This post is 9 years in the making.  It has to do with family history and family future.

Thanks to certain social issues, we are a few hours away from a new administration. This last election cycle really focused on illegal immigration. The Republican National Convention gave us images of hundreds of participants holding up signs calling for “Mass Deportation Now!”

Despite the fact that immigrant workers generate billions of tax dollars for our economy, $96.7 billion in 2022 to be exact, they are called “takers.” Instead of fining the American employers that hire them, these people are given Tax ID numbers to allow them to work and the government happily takes their taxes. We love the luxury their cheap wages provide for us. They are the underpaid help that wash dishes at our restaurants, clean our hotels, mow our lawns, and harvest our crops.

We’ve allowed these workers to come to the United States for decades, but now we are calling for their mass deportation. They are “dehumanized,” being called animals, snakes, monsters, and savages.  They are 2025’s answer to “The Other.”

I was born in California, and the best part of my upbringing was that I got to grow up with such diverse friends and neighbors. It was wonderful. Racial and ethnic diversity are the norm. When everyone is different, it’s no big deal. That was my experience anyway.

25 years ago I moved to a less diverse state. I didn’t feel it was going to be a big adjustment for me. I’ve never been anything but red, white, and blue. I have never been a part of anything but mainstream culture.

I have a Master’s Degree, a minivan, and a Panera Rewards Card. BUT. There is something about my “ambiguous ethnic blend” that confuses the crap out of everyone here in Oklahoma.

Alas. The way others see you isn’t always the same way you see yourself.

In October 2024, I was watching “Washington Week.” This quote resonated with me. I was in the 33%.

Most Americans feel so far removed from the immigration of our grandparents or great-grandparents we no longer feel like this issue is ours.

Laura Greenlee, a distant Baltierra cousin, was producer of the 1995 movie “Mi Familia.” 13 minutes into the film, one of the characters was caught up in the 1933 deportation sweep of Los Angeles. Maria Sanchez, the mother, was an American citizen. She had no documentation on her and she was sent to a country that was not her own. Was this just fiction?

It was not.

“A Decade of Betrayal” (below) discusses how Mexican families from across the country were deported. One family in the segment was taken from Pocatello, Idaho, in 1931. These children were not allowed to take their birth certificates with them. I mention this story in particular because my uncles Ernie and George were born in Sugar City, Idaho, in 1932 and 1933, respectively. My grandparents were Resident Aliens – given permission to work in the US. All of their children were citizens. How close were the Baltierras from being removed from the country? Was the 82 mile distance enough to save our citizen aunts and uncles from being deported?

My “spider senses” have been tingling since “The Other” spin started taking prominence in 2015 – when Hispanics were called rapists. I started hearing this buzz repeated at the coffee bar at church. I brought up these issues in detail with the pastor of our former church when we met to discuss our departure.

I’ve had so much concern that a few days after the election in November I called a cousin who is an immigration attorney in California. I am certain she thought I was overreacting. I was having a major panic attack that I could be deported! She talked me off the ledge and I am grateful.

Due to personal experiences I’ve had since 2016, I am carrying my passport card. Just in case.

Now I know you’re thinking “girl, you have lost your mind. It’s not like that.”

Here in my little red state politicians are craving national attention, and are diligently parroting a set of party lines to get it. The biggest alarm bell is our Education Superintendent wanting the names of all children who can’t prove citizenship – illegal immigrants. It’s nefarious. It’s appalling.

Not all of my family are as visually ethnic as I am. People who look like me are Americans. But if you don’t know a lot of lovely people like me, you can be confused. I have needed to educate my neighbors about this for 25 years now. For the longest time I could not find the reason I needed to repeatedly share my origin story. Now I think I am supposed to “educate” where I can.

Between my life experiences and my family history research, I realize that many times our family was “The Other,” or “they were the power persecuting ‘The Other.’” Throughout American history, the title has been given to many ethnic groups, but we are going to stay in our lane.

If you are related to me, chances are you have family:

• who married their daughter to her uncle to keep the family Spanish.
• sent to an Indian boarding school.
• listed as “Mulatto Libre” on their baptism records.
• that took ears from slaughtered Native Americans as proof of a battle won to his superior officers.
• that were a part of the Slave Trade – as profiteers or as those stolen.
• accused of serving in the US military in order to earn citizenship, even though that person was American.
• that were told to stay out of the sun or they would get too dark “like Indians.”
• that “anglicized” their first name because their given name was too Spanish/too Other.
• that want the pretense of “spiritual illumination” that comes from their Native American heritage but prefer their middle class lifestyle over life on the Rez and commodity cheese.

