Chicanonautica: Forgetting the Alamo

by Ernest Hogan

The controversy is already blazing around Forget the Alamo: The Rise and Fall of an American Myth by Bryan Burrough, Chris Tomlinson, and Jason Stanford. A virtual event tour was canceled after Republican leaders complained. Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick called for the authors to join a panel discussion "to get to the facts and the truth." Uh--wasn’t that why they wrote the book?

So I got the book and read it. ¡Guao, mi gente! It’s a book I can highly recommend to La Bloga readers. Not Latino lit, but history dealing with an essential part of the Chicano identity: why a lot of Anglos hate us, and how it’s systemic, not personal. We’re talking about the Heroic Anglo Narrative, and how we are cast as the bad guys.

Starting with Texas’ sordid origin story—I don’t think we’ll be seeing a Broadway musical soon—and acknowledging that "We stand on the shoulders of revisionist authors such as Andrew Torget, Andés Tijerina, Jesús de la Teja, Jeff Long, and Paul D. Lack," and that "It would be decades before Mexican-American writers would begin setting the record straight." They take us through the Texas Revolt, explain the conflict between the Tejanos and the Texicans ("Let us pause for a moment to consider the irony of a Mexican government determined to stop the flow of illegal American immigrants") up to the Battle of the Alamo itself. They tell of Juan N. Alamonte and Juan Seguín as well as Sam Houston, Stephen Austin,  Jim Bowie, William Barret "Buck" Travis, and Davy Crockett. It’s not what children’s books and Hollywood have led us to believe . . .

The dirty little "secret" of Texas’ Confederate-style slave economy is brought to light.

Then they go on to follow the development of the myth. Walt Disney and John Wayne both helped to make Davy Crockett, the Wild Frontier’s Baron Munchausen/Don Quixote, who’s myth needs to be deconstructed on its own, into a martyred saint. And the Daughters of the Alamo have, like the United Daughters of the Confederacy with their monuments, made the Alamo into hallowed ground that now is morphing into a theme park.

Will someday in the future all of the U.S.A. consist of nothing but theme parks?

The most disturbing things in the book are several personal, first-hand accounts of Tejano students being singaled out in 7th grade history class as descendants of the killers of Davy Crockett, and how the bullying and harassment by their Anglo classmates started immediately.

The myth, supported by the state, has been central to keeping us "Mexicans" in our place.

It’s not a total downer. The authors don’t take themselves too seriously. Ya gotta have fun, y’know. There’s also some comedy relief provided by British rock stars Ozzy Osbourne, Mick Jagger, and Phil Collins.

Yeah, La Bloga readers will find themselves getting mad reading Forget the Alamo, but anger can be inspiring. Clarity about our history can only help.

I also hope it doesn’t trigger a cancelfest of Americano Wild West pop culture. Instead I humbly suggest  that we use our talent and imagination to wrench the All-Americano western genre away from the Heroic Anglo Narrative and make it our own. We have our own heroes and stories. And I think we’re better storytellers than Davy Crockett.

¡Yee-haw, cabrones!

Ernest Hogan’s father warned him to stay away from Texas, but he’s been there anyway.

Unwoven: Poems by Erika Garza-Johnson

 

Guest Blog by Veronica Sandoval

Erika Garza-Johnson

Cross-eyed chachalacas in the haze of a Texas morning, pushing past toothless abuelas, shadow puppets, and dead butterflies--this is the place where La Llorona and Allen Ginsberg converse next to piñatas and saints, this is the borderland of Anzaldúa, this place of in-between and ambiguity, this place called home. Unwoven, a collection of poems by Erika Garza-Johnson, is published by FlowerSong Books, an imprint of VAO Publishing, and contains 84 poems by one of the most original Rio Grande Valley voices. With prose, free verse, list, litany and language poems, Garza’s collection is an organic composition of subjects, moods, and styles that strategically code switches from English to Spanish, Tex-Mex, and Pocha. Garza’s work feels Beat, feels like excavating las historias de la gente we must not talk about, to whom Unwoven replies:

