Re: [ranchos] Marge Vallazza's Jan 2001 Somos Primos Article

[Alberto Duarte <albertodua@...>]

Marge:
Does Mr. Bernardo del Hoyo Calzado have an email
address? I've read his book for a copy of years, and I
also want to the Dolores cemetery when I visited Jerez
a couple of years ago.

Regards.

Alberto Duarte Prieto.
Santa Maria, California




--- Joseph Puentes <makas@...> wrote:

> 
> A Personal Research Adventure of a Scots-Irish
> Mexican American 
> 
>                                                  by
> Marge Vallazza
> 
> For most of my life, I knew little of my personal
> Mexican heritage. I 
> knew a lot about Mexico and its history but because
> my Scots mother was 
> our primary caretaker, I knew and cared more about
> my Scots and 
> Anglo-Irish heritage than my Hispanic one. After my
> trip to Mexico last
> week, it's a neck to neck race. 
> 
> I had been looking forward to this trip for a long
> time. Its 
> preparations including hours of research at the
> local Family History 
> Center here in Overland Park; several hundred
> dollars worth of books, 
> microfilm copies, xerox copies; extensive
> communication with travel 
> agents, international airlines, Mexican national bus
> lines, Mexican 
> archivists, and the like. Why? All because my maiden
> name had been the 
> equivalent of Mary Smith, my father's mother's
> maiden name was the
> equivalent of Jones, her mother-in-law's was the
> equivalent of 
> Brown...well, you get the picture.
> 
> I wanted to find something different about me (other
> than I have a 
> unique background of being a Scots-Irish Mexican
> American! Not too many 
> people have THAT kind of background!) and find
> something I did. My 
> father's mother's mother had an uncommon surname and
> my grandmother and 
> her parents came from a place in the central
> highlands in Mexico called 
> Zacatecas. The capital of Zacatecas state is also
> called Zacatecas and 
> is listed under UNESCO's Cultural Heritage treasures
> for its lovely 16th 
> and 17th century colonial architecture.
> 
> My grandmother's hometown was Jerez, located about
> 45 Km from Zacatecas. 
> In my research, I have gotten as far as the early
> 1700s but have stopped 
> to gather data on my multi-great grandparents and
> their siblings and 
> their children. However, on my trip, I had an
> interview
> with the author of a book I had purchased here in
> Kansas City over the 
> internet from a bookstore in San Antonio (Borderland
> Books, owner, 
> George Farias)  that specializes in Hispanic
> genealogy and history 
> books. I wanted Bernardo del Hoyo Calzado to
> autograph my copy of his 
> book (Panteon de Dolores, which translates to
> Cemetery of Sorrows), 
> which documents many of the mausoleums and tombs of
> the wealthy in 17th 
> and 18th century Jerez, Zacatecas.  
> 
> In his book, had run across some of the same
> surnames, I have discovered 
> in my own family tree! Included in that family tree
> was the name de 
> Llamas, which means the Flames and Saldivar, which
> is a Spanish name 
> from the Basque region of Northern Spain. De Llamas
> was the maiden 
> surname of the maternal grandmother of one of the
> most famous poets in 
> Mexico, Ramon
> Lopez Velarde, who was also from Jerez and is buried
> in the Cathedral in 
> Mexico City.
> 
> When I finally got a hold of Bernardo, I stammered
> out who I was and why 
> I was calling. He graciously invited my husband and
> me to his home and 
> said to me that, based on my surnames, especially
> the Saldivar, he and I 
> were related. Upon our arrival in his home at the
> appointed time the 
> next day, I discovered that he was a professional
> genealogist. He rolled 
> out this tablecloth sized tube of paper covered with
> an immense minute, 
> detailed chart. He asked me how far back I had
> gotten and then asked me 
> if my Saldivars were Spanish or mestizo at that
> point. I showed him a 
> copy of a microfilmed baptism certificate that
> showed my ancestor is 
> listed as Spanish, which would only occur if the
> parents were European. 
> He looked over his chart, zeroed in on a name, and
> said, "This is likely 
> your ancestor--he is a descendant of the union
> between Hernan Cortes and 
> Montezuma's daughter." I guffawed and replied that I
> found that hard to 
> believe...my goal had not been to link to them but
> to learn something of 
> the family in that part of the country. He was
> adamant that this was so. 
> He also said to me that I needed to provide the
> links back at least 100 
> more years. It shouldn't be difficult once I cross
> back from the year 1700. 
> 
> Lastly, because my grandmother's provincial town was
> so small, families 
> have intermarried over the centuries. However, I
> have read a quote that 
> "war is the great equalizer" or words to that
> effect...several 
> revolutions in Mexico have provided new blood
> (despite the shedding of 
> it as well) and scattered the people as they fled
> north for their lives. 
> That's what happened to my grandmother and her
> family. 
> 
> They appeared in Cuidad  Juarez across the border
> from El Paso, Texas 
> around 1913...that's the time a huge, bloody battle
> occurred in Jerez 
> during the Mexican Revolution--this was lasted from
> 1910 to 1920. 
> Another battle took place in Zacatecas in 1914...it
> was a hellish time for
> everyone. But by then my grandmother and her family
> were away from 
> there. Who knows when my grandmother met my
> grandfather, who came from 
> Chihuahua City? My father was born in Juarez in 1923
> and who would have 
> guessed that 22 years later, thanks to another war,
> he'd be thousands of 
> miles away in Scotland, where he met and married the
> love of his life? 
> Once again, thanks to another "great equalizer"
> yours truly is here to 
> tell this tale.
> 
>                                                     
>              Marge 
> Vallazza  teacozygran@...
> <mailto:teacozygran@...>
> 
> 
> <mailto:vallazza@...>This article was first
> published in:
> MISSING LINKS: RootsWeb's Genealogy Journal
> Vol. 5, No. 52, 27 December 2000, Circulation:
> 739,842+
> (c) 1996-2000 Julia M. Case and Myra Vanderpool
> Gormley
> MISSING LINKS and ROOTSWEB REVIEW are free, weekly
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> 
> Editor-at-Fault: Julia M. Case
> Co-Editor-to-Blame: Myra Vanderpool Gormley, CG
>  RWR-Editors@...
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> 
> 
> 


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