Assimilation to a new country is, in and of itself, a good thing. Immigrants are well aware that when they leave their homeland, their family’s culture will most certainly change. And one last surprise. Not all immigrants want to live here permanently. They want to work in the US, send money home, and then leave when they are older.

I guess I am asking my family to think twice about this particular issue. I’m not arguing the legality of the situation. We should be encouraging our law makers to fix this. Just ask my Senator who had his bipartisan bill shot down by his own party to win votes for the 2024 election. Pssst – They don’t really want to fix it!

Just take care not to buy into the dehumanizing verbiage that is being used. Don’t buy into lies about immigrants you know are false – like eating domestic animals. Our families have been there. We know better. We should act better.

Steps of soapbox.

*******

I would like to thank my proofreader Matthew for his assistance on this post.

Very special thanks to Christian Limon.

https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2016/aug/08/tim-kaine/tim-kaine-falsely-says-trump-said-all-mexicans-are/

itep.org/undocumented-immigrants-taxes-2024/

https://www.npr.org/2024/09/15/nx-s1-5113140/vance-false-claims-haitian-migrants-pets

https://apnews.com/article/congress-border-deal-rejected-lankford-immigration-045fdf42d42b26270ee1f5f73e8bc1b0

https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/education/2024/12/18/ryan-walters-oklahoma-rules-undocumented-students-osde/77054984007/

https://www.indigenousmexico.org/articles/tracing-one-mixed-race-family-across-the-generations

I encourage you to visit the First Americans Museum in Oklahoma City: https://famok.org

The post for today is more of a general tutorial lesson in genealogy.

I’ve been doing family history research for over 30 years now. Research was slow going “back in the day.” With so many archives online, genealogy websites too, searching today has never been easier. Historians sharing their trees and what they have discovered for all to utilize is another big advantage.

Or is it?

When I post blog pieces, I don’t do it willy-nilly. I generally have research and sources. I try to attach evidence to show I am not making up the narrative. I have annoyed so many family members. I have found paper trails of uncomfortable truths. And on the flip side, I won’t publish stories of rumored lore that I cannot prove. Luckily, I never said we were descended from Fray Francisco Silvestre Velez de Escalante. That was because I couldn’t prove it. And, we aren’t.

This leads me to Adela Ramirez.

Escalante’s do not know who she is. She sits on a leaf on a far branch of the family tree. She is the adopted daughter of Juan Ramirez. He was the cad who our great-grandmother Mariana Bustamante left her husband Leonardo Escalante for. He also left Mariana with their daughter to marry another woman, but that story is in the archives.

Over on Ancestry, there are many family trees with Adela on them. She is a leaf in many trees. She doesn’t have descendants. As far as I can tell, she married, Jean Baptiste Lambert, lost a baby, and was divorced. Adela kept her married name of Lambert whenever she is listed in later years. She lived with her brother’s family in 1940. Suddenly, Adela disappeared. There were no more leads.

In 2013, someone posted that the Adela Ramirez’s death date below was the one for which we were searching.

Find a Grave was helpful in providing a photo of the gravesite at Westminister Memorial Park in Long Beach, CA.

I had three questions about this. One, if this was actually her, when did Adela decide to give up the name Lambert? Two, who is the beloved sister mentioned on the stone? Any siblings Adela had were already dead. Three, on 4 other sources, in all of these trees, her birth year was 1886, not 1888.

Collectively, these red flags have been bugging me.

For a really long time. Almost 10 years.

I couldn’t take it anymore. I sent away for this Adela’s death certificate. I feel bad for saying it, but I was hoping the person on these trees was wrong.

I was right.

The above certificate came in the mail this week. The parents were not Juan Ramirez and Rosa Bustamante as our Adela’s were. This woman was born in Mexico, while ours was born in Los Angeles. This woman was widowed, ours was divorced. A living sister purchased that gravestone. They are not the same person.

I see the simplicity of using the State of California’s Death Index, and a photo of the grave of that person as documentation. It’s nice to find all the information at your fingertips. “It mostly fits together.” On my husband’s tree, I have a group of folks insistent that this woman Esther was their great-great grandmother. That woman lived in Indiana not Ohio. An entirely different state! That is really trying to make it fit. I’ve given up that fight. I just shake my head.

I’m using this example for those of family researchers who have a “gut feeling” about something. You never want to take other people’s research at face value. Note their work. See if you can make the connections they did. Do your own research to get to their same conclusions. If the answers are really clear cut, it should be easy to find.