 

how do you steal your own memory

mimic your own voice…

so I’ve sealed

my own heart away

and sent it to silencio

ripped my hands off

erased my face and

drowned my past in the

Rio Grande (3)

Within this collection you will find heridas beating tenderly and feverishly, una pinche princess, Jesucristo blessing prostitutes and humming alabanzas, paleteros con beersicles, electric tight rope walking tlacuaches, Madonna by tinacos, cantina noches and jazz-less barrios. Using subjects like Sylvia Plath and Allen Ginsberg in juxtaposition to Mesoamerican deities like Coatlicue and Mayahuel, Garza is a nepantlera negotiating her positionality as a daughter, mother, wife, sister, and academic. Her most heartfelt poems are those like “Urraca Song” and “Cross Roads” where her images grapple with the decolonization of spirituality subverting as Laura Medina stated the “dominant cultural norms which traditionally places spiritual authority in hands of male mediators who can easily orchestrate a monopoly of the sacred” (Facio 67). With prayer, Garza challenges the patriarchy of the church that in “Urraca Song” condemns her marriage as nonexistent in the eyes of God:

 

                           I prayed to the moon, to the sun, to the butterfly that was lost

                           in the weeds. I prayed to the cat that sleeps all day and plays

                           with bottle caps at night…I prayed to Facebook. I tweeted a message

                           to a goddess I met at metropolis on Goth Night. She wore Doc Martens.

                           She was my ghost. There is a God and…she lives, somewhere all of

                           my ancestors feast on peace. (83)

With Unwoven, Garza weaves a new heart, a huipil that suits her (15), tackling the difficulty of subjects like rape, immigration, homesickness, love, and loss. With poems like “Labeled” and “Llorona RIP”, Garza’s work could be misconstrued as Post-Chicana; however with references in her work to cultural historical elements, environmental injustices, and criticism of cultural appropriation, Garza’s work utilizes a Chicana Feminist praxis making Unwoven a great addition to any Chicana Literature or Creative Writing Course.

 

 

Works Cited

Facio, Elisa. "Spirit Journey: "Home" as a Site for Healing and Transformation." Fleshing the Spirit: Spirituality and Activism in Chicana, Latina and Indigenous Women's Lives. 1st ed. Tuson: U of Arizona, 2014. 67. Print.

 

 

 

Veronica Sandoval is Lady Mariposa, a poeta from the Rio Grande Valley Tejas. She is currently a graduate student in the Critical Cultural Gender and Race Studies Department at Washington State University. Her poetry has appeared in various anthologies and publications like: Revista Literaria de El Tecolote, BorderSenses, Boundless, The Savant Poetry Anthology, El Mundo Zurdo III, New Border, Along the River, Gallery & Lung Poetry. She has a Spoken Word Poetry Album called Hecha en El Valle, Spoken Word and Borderland Beats which is available on ITunes. When she is not running around doing super Chicana power stuff, she is at home with the Chubby Vato of her heart, and their cat named Boots.

 

 

 

Veronica.Sandoval2@wsu.edu

www.facebook.com/ladymariposa

https://www.youtube.com/user/VeronicaSandoval75

 

Writing opp. Texas Mexican-American studies. Stop Keystone. Denver event.

Writer Submissions open

BorderSenses Literary and Arts Journal seeks to provide a venue for emerging and established writers/artists from the U.S.-Mexico border area and beyond to share their words and images.

We seek poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and book reviews in both Spanish and English from every corner of the world. We also cherish a diversity of visual artists. Translations can be accepted provided the original author has consented to publication rights and to reprinting.

The open submission period for volume 20 is:  March 5th to June 30th, 2014. Check our submission guidelines.

Mexican American Studies for Texas Children & Schools

Day of Action - Monday, April 7, 2014

1) E-mail all of the Texas State Board of Education at sboesupport@tea.state.tx.us and in the body of the e-mail put: To All Texas State Board of Education members (insures all 15 board members receive it) and simply tell  them you support the implementation of Mexican American Studies in Texas schools, and that this is important for the success of all Texas children and the State of Texas. 

