Here are just two examples of how my family's stories have connected
the past to my life.
My mother's family
left New Mexico in the 1920s to live in Wyoming, where my mother was born. Since
there was no Medicare or old-age homes then, elderly parents, aunts, and uncles
lived with their families.
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| Rufina (Maldonado) Maes and Andres Maes |
One of the stories related how an important priest baptized
my great-grandmother near Taos. This priest also provided schooling for young
boys; which led my great-grandmother's uncle to became a priest. My mother knew
the stories, but not necessarily the names or dates.
Fast forward to the 1970s where I had access to genealogy
records at the Federal Center in Denver and large collections of Latter Day
Saint genealogy microfilms.
I was determined to verify family stories through the
primary documents. I also read as much as I could about New Mexico history and
learned about the famous rebel priest, Antonio Jose Martinez from Taos. He was
a character in Willa Cather's novel, Death Comes to the Archbishop.
I learned
Padre Martinez stood up to the French archbishop, Lamy, in support of the
Hispanic population. He started a newspaper and also schooled young men, many
of whom became priests, including my great-grandmother's uncle.
By studying
history to verify a story, I gained a different perspective than Willa Cather,
of the priest and his times.
After years of turning the spindles on the microfilms, I
found a gold mine—my great-grandmother's baptism record signed by this very
priest in 1848 in Taos. The added gems were that the baptism record not only
recorded my great-grandmother's parents, but included both sets of her
grandparents, including the maiden names of both grandmothers! This information
allowed me to connect to the first families who colonized New Mexico in 1598
and with those who returned to New Mexico after the Pueblo Revolt in 1680.
With the advent of the internet, and still seeking primary
documents, I now have found records of my great-grandmother's uncle priest. How
I wish I could share these finds with my mother. She would have enjoyed knowing
that her priest ancestor was the officiate at a marriage between my father's
ancestors.
I found another family story in a Newbery Award book. When I
attended the University of Wyoming in the 1960s, one of my professors of
children's literature required us to read a certain number of Newbery Award
books. This was when I discovered...And
Now Miguel by Joseph Krumgold.
It's the story of a New Mexican boy in the
1940s who wants to take the family's flock of sheep to graze in the Sangre de
Cristo Mountains, but everyone thinks he's too young.
Miguel's story is basically my dad's story! As a young boy in the
1930s, my dad was the family shepherd in those very mountains. He herded about
two hundred sheep for my grandfather and great-grandfather. However, my dad wasn't
a hero for saving sheep. Instead, he started a forest fire because he was bored
with the "dumb sheep." Can you imagine what it's like to see your own
family story in a published book, when you're not used to seeing Hispanics in
many books.
Family stories inspired me to write my own stories, based on
our Hispanic experience in New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming. Hopefully they
will be published and inspire others to mine their own family stories, which
will also immerse them in history.
Stories are powerful, whether oral or written and can be the
impetus for someone delving into their own history and writing about it. As
Isabel Camp says," Our universe if made up of 'vacant silences.' There is
room for seven billion stories, one written by each person in this tiny planet."
What are your passion(s)? What has fueled them? What are
your students' and patrons' passions? Now go light those fires!
You probably gathered New Mexico is another passion of mine.
I hope to share some middle grade books with New Mexico settings in my next
post.