If you think that something isn’t right, order the paperwork! We are always wanting to find “the source” of information that is key to our moving forward. But also knowing that a source is wrong can be just as important. OR – and I say this with all sincerity – you can even leave the spots on your tree blank if you don’t have a provable answer. It’s better to share accurate information. Eventually you will stumble across the answer or someone else will help out. Patience is a virtue in this hobby.

Do your own research. Trust your own little voice. It’s the best way to learn and to grow as a family historian.

Edward Baltierra, 85, of Stillwater, OK, passed away at his home early on July 20, 2021.

Eddie was born in Atwater, California, on September 13, 1935, to Leon and Pauline (Valenzuela) Baltierra. He was the eleventh of thirteen children. He had been sick for a time as an infant. He always credited his brother Ralph for the blood transfusion that saved his life.

Ed grew up in Firebaugh, CA. He was given a special license to drive at 12 years old because his father was sick and he needed to help his family. He went to Dos Palos High School. He played baseball. When he was 17, one of his best friends, Dinki Allen, convinced him to enlist in the army. His mom had to sign a permission slip to let him go. While Dinki was sent to Germany, Eddie was sent to Korea. Eddie did his basic training at Camp Roberts.

He went to Hawaii and Japan first before Korea. He became a cook. His first time making biscuits, the soldiers threw the hard rocks at the wall to see them explode. When his service ended he had achieved the rank of Staff Sargent. It was one of the greatest times of his life.

By the time he came home, his family had moved to San Jose, CA. He was a member of the San Joaquin Club, where he made so many good friends, especially the Plata brothers. He started working at Ford Motor Company’s Milpitas plant where he met great friends such as Arnold Fimbrez, Mr. Boone, Bart, and Sam Varela.

They played baseball and partied together. Eddie loved Rock n’ Roll music. Back in the 1950’s, many famous musicians came through San Jose. One of his favorite stories was when he was still in his army uniform. He caught the Platters performing. He asked the lovely Zola Taylor to dance with him, and she did!

Eddie married Edith Escalante September 4, 1965. They made their home in San Jose, CA. They had one daughter together, Edwina.

Eddie worked 30 years with Ford Motor Company, primarily at the Milpitas plant. He retired from Ford in 1987. Right before retiring he walked through the assembly line in St. Paul, Minnesota, and had his yellow F-150 pick up truck made with the help of his co-workers and friends.

In 1988, the family moved to Paso Robles, CA. Being a people person, Eddie bartended at the Black Oak Restaurant. He and Edith moved to Tucson in 2001, where he was a shuttle bus driver to the Skyport Airport in Phoenix, and a greeter at Kroger in his later years. He was the proud owner of a beautiful Golden Lab named Abby.

Eddie reluctantly came to live in Stillwater, OK, with Edith in 2017 to be closer to their family in their “Golden Years.” We are ever grateful for the family holidays, birthdays, and Boy Scout events we all got to share these last four years. We managed to keep him safe during the pandemic too.

He is survived by: his wife of almost 56 years Edith Escalante and his daughter Edwina Kersten; his son-in-law Ted Kersten who was so supportive and caring, helping wherever he could during Ed’s illness- as much as any son would; His pride and joy was his grandson Matthew Edward W. Kersten.

He is also survived by his sister, Irene Leyva; his sister-in-law Frances Escalante-Fox, whom he loved and would help move whenever she called on him over the decades. Those other very special family members to Ed were his “cuñado” Alex Escalante, special brother’s-in-law Art Escalante and Butch Escalante, Ted’s mom, Betty Kersten, friends Dinki Allen and Elmer Belmont, and all his nieces and nephews who have kept in touch over the years.

Due to Covid, we will be having a small private memorial service. Special thanks to Dinki for helping Ed to have his first Zoom meeting. He loved it. Edith and Edwina would like to thank those family and friends who sent best wishes, calls, messages, and flowers to Ed before the end.

Every once in a blue moon, I find a clue that leads to some really neat information. This last year has been a little dry in the “family history revelation” department. However, yesterday ended up being a great day.

This post has to do with my Great Grandparents, Leonardo Escalante and his wife Rufina Valenzuela. I had a vague notion of when they got married. It was 1887 according to the US Census in 1900. However, that was all the information I could find.

Until now!

A historian on Ancestry found this snappy little article. Thank you, C. Henry.

• 

It was so neat to see their names together. And getting married. However, the researcher listed that the couple got married in Tucson, AZ. I just didn’t see anywhere where that was documented. I have very serious trust issues on records. Without more information I had to work backward to find sources that would satisfy as “certain proof.”