2) Sign the petition for Mexican American Studies.

3) You can also call Texas State Board of Education representatives and tell them you support Mexican American Studies in Texas schools.

(SBOE members, districts they represent and contact numbers)

Martha M. Dominguez - D, El Paso 915-373-3563  sboesupport@tea.state.tx.us

Ruben Cortez, Jr - D, Brownsville (956) 639-9171  sboesupport@tea.state.tx.us

Marisa B. Perez - D, San Antonio (210) 317-4651  sboesupport@tea.state.tx.us

Lawrence A. Allen, Jr. - D, Fresno (713) 203-1355  sboesupport@tea.state.tx.us

Ken Mercer - R, San Antonio (512) 463-9007             sboesupport@tea.state.tx.us

Donna Bahorich - R, Houston (832) 303-9091            sboesupport@tea.state.tx.us

David Bradley - R, Beaumont (409) 835-3808             sboesupport@tea.state.tx.us

Barbara Cargill - R, The Woodlands (512) 463-9007 sboesupport@tea.state.tx.us

Thomas Ratliff - R, Mount Pleasant (903) 717-1190  thomas@thomasratliff.com

Tom Maynard - R, Florence (512) 763-2801               sboesupport@tea.state.tx.us

Patricia Hardy - R, Ft Worth (817) 598-2968               sboesupport@tea.state.tx.us

Geraldine Miller - R, Dallas (972) 419-4000             qtince@aol.com

Mavis B. Knight - D, Dallas (214) 333-9575     sboesupport@tea.state.tx.us

Sue Melton-Malone - R, Waco (254) 749-041            smelton51@gmail.com

Marty Rowley - R, Amarillo (806) 373-6278                 martyforeducation@gmail.com

We ask all of colleagues and friends from across the state and the nation to E-mail and call into the Texas State Board of Education this coming Monday, April 7, "Day of Action," and to spread the word on this initiative. This is in preparation for the SBOE meeting on April 8-9 in Austin where a vote is anticipated. There will also be a march and press conference from Cesar Chavez Blvd. to the Texas State Capitol on Tuesday, April 8 beginning at 9am. 

If you want to testify at the April 8-9 SBOE meeting in Austin, you may register on the website or by fax between 8 a.m.-5 p.m. this coming Monday; or, in person or by telephone with the appropriate agency office. You can also register for this.

See additional information from our friends at Librotraficante and MASTexas. Gracias for your support and action on Monday. 

Juan Tejeda

Chair/National Assoc. for Chicana & Chicano Studies Tejas Foco Committee on MAS Pre-K-12           

Recognition for a Chicana advocate

Next Saturday you can throw some chanclas around to the sound of some of the best Tex-Mex in Denver, and join in celebrating the good works of Flo Hernandez, chingona advocate of bilingual radio in the Southwest. 

Go to KUVO.org or RickGarciaBand.com for tickets and more info.

Stopping XL Pipeline

From 350.org comes this:

We’ve gone to DC to stand against the Keystone XL pipeline before -- but never like this. In the last week in April, a powerful alliance of ranchers, farmers and tribal communities will converge in Washington for a demonstration called “Reject & Protect,” and it’s shaping up to be the most beautiful demonstration against Keystone XL yet. We have the ingredients we need to make this action unignorable — what we need is your help to bring it all together. Can you pitch in to make a BIG impression on the President and help stop this pipeline once and for all?

Click here to power this bold action to stop the Keystone XL pipeline.

It’s going to be a sight to behold. There will be dozens of riders on horseback. And Native Americans raising 30 tipis ready to go up on the National Mall. There will be demonstrations and ceremonies to tell President Obama that the risk to our land, water and climate from Keystone XL is too great to allow. And all of this will be led by an unprecedented alliance that won't back down.

The goal is to be the talk of the town during the crucial last week of April when President Obama will be making up his mind about the pipeline. This is our exclamation point on two years of powerful action against Keystone XL.

It’s a bold vision, and we don’t have much time to pull it off. If it’s going to work, it’ll take all of us. So please pitch in whatever you can, and let’s make this happen together.

