calls, 18 overdoses, five sexual assaults, three rapes, one alleged child molestation and one felon with tear gas. A single center on Brockton Avenue generated 285 calls for service.

“The addicts in these facilities are not getting helped, they’re getting hurt,” said Warren Hanselman of Advocates for Responsible Treatment, a group pushing for better regulation in San Juan Capistrano.

Political will

Richard Rawson spent years advising California on how to best regulate addiction treatment as co-director of UCLA’s Integrated Substance Abuse Programs.

“The state drug and alcohol office never has been a particularly powerful entity,” said Rawson, now retired. “I suspect that’s because there’s not a lot of political support for getting out and cleaning up this industry.”

It is different in Rawson’s home state of Vermont. “Here you had Gov. (Peter) Shumlin in 2014 doing his entire State of the State speech on opioid addiction. It became the top priority in the state government. That has never happened in California – there’s too much other stuff going on.”

Perez, head of the Substance Use Disorder Compliance Division, deserves credit for channeling California’s entire $90 million federal grant toward expanding medication-assisted treatment in hard-hit corners of the state, Rawson said. But without leadership from the top, he added, it’s hard to get more done.

“The mess in the rehab industry is a problem that politicians seem to want to avoid.”

Huntington Beach filmmaker Greg Horvath produced a documentary, “The Bu$iness of Recovery,” to expose what he calls the “gross deficiencies” addiction treatment.

“The industry must change,” said Horvath. “There must be oversight and regulations in place that protect the public and the families who are entrusting these centers with their loved ones. Treatment needs to be more scientific and empirically validated. The educational requirements for people treating addiction must be higher.”

UCLA psychiatrist Ling agrees, suggesting much of the industry is built on false claims: “This is a very critical point: There is a misrepresentation of what they do because they make people believe they are rendering medical services.”

Florida, hard-hit by pill mills and deadly fraud in the treatment industry, responded to this disconnect with new laws criminalizing dishonest marketing, kickbacks and patient-brokering.

“We shut these places down because the government had the courage to do so,” said Aronberg, state attorney for Palm Beach County.

On Wednesday, the state of New York launched a new ad campaign to alert those seeking help about bogus rehab referral services. “Vulnerable New Yorkers struggling with addiction are being targeted and falsely promised life-saving treatment services and then are given inadequate and ineffective treatment at outrageous costs,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said.

Fixing California’s regulatory ills would require a significant overhaul of the system, said Harry Nelson, founding partner of Nelson Hardiman, a firm specializing in health care law. He’s not sure there’s an appetite for it.

“The problem is, drug rehab is complicated, so it doesn’t fit neatly into the healthcare category or the community care framework,” Nelson said. “It has been cut off from the rest of the health care system for so long it has had a silo effect.”

Undoing that isolation — by integrating addiction treatment into the mainstream health care system — will ultimately address irregularities, said Martin Y. Iguchi, a senior behavioral scientist at the RAND Corporation and professor in the departments of Psychology and International Health at Georgetown University.

“When you have fraud like that, that’s because of the Wild West nature of the programs that have popped up,” he said. “There hasn’t been a lot of attention paid because, without funding flowing, nobody seemed to really care. The more these programs are part of the traditional (health) care system, the better off everyone will be.”

Said Keith Humphreys, director for mental health policy at Stanford University’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences: “These problems are not common in oncology.”

Solutions

The Southern California News Group has talked to hundreds of people about how to address problems in rehab industry, and reviewed thousands of pages of regulatory documents and academic studies. Some recommendations from experts include:

• Establish national accreditation standards for all addiction treatment facilities and programs that reflect evidence-based care.

• License addiction treatment facilities as health care providers.

• Collect patient outcome data and make it available to the public.

• Mount a national health campaign educating people about medical responses to addiction and improve addiction treatment training in medical schools.

• Tighten up truth-in-advertising laws to rein in call centers that intercept and broker patients to facilities that pay them.

• Require more formal education, criminal background checks and state licensing for addiction counselors and those who work in treatment centers.

• Expand the state’s power to license, regulate and shut down facilities.

• Tighten the special enrollment period for buying health insurance, making it harder to do mid-year enrollments.

• Forbid financially interested third-parties from paying health insurance premiums, except for parents.

• Just as Medicare rewards good hospitals for not having readmissions, insurers can do same for addiction treatment providers. “Pay the good ones more and the bad ones less,” said Florida state attorney Aronberg.

“It is long past time for (the rehab industry) to catch up with the science. Failure to do so is a violation of medical ethics, a cause of untold human suffering and a profligate misuse of taxpayer dollars,” concluded the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University.

Ling, of UCLA, believes California can start small — by appointing a commission to review how things are done, and how they might be done.

