color=#0000ff size=2>Arturo.......it sounds like your trip was great even though
you could not visit the Archivos. Thank you for sharing your experience
and I look forward to reading about the rest of your "adventure".......it makes
me feel as if I was there also!
you could not visit the Archivos. Thank you for sharing your experience
and I look forward to reading about the rest of your "adventure".......it makes
me feel as if I was there also!
size=2>
Josie
in San Antonio
in San Antonio
From: ranchos@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:ranchos@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Arturo
Ramos
Sent: Thursday, January 05, 2006 10:51 AM
To:
ranchos@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [ranchos] Mexico Trip Report Part
I
I just got back from two and a half weeks in
Mexico.
Though I did not spend them in "working" on genealogy or
historical
research, as I did have the need to spend time with my family and
decompress at the beach for some days, I did get a fair amount of
work
done.
I arrived in Guadalajara, Jalisco on Dec. 17. I met up with
my
brothers and my younger brother's Japanese host-mother to celebrate
our birthdays in Tlaquepaque with mariachis. The singer had lived in
Japan for three years and sang to my brother's Japanese host mother
in
Japanese.
The next day I attempted to visit the Archivos Publicos del
Estado de
Jalisco. They were closed early because of staff shortages
due to
the holidays.
I headed to Villa Guerrero, Jalisco on Dec. 19
(where my parents have
now built a beautiful house on the edge of town where
they plan to
live half-time). The next day, we travelled to Bolanos (a
mining
town dating to circa 1550) at the bottom of the canyon by the same
name. The town is is serious disrepair as the mines have been shut
down for some time and there is no other real source of economic
sustenance. There are remnants of beautiful buildings throughout,
however.
From there, we headed over the Sierra de los Huicholes to
Tuxpan de
Bolanos (an indigenous wixarika village three hours by dirt road
from
Bolanos) where we explored a very poor settlement that now has
phones, electricity and running water. The locals were very shy, but
we managed to speak to a woman who spoke Spanish who introduced us to
some handcraft makers. Noticeably, there is no church in the town,
as I understand is the case in most wixarika towns.
The next day, my
father, Esteban Valdes (cronista of Totatiche,
Jalisco) and Leonardo de la
Torre Berumen (municipal archivist of
Jerez, Zacatecas) headed to Colotlan
to attempt to see and photograph
the records of the old Franciscan Convent
that was founded there in
1591 and served as the primary base for the
missionaries in the
area. We waited over an hour for the priest to
show up and then he
called in to say he would not be coming in that day and
that we would
not be allowed to see the records... for no good reason.
I had been
forwarned that he was not the friendliest of people. It was
a real
shame because many of the records have not been filmed.
I
spoke at length with both of the gentlemen and confirmed suspicions
that I
had a lineage that led to the sister of Miguel Caldera, one of
the first
mestizo officials of the viceroyal government and Justicia
Mayor del Valle
de Jerez y Tlaltenango. I also found out that my
mother's lineage
(PINEDO) was one of the first in Jerez, dates back
to the 1580s or 90s in
the area and also leads to Miguel Caldera.
There are many records in
Jerez that were not filmed by the Mormons
because they were not bound and/or
were in disrepair including
several decades of marriages and all of the
confirmation records. In
addition there are will/testament and
protocol records to which Mr.
de la Torre has access. Thus the
genealogical information in Jerez
exists to trace families back to
settlement in the late 1500s.
I interviewed Esteban Valdes Salazar, who
spoke about the work of
Cronistas and the lack of support for it from
government agencies.
He is currently trying to publish a new edition
of his "Historia de
Totatiche" which is a very well researched and written
book that was
purchased by many U.S. libraries and whose first edition has
sold
out. The State of Jalisco who published the first edition is not
helping him so he is trying to raise money to do so himself. He also
has several other genealogical manuscripts on the PINEDO, GARCIA and
ORTEGA lineages which he would like to publish. He is a prolific
researcher and writer. I will be forwarding my interview to Joseph
for posting on his site.
I told him I would approach the group about
obtaining some sort of
support for him, so if anybody is interested in
helping out,
especially those of you with Totatiche or Colotlan lineages,
please
let me know.
I also visited the asilo (convalescence home) in
Tlaltenango, where I
went to deliver some items for Helyn
Sparkman-Castaneda. The
intended recipient of one of the items (a
renowned local scholar and
historian) had passed away, but my father and I
spoke at length with
the home director who gave us great insight on his life
and work.
Helyn had informed me that he had a great collection of
historical
manuscripts and books. These have been donated by his
survirors to
the Universidad de Zacatecas in the city of
Zacatecas.
In my father's town I interviewed a great-uncle of mine who is
83
years old and has been keeping diaries of deaths, historical events,
etc. in the town for decades. He also had an incredible amount of
oral history about the family (PINEDO) and local history dating back
to
the Mexican Revolution. I knew that the family came from Jerez,
Zacatecas but asked him if he knew and he did, even though the
migration
happened in 1730... When I showed him the genealogies I
had compiled,
light bulbs went off when he read names of people who
lived in the 1820s and
1830s, whose names he remembered from family
histories told to him by his
grandfather.
I have four hours of recordings from my meetings with him
which I
plan to transcribe.
I also have pictures and will try to post
these when I get a chance.