Onwards!

P.S. If you can join the big “Reject and Protect” rally in DC on Sat., April 26th (date changed from April 27th due to permitting issues) please sign up to stay in the loop.


http://act.350.org/signup/rejectandprotect/?akid=4377.851902.hdKJVd&rd=1&source=350&t=3

Es todo, hoy,

RudyG

As Texas textbooks go to the right, so go . . .

This concerns what your and our children may learn in years to come about U.S. history and the world. With the largest number of students in the country, Califas y Tejas wield great influence with textbook publishers, and the rest of the states suffer the consequences. The Texas State Board of Education made significant right-wing revisionist changes to textbooks they will use for years to come.

Among others, People for the American Way launched a campaign to try to stop the changes at major publishers. Here are just some of the "high"-lights you might see coming to a textbook in your neighborhood schools:

"Former Clinton White House Science Adviser Jeff Schweitzer summed up the revisions well, noting that the new standards:

• Question the separation of church and state under the false premise that we are a Christian nation.
• Relabel the United States a "constitutional republic" instead of a democracy (think the names of our two major political parties).
• Remove the New Deal from a timeline of significant historical events, because Franklin D. Roosevelt's efforts were socialistic.
• Describe Reagan's invasion of Granada in 1983 as a "rescue" and praises Reagan for his "role in restoring national confidence, such as Reagonomics and Peace with Strength." (No mention of Iran-Contra.)
• Note Nixon's "role in normalizing relations with China and the policy of détente," but don't mention Watergate.

A picture of a business woman holding a briefcase was even pulled and replaced with a mother baking a cake. And while an attempt to remove Thomas Jefferson from a major part of the curriculum (presumably because of his liberal views on government and religion) failed, labor leader, civil rights icon (and PFAW board member) Dolores Huerta was removed along with others who did not conform to the Far Right's narrow ideals.

There were many more changes that simply cannot be allowed to be printed in textbooks to be used by students nationwide.

Take action to make sure Texas' controversial standards do not impact the education of students in other states."

The following petition was posted here, in case you want to sign it:

To Whom It May Concern:

Textbook publishers have traditionally used content which conforms disproportionately to the textbook and curriculum standards of one state: Texas. The Texas State Board of Education is currently a political body dominated by ideological extremists who are seeking to rewrite history and use social studies textbooks to advance a political agenda. Textbooks should be prepared by those with substantive subject matter expertise and not to promote a particular political worldview.

No state's market should dictate the textbook content for the nation as a whole, and that is particularly feasible now due to recent advances in printing and publishing technologies.

We, the undersigned, therefore urge your company to publish textbooks free of political or ideological bias and to reject any controversial Texas-required content in the publishing and distribution of textbooks for other states."

There's chingos more. If you want further information, you can go here.

Es todo, hoy

RudyG

Review: Literary El Paso; Notes 'n News

Literary El Paso. Marcia Hatfield Daudistel, ed. Ft Worth TX: 2009.

ISBN 978-0-87565-387-7

Michael Sedano

In an era of ebooks and Kindles, iPhones, Blackberries and all manner of text-delivering digital device, Literary El Paso seems a throwback to an earlier era and a substantial reminder why one enjoys reading printed books in a cozy chair. Undeniably, portability is one advantage electronic devices have over the printed page. Whip out that iPhone while waiting for the bus and read to your heart’s content. Your heart. Me, I’m sure if I haul around this volume I either will forget my reading anteojos at home, or remember the lentes but set the book down somewhere and forget it. They say the memory’s the second thing to go and I do not remember the first.

Texas Christian University Press printed Literary El Paso’s 572 pages, plus xxiv front material, on a 7” x 10” page, giving the volume a comfortable heft and a shape that opens just right to fit a reader’s lap. The serifed font-- is it “Centaur” so highly praised in Carl Hertzog’s essay on page 9?-- is uncomfortably tiny for my eyes, but the typesetter’s justification spreads out individual letters so none touch neighbors (except in a couple of spots), and generous line spacing spreads the text across and down the page creating ample white space for maximal legibility. Once you’ve gotten hands on your own copy of Daudistel’s collection, you’ll likely agree Literary El Paso qualifies as a Morris Chair book.

