At
this year's National Conference Dinner Gala, in order to demonstrate our
appreciation for those who give so much in defense of our lives and
freedoms, we are thrilled to be honoring Former Acting Director of U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Thomas Homan by presenting him with
our Law Enforcement Medal of Honor Award.
- Risked his life for the freedom of the people of the United States;
- Seized the Port of New Orleans and defeated the British in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Natchez, Mississippi; and Mobile, Alabama;
- Led the two-month Siege of Pensacola, Florida, capturing the capital of British West Florida and leaving them without naval bases in the Gulf of Mexico;
- Recognized by George Washington for his victories against the British, as a deciding factor in the outcome of the Revolutionary War;
- Recognized by the United States Continental Congress, on October 31, 1778, for his “spirited and disinterested conduct” towards the United States and was assured that Congress would take “every opportunity of evincing the favorable and friendly sentiments they entertain[ed] of Governor Galvez, and all the faithful subjects of his Catholic Majesty [Charles III, King of Spain] inhabiting the country under his government.”
It is worth mentioning that Bernardo de Gálvez’s honorary citizenship is only the eighth ever granted by the United States. Other figures who have been granted this exceptional honor include Winston Churchill, Raoul Wallenberg, William Penn and Hannah Callowhill Penn, Mother Teresa, Marquis de Lafayette Gilbert du Motier, and Casimir Pulaski.
Explore more about don Bernardo de Gálvez y Madrid in these Library of Congress collection items:
- “Archivo Nacional de Cuba collection pertaining to Spanish colonial rule in Lousiana and the Floridas.” Havana: Archivo Nacional de Cuba, 1770 -1911.
- Gálvez, Bernardo de. Instrucción formada en virtude de real orden de S.M., que se dirige al señor comandante general de provincias internas don Jacobo Ugarte y Loyola para gobierno y puntual observancia de este superior gefe [sic] y de sus inmediatos subalternos. Mexico City: 1786.
- —. “The Spanish Seizure of Pensacola, Florida: Diario de las operaciones de la expedición contra la Plaza de Panzacola [sic].” Exploring the Early Americas: Competition for Empire. Dated and signed Bernardo de Galvez, Panzacola, May 12, 1781. Jay I. Kislak Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress. Havana, 1781.
- “George Washington Papers, Series 4, General Correspondence: Bernardo de Galvez to François Joseph Paul, Comte de Grasse, September 1781.”
- “The Hispanic and Portuguese World, Encounters in America: Plano de la bahía de Pansacola [sic].” Library of Congress, An Illustrated Guide: Hispanic and Portuguese Collections. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress.
- “Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789.” A Century of Lawmaking, 1774-1873. Vol. 22, 8 MAR 1782. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress.
- Macías, Francisco. “The Pyramid of Niches in an 18th Century Legal Gazette.” In Custodia Legis: Law Librarians of Congress. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 2018.
External Sources
- “Chronicle of the Revolution: Bernardo de Gálvez and Spain.” PBS Online. Last accessed 23 JUL 2018.
- Hedbor, Lars D. H. “The Perfect Storm: Bernardo de Gálvez and the Gulf Coast Campaign.” Journal of the American Revolution Online. 18 MAR 2013. Last accessed 23 JUL 2018.
- Kane, Robert B. “Bernardo de Gálvez.” Encyclopedia of Alabama Online. 2 AUG 2016. Last accessed 23 JUL 2018.
- Thonhoff, Robert H. “Gálvez, Bernardo de.” Handbook of Texas Online. Last accessed 23 JUL 2018.
- Trickey, Eric. “The Little-Remembered Ally Who Helped America Win the Revolution.” Smithsonian Magazine Online. 17 JAN 2017. Last accessed 23 JUL 2018.
For Young Readers
- “Bernardo de Gálvez.” Britannica Kids Online. Last accessed: 23 JUL 2018
- “Bernardo de Gálvez 1746 – 1786: Spanish Leader During the American Revolution.” Houghton Mifflin Social Studies Online. Last accessed: 23 JUL 2018.
I would like to thank Giulia Adelfio, visitor services officer, who liaised some of the initial contacts with the Capitol, as well as Nik Apostolides, deputy CEO, U.S. Capitol Visitor Center; Melinda Smith, curator of the United States Senate; and Amy Burton, Senate curatorial assistant.