By Teri Sforza | tsforza@scng.com, Tony Saavedra | tsaavedra@scng.com and Scott Schwebke | sschwebke@scng.com | Orange County Register

 https://www.ocregister.com/2017/12/29/rehab-riviera-industry-struggling-to-get-clean/

Rehab Riviera: California testing Vermont’s model to fight addiction

By Teri Sforza | tsforza@scng.com | Orange County Register

Published: December 29, 2017 | Updated: December 29, 2017 

“During the tenure of every governor there are numerous crises,” he said. “The crisis I am talking about is the rising tide of drug addiction and drug-related crime. In every corner of our state, heroin and opiate drug addiction threatens us.”

He rattled off statistics: Vermont clocked a nearly nine-fold increase in people seeking treatment for opioid addiction. Deaths from heroin overdoses had almost doubled over the previous year. Nearly 80 percent of the state’s prison population was addicted or incarcerated because of addiction.

“The time has come for us to stop quietly averting our eyes from the growing heroin addiction in our front yards while we fear and fight treatment facilities in our backyards,” he said.

Shumlin proposed a multi-pronged attack for his state. But what caught California’s eye, and the attention of many other states, was its “hub-and-spoke” idea. Rather than simply expanding traditional treatment programs that depend primarily on abstinence, social support and the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, the governor pushed to fight addiction with medication-assisted treatment; to use drugs to fight drug addiction.

Regional medical addiction centers — the hubs — would provide expertise. Primary care doctors all over the state — the spokes — would learn how to use buprenorphine medication to treat addicted patients in their everyday practices. Counselors, nurses and other health professionals would support the work.

“Now, if you talk to the average person on the street in Vermont about opioid addiction treatment, to them it’s medicine,” said Richard Rawson, a Vermont native and retired co-director of UCLA’s Integrated Substance Abuse Programs, who is studying the Vermont program’s effectiveness.

“They get it. It’s very much like being in Europe or Canada or Australia, where opioid use is viewed as a medical problem.”

California is spending $90 million to adapt this hub-and-spoke system for the state’s tribal communities and other parts of the state where opioid addiction is most common. But in California, which is known nationally for relying on the “social model” of drug treatment — based primarily on 12-step style recovery — pushing medication-assisted treatment will be trickier, Rawson said.

“In Vermont, there was political will,” Rawson said. “They’ve made outpatient, medication-assisted treatment the standard of care, and pretty much avoided the huge rehab industry.”

Early results appear encouraging: This year, the number of overdose deaths in Vermont could fall by about 20 percent from 2016, when a state-record 148 people died of opioid abuse. Vermont also now has the highest capacity in the nation to treat opioid addiction with medication, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts.

California ranked 29th, just ahead of Mississippi and just behind Tennessee.

Reluctance

Fewer than 5 percent of licensed physicians in the United States have the federally-required waiver that allows them to prescribe the opioid-blocker buprenorphine, according to data from the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. That’s just 45,000 out of nearly one million practicing doctors.

California falls far below the national average. Just 1 percent of doctors in the state – 1,063 of about 106,000 – can prescribe buprenorphine.

Vermont went from having just 10 buprenorphine providers in 2012 to having 85 this year, or about 4 percent of its practicing physicians, according to state and federal data.

Doctors aren’t rushing to enlist in the battle against addiction because addicts have terrible reputations as patients, said many in the field. Addicts are often seen as difficult, manipulative and unable — or unwilling — to follow medical directions.

A study published in July by the Behavioral Pharmacology Research Unit at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine titled “Why aren’t physicians prescribing more buprenorphine?” found that more than half of doctors allowed to prescribe the medication weren’t working with as many patients as they could. It also found that more than one in three doctors who hadn’t sought permission to prescribe buprenorphine were unwilling to do so.

That’s because the doctors didn’t believe in the treatment; lacked the time to devote to additional patients; and believed reimbursement rates were too low, Johns Hopkins found.

With the governor’s passionate push and an emphasis on education, Vermont managed to overcome those concerns.

“My initial reaction was, ‘Interesting. How do we treat that in the office?’” said George Fjeld, a family medicine doctor in rural Brandon, VT.

But Fjeld looked into the state’s new plan and was quickly sold.

“With the support they were offering, it was a no-brainer,” he said.

Emily Glick, an internal medicine doctor in Bristol, VT., was less skeptical from the outset. Before medical school, she worked at a methadone clinic as a laboratory technician, so she was already familiar with the idea of using drugs to fight drug addiction.

“I’m not sure I would have been so comfortable jumping in if it had not been for the serendipity of that experience,” Glick said. “It is difficult for busy (doctors) to foray into new and seemingly risky work.”

The state’s support system for doctors includes education and training, as well as the help of a team of people familiar with medication-assisted treatment – including one full-time equivalent registered nurse and a master’s-level licensed behavioral health provider for each 100 patients. The help is provided at no cost to the “spoke” doctors through the Vermont Chronic Care Initiative.