Upon scanning Literary El Paso’s table of contents and paging serendipitously through the volume, readers will discover the editor’s liberal sense of “literary” as encompassing a wide variety of writing, from poetry to journalism to footnoted historical writing to fiction to essay. Indeed, Daudistel observes in her Introduction that “all writing coming out of a region is, in fact, the literature of that region” and that's what she's included, a rich potpourri of flavors.

Given such a cafeteria plan, readers may elect to browse the collection, not read it at a sitting. Daudistel’s made that easy by assembling her material into three themes. It’s a sensible organization that lends itself to part-by-part enjoyment. Part I, “The Emergent City / La Ciudad Surge”, opens with a cowboy fragment and features historians and journalists. Part II, calls itself “The People, La Gente”, and features a preponderance of Latina Latino writers, and fiction. Part III, “This Favored Place / Lugar Favorecido”, features poets and essays. The collection includes unpublished works from John Rechy, Ray Gonzalez and Robert Seltzer.

Given the pedo that erupted last Tuesday in Sergio Troncoso’s essay, Is the Texas Library Association excluding Latino writers?, Seltzer’s apologia for his father, Chester Seltzer AKA “Amado Muro” constitutes a mixed bag of biography and sympathetic character assassination, but not a defense for Seltzer père’s cultural appropriation--perhaps “reverse assimilation”-- of a Mexicano identity and his subsequent lionizing as a Chicano writer. Literary El Paso is silent about the controversy—see Manuel Ramos’ 2005 column for a useful assessment--electing a less-than-neutral biographical paragraph featuring Seltzer’s “Muro” pseudonym, and publishing two selections from Seltzer/Muro’s collected work.

Any work of such beauty as Literary El Paso comes with a blemish or two. Of these, the anthology’s coverage of Ricardo Sánchez is the least forgivable. Daudistel pairs Ramón Rentería’s “Another Struggle, interview with Ricardo Sánchez” with two Sánchez poems, “fragrance petals its presence…” and “Fridays Belong to Friends, Sometimes”. The interview piece alludes to Sánchez’ code-switching work, quoting Bobby Byrd saying “It’s a real pleasure to read his work not only for the meaning but also for the sound and the word play and the joy he has playing with both languages”. Oddly, neither of Sánchez’ two poems display such code-switching play. There’s an epigraph in “fragrance” placing the writing on “June 30, 1977 L. Chukosburgo, Te(de)jaslum cabulat/sufiteotls” but it’s an otherwise puro Inglés piece about sex. Ditto the second poem, about a “trío de locos” cruising Juárez cantinas.

Happily, Literary El Paso presents the writers’ language as originally writ, sans italics, absent forced appositional translation, diacritics in place, and misspellings. Allurista? Avelardo Delgado? (Rentería). All this makes for a pleasant reading experience that allows one’s eyes to follow across the page free of interruptions and distractions. Finally, Daudistel’s included a helpful Index alphabetized by both authors and titles, and for the latter, adding the author’s name just so you’re sure to find what you’re looking for. In fact, readers will find a lot of what they’re looking for in a book of this ilk, and ultimately Literary El Paso provides what anyone looks for in such an extensive and varied collection: a montón of fun.

Noted and Calendared: Cano Book Launch

Daniel Cano's beautiful historical novel, Death and the American Dream, is featured in a fundraiser for veteranos (no de las calles but the US military) on Saturday, November 14 at the Pete Valdez Sr. AMVETS Post II.

Sponsored by the AMVETS post & United States Veterans' Artist Alliance, together with the Westside Association of Mexican American Educators, the event features a special performance by Chicano Secret Service, in addition to Mr. Cano reading from his novel.

I'll be there to join the discussion of his timely novel of Mexican/Chicano journalism, starting at 7 p.m. 10858 Culver Blvd, Culver City. Click here for a printable PDF poster to share with your reading friends and friends of US Military Veterans.

