Greetings!
It’s only the 17th of February, but I can tell Spring is coming early. The air in Oklahoma smells sweet today. Of course the temperature high of 70 degrees doesn’t hurt either. We should have one more frost or even snow before real spring sets in, but we will take these lovely days.
Today’s entry is a bit more of a hodge-podge posting. There is information here that might not fill an entire post all by itself. But they are important, and been on the sidelines waiting.
First of all, I would like to congratulate my 2nd cousin, once removed, The Honorable Armando Real on his election to Mayor of Calexico, CA. He served on the Calexico city council and is now mayor! How cool is that? He is grandson to Aida Escalante de Rosas. I send my best wishes for his success in the political arena. It can’t be easy, but I greatly admire his “being a part of the solution.”
http://www.calexico.ca.gov/mayorcouncil
Secondly.
My great-aunt Guadalupe Escalante has her own blog post. The back story about the details I could uncover on her life and her assault are here: https://tneranch.com/2013/10/08/guadalupe-escalante/. While I found no more about her story, I did find an interesting factoid about the man who assaulted her.
Octaviano Moran was married to one Clara Escalante de Moran in 1927 when all of the drama was going on. As far as I can tell, we are not related to Clara’s Escalante family. She was pregnant at the time with her son Luis Moran.
The marriage between these two was never particularly strong. Octaviano wished to divorce her (consistent with the promises he had made Guadalupe). He even went to Cuernavaca, then considered the “divorce mecca” to end their marriage. This article was very detailed and can tell the story much better than I can.
Clara Escalante de Moran making court history.
Clara didn’t want to be divorced, especially since she had no knowledge of the trial even happening. She took her case to the Mexican Supreme Court. AND they supported her. History in the making. This article was from an Illinois paper. It was covered all over the United States. I wonder how many Americans this decision affected? Wow.
In all of the other paperwork I find on Clara, she is always married. She does say that her husband Octaviano lives in Mexico City. She and Luis stay in Calexico. Luis died there in 1992.
Third thing I wanted to share was a contact I made via this blog. A great-niece of my grandfather’s first wife, Edith Edwards Escalante, contacted me. She was SO sweet and very kind. We corresponded a few times. (I really do LOVE people who share their stories to give us a fuller picture of how our family lived.)
She had a few pictures of Edith which added to my collection.(Not all of which I am posting)
From L-R: Allene Edwards, Lola Edwards Humm, Edith Edwards and her daughter Allene Millar. Photo Courtesy: D. Teafatiller
Ms. Teafatiller was so kind to share these photos with me. The above one is super cute. Remember Edith was almost 10 years my grandpa’s senior. She must have dazzled him with those pretty dimples.
This next photo in particular that I thought would interest a few.
California Dreaming with the Edwards Family. Photo Courtesy of D. Teafatiller.
This photo is a part of the day long photo shoot Edith’s family did one California day. The outfits match the ones that Edith and Allene are wearing in other photos. The man on the far left may be my grandfather Tony. NOW… I have run this photo by a few people. Some think it is him, some think it’s not. But what I do know is this: This was what Tony’s family looked like from 1936-1939. This was his family before Edith got sick; before the rest of the hundreds of us showed up on the scene. This would have been what it looked like. Tony Escalante – a part of a different family. It blows me away.
Thanks so much D. Teafatiller!
And last, but not least, there is still a reward out for a photograph of Rufina Valenzuela de Escalante. She is my favorite relative. The reward is $100 – nothing to poo-poo either. So if any of you happen to have a photo of Rufina running around your attic, I’d greatly appreciate a digital copy. I am fortunate enough to house a large portrait of her husband Leonardo in my hallway (thanks to my cousin Ferdie and my Tia). I have him across from photos of his sisters. But my dream is to reunite him with his lovely wife. On behalf of myself, and her hundreds of off-spring, we thank you in advance for any help you can give.
That’s all for now. May your last days of winter go by quickly and the sun shine brightly where you are very soon.
tneranch 
Thank you cousin.
You are very welcome!