My
friend Marc Firestone is a successful businessman who is working hard to
encourage people to embrace their roles as “representatives of God”.
Additionally, Marc is an Orthodox Jew who has been featured on CNN, KABC-AM
and KFI-AM talk radio talking about how the Torah provides wisdom for
“sanctifying the Name of God” in small, practical ways ranging from
how one talks to their spouse to how they do business.
When
they met, Mr. Joon told him the following, “I have always heard
negative stereotypes about Jews and I took it at face value. Then, my
daughter took an internship working in your company. Throughout the
year, she has been telling me how wonderful it is to work at your
company.”
On
the morning of May 10, 2018 Phil Valdez, Jr. passed away after a hard
fought battle with cancer. A founding member of the Anza Society, Phil
contributed significantly to a better understanding of Anza and
the historical context of his life. Phil’s enthusiasm for
sharing this knowledge was second to none. This is best
exemplified in depth and breadth by his published articles on this
site. Many members of the Anza Society remember him fondly, and
some have contributed their memories. We hope these memories
will inspire you and other citizen historians to continue the
study of Anza and Anza’s times with the foundation of knowledge
shared by the passionate, committed scholar and friend, Phil Valdez,
Jr.
Toward
the end of Saba’s life, a number of baalei teshuva (secular Jews who
have returned to faith) became attracted to his and Nachman’s teachings.
Among those teachings was an emphasis on hitbodedut, or solitary
meditation in nature, communing with and crying out to God. To more
conventional Hasidim, so much solitary prayer (as opposed to the more
traditional 10-man minyan, or prayer group) would drive one insane—but
for the Na Nachs, perhaps that’s just the point: a peaceful insanity,
not altogether different from the insanity found in nature parties and
espoused in Doof’s tagline.
“We’re
actually going to the border and see it and live it. While others are
studying it in textbooks, we’re getting on-site learning.”
r
Versions
of a BEAR FLAG were created on the occasion of a June 14, 1848, Sonoma
home invasion. Victims were Californio Leader and Forefather of American
Califonia Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, his wife Francisca, his six
children, his brother Salvador and his household staff. Before coastal
Russian Fort Ross was vacated, the house was part of what was once a
strongpoint of strategic importance. After that, the works fell into
disrepair. They were not a threat of counter-threat to anyone.
I
was fortunate to be offered a second job, a soda jerk/waitress in
a creamery. There were two creameries in town, one on each end of
Main Street. The two girls who worked there were the head
yell leaders at Manteca High. I really felt
honored to be offered the job, plus sometimes the money mom sent
was a little short. I think we had not yet learned how to stretch a dollar.
does
is check for messages from Venson. 
The
early part of the 21st Century has seen the rise of the
home-based DNA testing kit. People who are curious about their
ancestors can take a swab from inside their mouths and send off the swab
to a lab for analysis. Commercials on television and the internet
for the big companies offering DNA-based race/ethnic discovery services
emphasize the “wow” or “surprise” factor of getting tested.
A red-haired woman, for example, shows her shock at being 15% East
Asian. An African-American man is equally surprised when his DNA
results show that he is 8% Scandinavian. On YouTube, there are
many videos of people revealing their ancestry results to their viewers
“live.” A curious amount of Mexican-Americans in this space
express a universal surprise that part of their DNA indicates
sub-Saharan African origins. For many years the idea of what it
meant to be “Mexican” has rested on the idea of mestizaje,
or the blend of blood and culture of the Spanish conquerors with the
indigenous or Native American population. La Raza Cósmica
or simply, La Raza, a term used by many Mexicans and
Mexican-Americans alike is usually used to describe the
blending of Spanish and Indian to create a new ethnicity entirely, a
separate and distinct identity. What is often left out of this
“blend” are cultural and genetic influences from Africa, and hence
the surprise expressed in the YouTube videos from DNA test result
recipients. Not many people are aware that on average, Mexicans
have 4% African blood in them, and less is known about African
contributions to Mexican culture and history. When the topic of
African influence in Mexico comes up, it is often mentioned that any
sort of blackness has been “washed out” or has “blended in” to
the national culture and gene pool, and historically, little attention
has been given to it. As individuals and communities of people
with predominately African heritage in Mexico make themselves more
widely known to others, there has been a growing awareness of Africa’s
continuing contribution to the nation of Mexico and the idea of “Mexicanness.”