Noted and Calendared: Obregon / Medal of Honor Monument

Saturday, December 5 culminates the beginning of the end of lengthy organizing efforts led by William Lansford (the only Chicano interviewed in the Ken Burns WWII PBS program) to erect a monument to those selfless men and one woman (to date) who have earned the nation's highest honor for military valor, the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Los Angeles mayor Villaraigosa and City Councilperson Huizar, along with numerous special guests, will unveil the first element of the planned Obregon monument, the Wall of Honor, naming each of the individuals honored for their valor, many posthumously. Eugene Obregon, a Los Angeles Chicano, died on the streets of Seoul, Korea, shielding from machine gun fire with his own body, a wounded comrade.

Click here for a printable PDF poster of the event. I hope you'll share this with all, but especially anyone you know who's ever worn the uniform. My great uncle's name is on the wall. Maybe you have a friend or relative's name on the wall, too. Ni modo. Join in to acknowledge what these soldiers, sailors, and marines have done in our name. I'll be there for sure, with an extra hope that we'll soon see an end to Obama's wars and bring the troops home alive. No more heroes, Obama. Please.

News Note: Call for Papers re: Octavio Paz

La Bloga friend Roberto Cantú from CSULA invites participation in the following.

The 2010 Conference on Octavio Paz will be devoted to his poetry, poetics, and essays that examine world civilizations and modernity. The conference organizers invite papers on the following topics:

1. Octavio Paz and his writings on Mesoamerica: art, history, and religion.
2. Essays by Octavio Paz on art, poetry and culture of Colonial Mexico.
3. Octavio Paz and art criticism.
4. Studies on Octavio Paz’s autobiographical writings: poetry and essays;
5. Octavio Paz’s translations in Versiones y diversiones, including his theoretical reflections on translation.
6. Poetry and essays by Octavio Paz on China, India, or Japan.
7. Octavio Paz and collective poetry: from Renga (1969) to Hijos del aire (1979).
8. Octavio Paz and the Hermetic Tradition.
9. Octavio Paz’s historical critique of sex, love and eroticism in Western civilization, from Plato and Petrarch to Sade and Bataille.
10. Octavio Paz, Mallarmé, and Breton: Poetry and Poetics.
11. Octavio Paz, the Avant-Garde and Structuralism: from Marcel Duchamp to Claude Lévi-Strauss.
12. Octavio Paz and the modern legacy of world religions and civilizations: Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Ancient Mexico, among others.
13. Octavio Paz and theatre: La hija de Rappaccinni.
14. Octavio Paz’s critical writings on colonialism, modernization, and totalitarianism in the 20th century.
15. Octavio Paz and the 1910 Mexican Revolution: Critical Essays.

The deadline for a one-page abstract of conference papers is March 31, 2010. Click here to review a PDF of the entire Call.

That's 2/5 of November's Tuesdays, a Tuesday like any other Tuesday, except You Are Here. Thank you for visiting La Bloga. Wednesday November 11 brings us Veterans Day. To all the soldiers, sailors, marines on duty today, I salute you. To my comrades past, damn, brothers, we were soldiers, weren't we?

mvs

La Bloga welcomes your comment on this, or any, column. Click the comments counter below to share your views. La Bloga welcomes guest columnists. If you have a book, arts, or cultural event review to share--perhaps some material from your writer's notebook--click here for information on how you can be our guest.

Soldadera - a memoir

Unknown Soldaderas - Mexican Revolution

Porfirio Dias was Mexico’s president for 30 years following centuries of occupation, colonization, uprisings, invasions by Spain and France, and war with the United States. Dias’ autocratic regime gave rise to a new, industrialized Mexico, made possible by exploiting the majority of the people, stripping them of human rights while Dias built political power and personal wealth. Those who suffered most were the poor, the laborers, indios and women. In 1895, civil code was passed which severely restricted Mexican women to a life of serving their husbands, their families, and the Catholic Church.

