I don't know for sure, but the geneal idea was that the men were
favored. Strange how that works. you'd think that my grandmother would
have been the oposite and favored her daughters, but no she pretty much
worshipped her 6 sons and treated her two daughters as a step below. .
.which doesn't mean she didn't love them but she loved them in that
hard kind of Mexican strict kind of different measuring stick kind of
different rules for them kind of way. My aunts definitely got more
demonacos than their brothers got. . .though having said that my uncles
got really good ones too. I remember I did a whole 45 minute tape of
recording oral history from my aunt before she died that had only
stories of the reasons why differnt ones were given cuerazos.



in fact just talking about this brings back vivid memories of "el
cinto" y "la mangera."     )     or maybe     (    is more appropriate



joseph



Irma GomezLucero wrote:

cite="">

face="Arial" color="#0000ff" size="2">Have you discovered why this was
done?  I recall my mother being shocked that her Concuna (she & my
aunt are married to brothers) bathed her only daughter in cold water,
so that she would learn the "hard" life of a woman.  I'm glad that my
mother didn't agree with this treatment or child abuse.  I wonder if
this is the reason your ancestors did this?  By the way, my tia is
descended from the Martin del Campos.

face="Arial" color="#0000ff" size="2">Irma

---

From: Joseph
Puentes [mailto:makas@...]

Sent: Sunday, February 27, 2005 4:10 PM

To: LosRanchos

Subject: [ranchos] Some interesting History

this was sent to me by Maria Gutierrez-Uhlenburg. I introduce it to the
group to see if anyone had things they heard of through oral history
that might have been practiced in our target area of study. Let's open
it even further to say have you heard any good stories of some of our
customs?



In the story I send to the group awhile back called "Muchacha" about my
Great Grandmother Antonia Santa Maria and my grandmother Virginia Diaz
I can't help but remember that when my grandmother was born the story
went that my GG Grandmother Andrea Torres ordered that two tinas of
water be prepared when my grandmother was born. One was to have nice
toasty warm water in case the child was a boy and the other was to be
cold water in case it was a girl. Grandma Virginia got the Cold water.



what stories or customs have you heard from your relatives coming out
of Jalisco, Zacatecas, and or Aguascalientes???



bring on the oral history.



thanks Maria,



joseph



-------- Original Message --------

Subject:	Some interesting History
Date:	Sun, 27 Feb 2005 11:39:19 -0800
From:	Maria/Mark Uhlenburg href="mailto:Uhlenburg@..."><Uhlenburg@...>
To:	PUENTES, Joseph href="mailto:makas@..."><makas@...>

Joseph,

I thought this might be a little
interesting to you. 

 

Maria Gutierrez-Uhlenburg

 WANT TO GO BACK IN TIME, 500 YEARS?











The  next time you are washing your hands and complain because the



water temperature  isn't just how you like it, think about how things



used to be. Here are some  facts about the 1500s:







These are interesting...







Most  people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in



May, and still  smelled pretty good by June. However, they were starting



to smell, so brides  carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor.



Hence the  custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married.







Baths  consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the
house



had  the  privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and



men, then the  women and finally the children. Last of all  the babies.



By then the  water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it.



Hence the saying,  "Don't throw the baby out with the bath water."







Houses had  thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high, with no wood



underneath. It was the only  place for animals to get warm, so all the



cats and other small animals (mice,  bugs) lived in the roof. When it



rained it became slippery and  sometimes the animals would slip and off



the roof. Hence the saying "It's  raining cats and dogs."







There was nothing to stop things from  falling into the house. This



posed a real  problem in the bedroom where bugs and  other droppings



could mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts  and



a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection.  That's  how



canopy beds came into existence.







The floor was dirt. Only the  wealthy had something other than dirt.



Hence the saying "dirt poor." The wealthy  had slate floors that would



get slippery in the winter when wet , so they spread  thresh (straw)



on the floor to help keep their  footing. As the winter wore on, they



kept adding more thresh until when you opened the door it would all



start slipping  outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entranceway.



Hence the  saying a "thresh hold."







(Getting quite an education, aren't  you?)







In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big  kettle that



always  hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things



to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get  much  meat.



They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in  the pot to get



cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes stew  had



food in it that had been there for quite a while.  Hence the rhyme:



"Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine



days  old."







Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special.



When  visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off.



It was a sign of wealth that a man could "bring home the bacon." They



would cut off  a little to share with guests and would all sit around



and "chew the fat."







Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content



caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning



death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years



or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.







Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of



the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or "upper



crust."







Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The  combination would



sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days. Someone walking



along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial.



They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of  days and the



family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if  they



would wake up. Hence the custom of holding a "wake."







England  is old and small and the local folks started running out of



places to bury  people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the



bones to a "bone-house"  and reuse the grave. When reopening these
coffins,



1 out of 25  coffins were  found to have scratch marks on the inside and



they realized they  had been  burying people alive. So they would tie a



string on the wrist of the corpse,  lead it through the coffin and up



through the ground and tie it to a  bell. Someone would have to sit out



in the graveyard all night (the "graveyard shift") to listen for the



bell; thus, someone could be "saved by the bell" or was considered a



"dead ringer."











And that's  the truth... Now , whoever said that History was



boring ! !  !