I went to Tucson’s old newspapers. There was no Epitaph paper there. I am familiar with the “Tombstone Daily Epitaph,” so I wandered that way. While I subscribe the newspapers.com, I could not find this snippet in that paper. Grrrr.

I thought about researching through the backdoor. I looked up the other couple getting married in the article. Peter and Malinda got married in Tombstone that week in 1887. Check one. The Occidental Hotel was in the same town in 1887. Check two. The evidence was getting stronger.

I love to “see” where the life events happened. I searched images for the hotel. While there appear to be no photos, there were several drawings of this really neat hotel in the middle of nowhere. When the postcard below popped up in my search, I may have scared my family with the loud GASP I let out!

• 

This postcard was the clue that clicked everything into place last night. This was where our lovely couple got married the week of May 7, 1887. Do you see the name of the proprietor? He was the man in the Epitaph article whose wife gave birth to their son at the hotel. Check three, baby!

Now how did our loved ones get to Tombstone?

In the month of April, 1887, Leonardo’s half-sister, Maria Ramirez married her beau Manuel Barbachano. In the news announcement of their wedding, it says that her family lived in Ochoaville. (See postcard cancellation above)

• 

Leonardo could have been in the area for his sister’s wedding. His cousins Margarita Escalante de Blackburn and Alejandro Escalante lived in Tombstone and St. David, respectively. Rufina’s father lived in Bisbee. Both groom and bride were listed to be from San Pedro which isn’t too far from the hustle and bustle of this mining district. Nor too far from their new brother-in-law’s work at the Custom House.

• 

In the above map, can you see where the “P” in Pedro is? That is where the tiny town of San Pedro still is. They stayed long enough in the area for their first son, Jose Maria Escalante, to be born there too.

Up until now, I really thought that Leonardo didn’t talk to his sister Maria because their mother left the family to be with Maria’s dad. I know he was a devoted brother to Ana E. de Romo in Ventura and Orange Counties. But this earlier chapter of his life opens so many more theories of their lives together. Ana and Maria become very close after Leonardo died in 1915. There was a good chance that these adults overcame the adversity of their parents drama to become a close knit sibling group. And that is wonderful.

*****

Last, but not least, this blog post is dedicated to all of the friends and family who were touched by COVID this last year. Quite a few of our loved ones recuperated. But not all did. To my Samaniego cousins (via Rufina’s sister Margarita) in Mexicali, Tomas and Diana, rest in peace.

Today, I’m going to do something very different. I am going to write about the Other Side of my family. GASP! While this site is generally used to tell my mom’s family history, I want you to know, I have a dad too! My cousin John is the family historian over there. BUT. I had a conversation with a 91 year-old aunt of mine and she gave me a clue that led me to go hunting with a very fun find. I had so share with someone!

My dad’s parents were Leon Baltierra and Panfila “Pauline” Valenzuela. They were originally from Durango, Mexico. They left their home around 1914 and came to the United States. Their journey included my Baltierra grandparents, Cecilio and Trinidad. My grandmother Pauline never did see her parents again after leaving home at 13 years old.

I had known the names of my 4 great-grandparents, but had never seen any images of them. I love them dearly, but there was just a large disconnect for me there.

Until very recently.

My aunt Irene lives in Reno. We’ve been chatting more the last few months. She told me a story that another aunt had shared, but this time Irene gave me a HUGE clue that made all the difference in the world.

One day, in the 1930s, my grandmother Pauline and some of her daughters were at the movies in California. It was a Spanish language movie. She saw a character on the screen and stood up, “That’s my father! He’s in the movie!”

Pauline’s parents were Hermenegildo Valenzuela and Paula Perez. Information on them was really limited. And I had looked up Hermenegildo + movies online. Nothing. But when talking with Aunt Irene she casually mentioned that his stage name was Pedro Valenzuela. He had been a cowboy in Durango, got into Mexican movies, and then came to Hollywood to make westerns.

Just like that.

Well, okay then.

Within about a week, I had quite a bit more information than before.

Exactly when he became Pedro I don’t know. But between the time Pauline left home in 1914 to 1920, he left Durango behind and got into movies. He was in the 1920 US Census, room mates with a Steve Matura in Hollywood.

He has several film credits. The first film was “Border Law.” It’s a short Castle Film from 1923. He isn’t the star, but he and his horse come riding in 0:58 seconds into the movie.

 

Other film credits include: El Robin Hood de Mexico (1928), Las Campanas de Capistrano (1930), Right and Duty (1938).