The
first people of African origin in Mexico were those black slaves and
freemen who accompanied and fought alongside the first Spanish
conquistadors in the New World. It is estimated that 6 blacks took
part in the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire. Notable among
them was a freeman named Juan Garrido who was born in the Kongo Kingdom,
traveled to Portugal as a boy and ended up in Santo Domingo in 1502 as
one of the first colonists there. He joined Cortés on the march
to the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlán and later joined conquistador Nuño
de Guzmán on Spanish expeditions to what is now the Mexican states of
Jalisco and Michoacán. Garrido is pictured in the Aztec book of
history, the Codex Azcatitlan, as standing alongside Doña Marina, also
known as the Malinche, the famous native translator and mistress of Cortés.
Garrido later settled down in New Spain and married an Aztec woman and
was listed in the colonial documents as a farmer of wheat. One of
the first people to explore the northern modern-day Mexican state of
Chihuahua and what is now known as the American Southwest was a man
named Estevanico, who was part of the earlier Narváez expedition of
Florida and the North American gulf coast. Estevanico was a slave
and because of his prior experience with the natives of the northern
part of Mexico, he was part of the Marcos de Niza expedition which left
Mexico City to head north in 1539. As Estevanico was part of the
scouting team traveling about a day ahead of de Niza, he was the first
non-native American to visit Chihuahua and what is now the US states of
New Mexico and Arizona. The first community of freed blacks in the
Americas was founded in Mexico in 1608. In 1537 there was a small
slave rebellion led by a man named Gaspar Yanga also called Nyanga in
what is now the Mexican state of Veracruz. 40 years after the
revolt, Spanish authorities recognized the former slaves’ right to
exist as free men and the community of San Lorenzo de los Negros, today
called Yanga, was given limited autonomy by the Spanish Crown.
Famous
examples aside, Africans began arriving in Mexico in great numbers as
slaves in the early 1500s only a few decades after the Spanish conquest
of the Aztec Empire. The native slave labor pool began to dwindle
because of disease and by the fact that the indigenous were not used to
the harsh working conditions imposed upon them by the Spanish. As
the captive labor force diminished, King Charles the Fifth of Spain
allowed slaves to be imported into the Spanish territories in the New
World. Portugal had controlled the African slave trade in
throughout most of the 16th Century and most slaves came from
West Africa. Initially, African labor was brought to the
plantations of the West Indies. Black slaves began arriving in
greater numbers in Mexico starting in the 1580s, mostly to work the
plantations in Mexico’s tropical areas, to work in the ever-growing
silver mines and to be put to use in the textile industry.
Sometimes slaves came directly from Africa, but also many came from the
Caribbean territories. There were two main types of
classifications for African slaves in colonial Mexico: Retintos
and amulatados. The first group were swarthier and had a
physical build for hard labor. The second group were of slighter
build and sometimes with lighter skin and were generally used as house
servants or to perform various menial tasks. In the 1500s and
1600s a slave usually cost around 400 pesos. Mexico never
developed into a slave-based plantation society as the US South did, and
by the 1640s the importation of African slaves had ceased. Mining
had declined by this time and cheaper textiles began to be imported from
England. Many Spanish slave owners in colonial Mexico had children
with female slaves and those children became a new class of people
collectively called mulato. In the colonial caste system,
those with one black and one indigenous parent were called zambos.
In general, black people were seen as “the other” in this period of
Mexican history, something exotic and alien. In the records of the
Spanish Inquisition in Mexico City there is an overrepresentation of
people of African birth and African descent being tried for sexual
dereliction and witchcraft. As many black people in this time
period held on to vestiges of their African religious beliefs, there
were quite a few people who were accused of being sorcerers and witches.
There is even a famous legend of a woman known as La Mulata de Córdoba,
which exists in Mexico to this day. A black woman who was jailed
for practicing witchcraft in Veracruz asked her jailer for a piece of
charcoal so she could pass the time drawing pictures in her jail cell.
According to the legend, she drew a picture of a ship, recited a magical
incantation and then jumped into the picture, thus escaping jail.
