Re: Mexico Trip Report Part I

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

I think the Lulu solution may work for him on upcoming projects, except for the fact that 
shipping the books to Mexico is very cost prohibitive and would therefore make it a bit 
less viable than it would for someone looking to distribute them in the United States... i.e. 
his market in Mexico is not going to go online to order books from the U.S. that will be 
delivered by the Mexican postal system.

The problem that he has with the reprinting of his HIstoria de Totatiche is that he does not 
have an electronic manuscript.  He typed out the whole book and the State of Jalisco's 
Ministry fo Culture transcribed, edited it and had it typeset for printing.  They will now not 
share with him those materials as they consider them their property, though they have 
given him permission to reprint the material on his own.  So basically he is left with having 
the book photographed and reprinted from those photographs if I understand him 
correctly.

I am looking at publishing a historical ethnography of Totatiche and the research I have 
thus far on my father's lineages and have actually ordered proofs (of what I have written so 
far) from Lulu and their product is very good.  Given that one of the manuscripts he is 
preparing is that of the Pinedos in Totatiche (which is my mother's lineage) I may push for 
him to let me cooperate with him in publishing that and going the Lulu route, where I can 
arrange to have sets sent down to him (via my parents or some other courier service).

My father had been purchasing local microhistorical publications for me while he was 
down there and Esteban Valdes had a set waiting for me too, including his sister's history 
of Momax.  I have a few duplicates which I am willing to part with if someone is 
interested... I believe they are the Second Volume of Historia de Totatiche and the 
Sacerdocio, Don Singular book both by Esteban Valdes Salazar.  I will confirm once I 
receive the box of books, which my parents are driving back to Los Angeles and then 
shipping to me.  I also obtained a copy of the new book on the Jaras of Totatiche if anyone 
has lineages there that they would want me to look into.

--- In ranchos@yahoogroups.com, Joseph Puentes <makas@n...> wrote:
>
> 
> 
> Arturo Ramos wrote:
> 
> >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.
> >
> Your trip sounded great though disappointing on the Archive search. But 
> everything else sounded like you have a wonderful experience. Glad 
> you're back and fully recharged to take your research to a new level.
> 
> with regards to helping. . .yes I'm willing but truthfully I think he 
> should consider the lulu site as a means of getting his work in print. 
> If he has doubts why not ask him to do a test run. Basically he would 
> take his book that needs to be inserted into a computer text file of 
> somesort (word, etc) and upload it to the lulu site, he would pick a 
> format and decide how much of a profit he wants to make, LuLu calculates 
> the cost of the book, the profit, and their 20% (I'm not sure what this 
> number is but somewhere in this vicinity) and that is the price those 
> ordering have to pay. The author pays no out of pocket costs. Its a 
> print on demand
> 
> see http://lulu.com/es
> 
> Well tell me what all is decided and if you are sending funds count me 
> in on a contribution. email me so we can work out the details.
> 
> welcome home,
> 
> joseph
> 
> >
> >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.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > 
> >Yahoo! Groups Links
> >
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> --
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