Pedro managed to get enough press that (once I knew who he was) I could get a better sense of what he was up to in the late 1920’s, early 1930’s. Not bad for an actor who was never the star.

You can see the costuming he has above changed from the bedazzled garb of the early 1920’s. And then, the Western/Old West genre started to fade.

As the Great Depression kept its grip on the country, American audiences were looking more to comedies and musicals to take their minds off their woes.

You have got to love the internet. His second to last movie was “Let’s Go with Pancho Villa,” (Vámanos con Pancho Villa), 1936. In a time where home videos were non-existent, I can actually watch my maternal great-grandfather on-line. He played a soldier in the movie. The scene I found him in was where the soldiers were celebrating at the bar. You have to love the stereotype of “La Cucaracha” playing in the background, she wrote sarcastically.

You will find Pedro’s character (on left) drinking at a table with his friend who is trying to shoot the light out. The scene is at 55:45 in the film.

And that, my friends, is pretty much all I could find on him.

My Aunt Irene thought he got remarried, but I can find no trace of that. Or that he had more children. My grandmother left home with my grandfather at 13. Pedro must have moved into films immediately following.

I hope that he didn’t find himself terribly impoverished at the end of his days. I also hope he wasn’t terribly lonely. My family was up in the San Joaquin Valley of California by then. He could have gone to visit. He seems to have vanished.

However, I am thrilled to even have at least one photo of one of my great-grandparents.

Thanks for reading! Stay healthy everyone.

 

*****

I’m going to list some names of the Baltierra/Valenzuela family here so that if someone Googles them, they might find this post. On Ancestry, I have tons of relations I could chat with on the Baltierra side, but my Valenzuela side is lacking. If you find this page because you have searched for the following people, please feel free to contact me!

Cecilio Baltierra (Durango) and Trinidad Rodriguez (Mexicali)

Hermenegildo (Pedro) Valenzuela and Paula Perez (both of Durango)

And for the record, my dad’s Valenzuela is NOT related to my mom’s Valenzuela side. (We have the DNA results to prove it! Haha!)

* The above photo of Pedro and the Newsie was from this great blogsite: https://cinesilentemexicano.wordpress.com/2013/08/20/pedro-valenzuela-en-new-movie-magazine-de-enero-de-1931/

 

Howdy all!

Spring has arrived and is very wet this year. After 17.5″ of rain in the month of May, we are (hopefully) drying out. We have been fortunate enough to have dramatic storms overhead, while the tornadoes have gone around us. Our season isn’t over though…

The last few months have been extremely busy. We had a family reunion in Texas. The boy was finishing school when we turned right around to the Odyssey of the Mind World Final’s at Michigan State University. (If you can find an OofM team for your kid, I cannot recommend it enough!)

We are now in a summer lull. I had an email from a nagging cousin insinuating that I wasn’t blogging recently. I told him I had found all and that there was nothing left to find. He did not believe me! How rude! 🙂

There is an endorphin-rush when clues come together, articles are discovered, and photos are shared by friends of the family. (A huge shout out the Landa family for finding us last week!) But in the cut-throat world of genealogy there are also “dry spells.” It breaks my heart, but it happens. And I am currently in a desert.

Honestly, I am at a point where I have validated all of my theories. Not all are published now. They will be eventually. I’m not in a rush. However, I am at an end of my list of “leads.” After 6 years of having this site I’ve found Tony’s first wife, chatted with her granddaughter, visited her grave. I discovered Tony was part of an international incident while kidnapping his sister’s assailant. I’ve gone through the Magic Photo/Letter Box to find the name of David Perez’s dad. Most of my “need to find” list is done.

I have been given one task. That is to find Elisario Higuera’s information before Yuma. His descendants are vast, but any info on his past and parents are sketchy. Elisario was a mover and a shaker. He was a successful business man, got a 40-acre land grant from the US Government, and put his name on the Native American Rolls right before his death. Quite the Jack of All Trades. He was elusive; a ninja. I will do my best. I also have to wait until more data on him is available.

I do need to hold a bake sale for Tio Jose in Brawley. I got an email that he had no headstone to photograph for findgrave.com. I think he was buried in the “potter’s field” section of his cemetery. Sigh….

I digress. This is where you come in.

Got anything for me to look up? Any rumors you want to confirm? Deny? It may take a while, but I can see what I can do.

Please feel free to send me ideas. If they are super-sensitive, I can send you the results privately. If the story is super cool, and you think everyone would like to know what happened, consider letting me share the narrative here.

Thanks for listening. Off to watch The People’s Court…unless y’all send me something. Bye!