The country was divided on these and other issues and Mexico fell into a ten-year period of chaos, with back-to-back political coups and foreign intervention. But, through the shifts in power, peasants gathered together to create a land that could serve all of Mexico’s people, including her women.This presented a conflict between traditional women who enjoyed their more domestic, subservient roles and an emerging feminism completely unknown in Mexico before. It became one of the underlying principles of the Mexican Revolution and the subject of one of the great reforms to arise from this period.

The women who stood up for higher ideals and demanded change were extraordinary, particularly given their social position and their time in history. They joined the Revolution, demanding reform across a country in disarray. Some became political voices, journalists who wrote articles opposing the tyranny of the ruling class. Some became nurses treating wounded revolutionary soldiers. Others served as spies or procured provisions for the small bands of peasants who continued fighting for freedom from 1910 until well after 1920. A few picked up weapons and joined forces, with Zapata in the south or Villa in the north, to fight along side the men. They became known as las soldaderas.

My mother, now in her late eighties, recalled the stories from her childhood in Mexico of a mysterious woman her Mama hated, a woman who came to their house to see the son she had left behind. Her name was Soledad.

For years, Soledad was described by my grandmother as a reckless harlot who irresponsibly left her child in the care of others so she could follow the revolutionary soldiers. To my grandmother, who could only view the events through the lens of her traditional upbringing, it was disgraceful. And, for more than a lifetime, only one side of the story was told. Finally, decades later, when my mother researched Mexican history, another story, long forgotten, materialized. This is my mother, Gloria's, recollection.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I was born in 1921 but I can remember from about the age of 4, our life in Mexico. Papa’s name was Juan. He was born in Linares, Mexico, located about 130 km from Monterrey City in the State of Nuevo Leon.

Juan

He was orphaned in early childhood and sent to the seminary where he got an education. He was a newspaper reporter, book binder and writer. He was also an amateur ‘novillero,’ a novice bullfighter who fights young bulls. He had a younger sister, Soledad.

My parents settled in Monterrey once they were married. Mama was quite young, about 13. In the early years of the marriage, Mama – still a child herself, loved dressing up in beautiful clothes - taffeta dresses in popular styles of the time, fur coats and gold jewelry. She wore them on Sunday outings. Papa was very active in social clubs, sports and celebrations around town. Mama, beautiful and proud, saw her life as sophisticated and special, the life she was born to live.

We had 2 maids- one to care for us children, the other to cook and clean. Our house was always spotless and it seemed very grand. There was a pond with fine little pebbles inside the house, and here I could play for hours as a child. In the back yard was a beautiful garden. We seldom interacted with Mama but rather with my Nana, because proper women of class did not bother with domestic chores. When I was bathed by my Nana, dried with clean sheets, dressed in a hand- embroidered slip, I felt like a princess.
Gloria, age 4

The few memories of going out with Mama were of going to the tailor for new clothes of fine materials, fur trim, and adornments. Mama always wore jewels and lace and very delicate clothing. We children always had to be dressed up as well. We were like her little dolls.

The biggest problem in Mama’s life was her sister-in-law, Soledad. At the age of about 17, Soledad had become a ‘Villista,’ one of the volunteers supporting Pancho Villa in the Revolution. This was a great embarrassment to Mama. To make matters worse, Soledad fell in love with a French soldier and bore their son, Alfonso. But, instead of coming home and managing her responsibilities, Soledad continued fighting the war. Alfonso lived with us.

Between battles, Soledad nursed the wounded or went begging for food and supplies, not seeing her son for months. They say that that she would sneak to our house at night, all filthy and hungry, and want to see Alfonso. She didn’t bring money or food, and even asked for provisions to take back with her. Mama hated her for this.

Mama was not political. She enjoyed her role, surrounded by domestic affluence and security. What did she care about women’s rights? To Mama, Soledad’s uncivilized behavior represented everything coarse and disgusting in a woman. She was deeply offended by the excitement that Soledad caused when she came to the house. Finally, sick from an epidemic and malnutrition and exhaustion, Soledad’s tiny body gave out. She died and, much to Mama’s anger, her son Alfonso became Mama’s irrevocable responsibility.