“It fits well into the rest of the work I do, managing chronic illnesses like diabetes, hypertension and depression,” Fjeld said.

His practice now handles about 50 patients, most between the ages of 25 and 35, who became addicted to prescription opiates and then turned to heroin because it’s cheaper.

The stereotype of addicts, he said, is all wrong.

“These patients get it,” Fjeld said. “They are some of my most compliant, well-behaved patients. They are so grateful that they’re not chasing down this habit every single day. What you’re doing is restoring the rest of their life. Everything has fallen apart, and they’re putting the pieces back to together.

“They have bumps in the road, they don’t all do perfectly,” Fjeld added. “But my diabetics and high blood pressure patients don’t do perfectly either.”

In addition to educating doctors, Vermont also pushed to educate the public about using drugs to treat addiction, with film screenings and community discussions. The message is that addiction is treatable and survivable, and medication is an integral part of the solution.

Glick described hub-and-spoke is a life-saver. More conventional, abstinence-based, AA-type approaches to addiction treatment may work for some, she said, but the longer someone has been addicted, the less normal they feel without the opioid and the more medication may help.

“I’ve seen people who get over the sickness of kicking heroin only to (relapse) because they feel so unable to function emotionally,” Glick said. “People will describe feeling unable to experience any pleasure at all. (Medication-assisted treatment) is a miracle for some… people who have burglarized homes, overdosed multiple times,” she added.

“People who were once broken… can return to being productive members of society.”

Fjeld agreed, saying his role in the state’s hub-and-spoke program is some of the most rewarding medical work he has done.

“The objective is to give (addicts) a life back,” he said. “It has been quite remarkable.”

Some are wary

The approach will be similar in California, said Marlies Perez, chief of the Substance Use Disorder Compliance Division with the California Department of Health Care Services.

California’s $90-million adaptation of Vermont’s system creates 19 new hub and spoke systems. They’re concentrated in rural northern and eastern reaches of the state, but there are also hubs in Los Angeles, San Diego and Riverside counties — the latter of which will also serve San Bernardino County.

There will be 85 spokes — primary care doctors or other providers — dispensing buprenorphine to opioid addicts.

“Our grant is for two years, and the spokes will increase as we continue to roll out,” Perez said. “If there are doctors or other prescribers interested in learning, they could get support and training.”

Buprenorphine is a controlled substance, so prescribers must get eight hours of training to earn a waiver to prescribe it. California has been working with several independent medical organizations to organize that training.

“We’re doing everything possible to make it easy for them,” Perez said.

While officials push for a more medically-oriented approach to addiction treatment — the 21st Century Cures Act, passed in late 2016, provided $1 billion in grants to help states fight the opioid epidemic — some skeptics denounce medicine-assisted treatment as simple “substitution.”

Giving an addict buprenorphine instead of heroin just replaces one drug with another, they say.

“Drug deaths are accelerating even as medication-assisted treatment becomes more common,” said addiction psychologist Stanton Peele, who believes the concept of using drugs to fight drug addiction “exacerbates” the crisis.  

Naltrexone pellets are inserted into the patient’s belly to reduce opioid cravings, a procedure that should be repeated every two months for a year. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

When actor Philip Seymour Hoffman died with a heroin needle stuck in his arm in 2014, he also had prescription buprenorphine in his New York apartment, Peele noted.

Efforts to thwart addiction with a pill do nothing to combat the social problems that drive addiction, he said.  

“What’s needed is major social change to address the havoc in poor urban and rural communities that turns them into addiction hubs. But…  that’s hard,” Peele said.  “And we have less societal commitment to doing that today than we did 40 or 50 years ago.

“But the biggest kicker,” he added, “is that we’re less likely to invest in housing and schools and stabilizing families because we’re so invested in addiction treatment.”

Others believe medicine-assisted drug treatment has a role in helping fight addiction, but fear it’ll lead to a “set-it-and-forget it” mindset. Any over-reliance on medication, they say, could fail to address the underlying causes of addiction, rooted in behavior.

“We’re supportive of medication-assisted treatment as appropriate to the individual client,” said Cynthia Moreno Tuohy, executive director of the National Association for Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Counselors, the Association for Addiction Professionals.

“But it doesn’t work with everyone, and it’s just one piece of the process. If you’re not addressing the emotional, psychological and family aspects of addiction, your long-term recovery chances are stilted.”

The goal is not just recovery from disease, Tuohy said, but from all the other damage and difficulties that addicts have usually encountered in their lives. That requires psychological, social and spiritual support to achieve and maintain recovery.

Competing ways of thinking

The schism could be viewed as a battle between behaviorists — psychologists and counselors, who have long taken the lead on addiction treatment — and medical doctors, who some traditional treatment providers see as trying to take control of their territory.

