Mexico Trip Report Part I

["Arturo Ramos" <arturo.ramos2@...>]

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.