During the colonial period it is unknown how many Africans and
Afro-Caribbean people were imported to Mexico as slaves, but estimates
reach as high as 200,000. As mentioned earlier, this importation
pretty much ceased by the mid-1600s and the practice of slavery in
Mexico, which was seen as somewhat anachronistic by the late 1700s was
abolished by the new nation of Mexico in 1829.
The
third wave of African people and people of African descent coming to
Mexico has occurred in the age of globalization over the past 50 years.
This is primarily because of the ease of migration. Many
people of African descent fled Caribbean island nations and territories
since the 1960s to escape communism, poverty or natural disasters, and
many ended up in Mexico. Although not a country known for taking
in mass numbers of African refugees, Mexico has harbored some people
escaping brutal conditions in Africa. With ease of travel in the
modern age African and African-descendants from outside the mother
continent have ended up in Mexico for a variety of reasons. A
notable Afro-Mexican from the “age of globalization” group is the
only Mexican woman ever to have won an Academy Award. Lupita
Nyong’o won an Oscar for best supporting actress for her role in the
movie “Twelve Years a Slave.” Named for the Virgin of
Guadalupe, Nyong’o was born of Kenyan parents in Mexico City in 1983.
She moved to Kenya as a small child but returned to Mexico at the age of
16, living in Taxco, Guerrero. She retains dual Mexican and Kenyan
citizenship and is fluent in Spanish, English, the language of her
Kenyan family called Luo and the East African lingua franca,
Swahili. As the people from this third wave have not arrived in
large groups, there are no neighborhoods or specific areas of the
country in which Africans have congregated. There is no expat
African barrio in Mexico City, for example. It is often assumed
even by the Mexicans themselves when a black person is spotted in a
major city that the person is a recent arrival or guest worker from
Africa, the US or the Caribbean.
Outside
these mostly remote areas where people of high percentage of African
heritage currently live, what influence has historic “Africanness”
had on Mexican national culture? One of Mexico’s iconic dishes
and one found on the menu in many Mexican restaurants in the United
States, mole poblano, has its origins in African cooking, as do many
other peanut-based dishes from Veracruz. Various recipes involving
plantains also come from Mexico’s African heritage. When
non-Mexicans ask Mexicans about the origins of the popular song, “La
Bamba,” the average Mexican will be unable to explain that the title
of the song, the rhythm and the dancing that goes along with it has deep
African roots. Other bits of popular culture with black influence
include the character from the Mexican bingo game Lotería called “El
Negrito” and a series of comic books dating back to the 1940s about a
mischievous black boy named Memín Pinguín. Some historical
figures with mixed mestizo and African heritage in Mexico include
Mexican president Vicente Guerrero, Mexican War of Independence hero José
María Morelos and the last governor of California under Mexican rule,
Pio Pico.
A
one-on-one meeting was held with National President Candidate, Mr.
Domingo Garcia, and I on the subject of my Congressional Gold Medal for
Escuadron 201 Resolution which was passed in 2007. Successfully, Mr.
Garcia won the election as President of LULAC. A positive conversation
gave me more confidence in accomplishing the recognition of Mexico’s
Fighter Squadron and support from the new LULAC National President,
Domingo Garcia.
National
Conference Chairman, Gil Rodriguez and Co-Chairman Lupe Rodriguez,
arranged to have me present my Power-Point Presentation on Mexico’s WW
II Fighter Squadron to the AGIF National Conference’s main assembly.
My presentation was well received and several were educated on the
squadron admitting they had never heard of them. Many compliments were
given with even an invitation to make my presentation in the state of
Michigan. Again, I had a very positive conversation with the newly
elected AGIF National Commander, Mr. Lawrence Romo.
Received
a communication from Tatiana Rosas, Executive Assistant Bob Hope
Patriotic Hall, Los Angeles, California. I sat and met with the staff
and presented my proposal to produce a “Congressional Gold Medal for
Mexico’s WW II Fighter Squadron Campaign Kick-Off Event. Ms. Tatian
presented to me the necessary paper work and available dates in December
and January. We will be working on making a schedule for the event which
will include the Mexican Consulate, The Philippine Consulate and the
City of Los Angeles
Mayor,
Supervisors and elected Officials. More to Come.