Rawson, the retired co-director of the UCLA Integrated Substance Abuse Programs who’s working to bring Vermont’s program to California, finds himself firmly in the middle of that battle.

He’s a psychologist, not a physician. And he notes that the debate over the use of medication in fighting addiction isn’t new; it’s been roiling for the 40 years he’s worked in the field.

“I’ve spent my whole career trying to get people to a drug-free state of recovery, which some people do achieve,” Rawson said.

“This has not been an overnight conclusion, or an easy conclusion, that people should be on medication. We’ve had to be dragged kicking and screaming because of the data on relapse and overdose deaths. It has been an agonizing process.

“You can keep saying ‘use your willpower’ —or whatever the hell it is — to overcome your addiction, but there are likely to be more than 60,000 people who die of overdoses this year,” Rawson added.

“The fact that so many rehabs in California are still not only not allowing, but also not educating the families and the patients about medical options, is nonsense.”

Rawson also took issue with those who argue that using drugs to fight drug addiction should be avoided because it’s only a partial solution.

“That whole way of thinking is right up there with climate-change-denying and flat-earth-society stuff. It’s no longer defensible to say, ‘We don’t really believe in medicine.’”

The debate echoes what happened when antidepressants hit the market, he said. Initially, psychologists denounced those drugs as allowing people to hide from problems and repress their feelings. Eventually, however, they came around.

“Our job is to find a treatment that allows people to live a life and not die of overdoses,” Rawson said.

“These medications allow people to do that. There really isn’t an alternative.”

https://www.ocregister.com/2017/12/29/rehab-riviera-california-testing-vermonts-model-to-fight-addiction/ 

BOOKS & PRINT MEDIA

Book:  From Santa Anna To Selena:  Notable Mexicanos and Tejanos in Texas History since 1821,
            by Dr. Harriett Denise Joseph
La Voz Newspapers, September 2005 to the present 
La Voz de la Esparanza
History of La Prensa, published in San Antonio from 1913 to 1963 by Nora E. Rios McMillan 
SHHAR Genealogical Journals 1-5 and Somos Primos, 1990-1999
Three Chicana/o Scholars & Historians Complete History Doctorates in the North Texas Area in 2017
Gilberto Quezada's Epiphany

The History of LA PRENSA
by Nora E. Ríos McMillan

SHHAR Genealogical Journals 1-5: 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998, and 2003
and Somos Primos, 1990-1999

Historia Chicana
2 February 2018

Three Chicana/o Scholars & Historians Complete 
History Doctorates in the North Texas Area in 2017
 

Nota: Here’s sending belated congratulations to three young Chicana/o scholars and historians who completed their dissertations at private and public universities in the North Texas metro area in 2017. 

The three include Rubén Alexander Arellano and Carla Lynn Mendiola who graduated in May 2017 at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. Both Rubén and Carla’s dissertations were guided by their dissertation chair, John R. Chávez. There continues to be a steady stream of young Mexican American scholars who study and complete their dissertations in history at SMU. The phenomenon has its own history of course and much is owed to John’s efforts past and present to making this happen with the support of the department faculty and the university in committing the necessary resources for the past 10-15 years resulting in a record of continued success.  Peter’s dissertation we’re happy to report was chaired by the current writer.

Rubén Alexander Arellano, “Becoming Indian: The Origins of Indigeneity among Chicana/os in Texas,” Ph.D. dissertation, Southern Methodist University, May 2017. 283pp.

Abstract: This study explores the idea of Mexican-American indigenous identity, or indigeneity. I argue that modern Mexican-American indigeneity progressed from the Chicana/o movement’s notion of belonging as a primordial people of Aztlan to the full-fledged embrace of Native American identity. This idea of being indigenous is traced to the colonial writers and thinkers, criollo patriots, mestizo nationalists, and the indigenists intellectuals of twentieth-century Mexico. The evolution of ethnic Mexican indigeneity culminated with cultural extremists in the first half of the last century who assumed a neo-Aztec identity. 

Gilberto Quezada's Epiphany

Maya Faces in a Smoking Mirror 

Maya Faces in a Smoking Mirror 

ORANGE COUNTY, CA

March 10, 2018 SHHAR Monthly meeting, speaker Victor Chavez
"From the Earliest of New Mexican Settlers, 1598 to Los Angeles and "Chavez Ravine"
Small Town America: Life in Early El Toro, California 
March 31, 2018: Abraham Lincoln and Mexico, Presenter, Sylvia Contreras
Resident Releases Book article in East Hampton New Bulletin, January 19, 2018
Who am I? asks Albert V. Vela
Photo: Orange Picker
Photo: Gaylords, Westminster High School Club 
Orange County 1800s Cultural Intermarrying 
Computerized Analysis of the 1836 Padrón