Mama did not see her sister-in-law as heroic, although Soledad had fought for ten years in the harsh terrain of Mexico, ill equipped and out manned, unpaid and driven only by the shredded dream of freedom. Mama only saw the additional burden of the child she would now have to raise with her own.

Daily, Mama expressed her frustration to Alfonso, berating his mother and her foolish choices. She called his mother a whore who lived like a gypsy, bedding any soldier who would tell her she was pretty. He was lucky, Mama would say, that his mother had died. Her jealousy of the romantic and heroic woman masked for all of Alfonso’s life the courage and spirit of the mother he never knew.

A few years later, one of Papa’s cousins, who already lived and worked in the US, insisted that we come right away to take part in the opportunities and wealth just north of the border. With the pressure of our growing family, including Alfonso, it seemed the right thing to do. So, Papa took Alfonso and came to Texas first to see if it was as fantastic as it was described. And it was, in every way. Six months later, Papa came for us.

As if on a splendid adventure, we crossed the border, dressed in all our finery. It was Washington’s Birthday, February 22, 1926. I remember entering the city of Laredo, Texas like I was walking in a dream. There were fireworks everywhere and flags and people celebrating in the streets, so beautiful and exciting. I was nearly five years old.

The family settled in San Antonio where Papa was working as a newspaper reporter and started a printing and bookbinding business. And, even after a problem with our documents caused us to be temporarily repatriated, we finally established roots in South Texas and Mama believed that her life of luxury was about to become even better. And it did . . . for almost three years.

Then, the Depression came and everything crashed overnight. The stock market and jobs, businesses - everything just crumbled. There was no time to plan or adjust- it seemed like the prosperous life everyone was enjoying burst like a water pipe and everyone’s dreams just gushed out into the street.

After that, things became very difficult for Mexican people. With no jobs for the men and many mouths to feed, my Mama was forced to work beneath her class in order to survive. She learned to raise chickens so the family could eat. She made liquor to sell during prohibition. She cooked for the parish priest or made garments for women who could afford new clothes. She became a maid, cleaning Anglo women’s homes. She gave birth to 13 children but only six survived. Through it all, Mama maintained an air of the life she once had, the elegance she still dreamed of.

Many years later, I found some research on the soldaderas. I started collecting it for Alfonso because I wanted him to know that he should be proud of his mother. I wanted to tell him that Soledad was fighting against discrimination and injustice. The soldaderas had helped the revolution stay alive. They were heroes. But he died before I could talk to him about it. I don’t think he ever knew.

Alfonso 1950 My mother, Gloria 1940

My mother went on to earn a college education, in spite of her Mama’s objection. She taught school for 33 years in Texas and taught her three daughters to be independent thinkers, self- sufficient and proud of our Mexican heritage. In only two generations, women of our family were transformed from both traditionalist women of leisure and zealous freedom fighters into penniless immigrants, and finally, into progressive American women of conviction and purpose.

I dream that there’s a little of Soledad in each of us. Whether she was a silly girl following the camps or a woman of grit who heard freedom’s call to arms, we will never know. I prefer to think that she was a little of both . . . dutiful to her cause and yet romantically in love with the idea that she would spill her blood to wash away injustice.

1915 My Grandparents 1960

About The Author...
Annette Leal Mattern
During her long career in technology, Annette held numerous corporate leadership positions with Fortune 100 companies where she championed development of minorities for upper management. She received the National Women of Color Technology Award for Enlightenment for her diversity achievements and was recognized by Latina Style and Vice President Gore as one of the most influential Latinas in American business. In 2000, she left her corporate work to devote herself to women's cancer causes. She published her first book, Outside The Lines of love, life, and cancer, to help others cope with the disease. She has also been published in Hispanic Engineer and several other media. Annette serves on the board of directors of the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance and founded the Ovarian Cancer Alliance of Arizona, for which she serves as president. Annette also writes for http://www.empowher.com/. She and her husband, Rich, live in Scottsdale AZ.