boutons_deux
10-09-2010, 10:10 AM
http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2010-10-07-x610.jpg
Eva Jacqueline Longoria was born on March 15, 1975, in Corpus Christi, Texas, one of four children born to Enrique Longoria, Jr., and Ella Eva Mireles. Her parents were both Mexican Americans, and Eva told me she always extremely proud of her roots. "My family really has a strong sense of where it came from," she said. "I always felt really connected to my culture, whether it was through language, through religion, through tradition. It was just the way we grew up. If people ask me what I am, I say I'm a 'Texican.' Not Texan, not Mexican. Texican. Many of us do. The Texicans are the indigenous native people that were here before anybody else except the Indians. We were here for a long time."
2010-10-07-x610.jpg
Through our research, we were able to trace Eva's family across centuries and continents: from Texas across the Rio Grande into Mexico and then all the way back to Asturias, Spain, where her eleventh-great-grandfather, a man named Pedro de Longoria, who was born in 1525. And we were actually able to identify the first member of the Longoria family to set foot on the continent of North America. His name was Lorenzo Suarez De Longoria, and he is Eva's ninth-great-grandfather, born in Oviedo, Spain, around the year 1592. He immigrated to the New World when he was just eleven years old, traveling as the servant of his uncle, Pedro Longoria (not the same Pedro as Eva's eleventh-great-grandfather), who had been appointed the magistrate of Mexico by the Spanish Crown. The Longorias arrived in Vera Cruz in the summer of 1603, thus landing in North America seventeen years before the Mayflower! Today, our society tends to stereotype Mexicans as recent immigrants; Eva's family predates even the Pilgrims on this continent, forcing us to reconceive the way we think about the place of Mexico and Mexicans in the history of the New World.
We could not determine exactly why Lorenzo left Spain at such a young age. But we found an incredible story about his family in the Oviedo archives--a story that may shed some light on Lorenzo's decision to emigrate. Sometime in 1593, when Lorenzo was just a year old, the family became embroiled in a legal battle with their neighbors in northern Spain. We don't often uncover lawsuits from the sixteenth century, so this was a very unusual find for us. It seems that Lorenzo's father and his brothers had confronted the family of Diego Suarez in order to keep them from harvesting on their land. There are different versions of what happened, but all the accounts indicate that there was violence. The two families essentially fought a battle using farm implements as weapons. According to the documents, Suarez said that the Longorias came armed with heavy wooden staffs, reinforced with iron, and pitchforks and that Pedro Longoria, then a cleric in holy orders, led the attack, "telling my sons that by God, he would see them sent to row in prison ships." The lawsuit also alleges that Pedro called the Suarez daughters "wicked shameless whores" and that he struck them several times with a pole. "Well, we know where I got my Latin temper now," said Eva, laughing. "Nice, guys."
On November 16, 1593, the magistrate ordered all the Longoria men to be arrested and imprisoned. Before this order could be fulfilled, however, the Longorias were able to produce a deed from 1568 proving that the land was legally theirs. And so Eva's family was exonerated, and they were set free--despite the violence. And ten years later, Pedro the pole-swinging cleric was appointed a magistrate in New Spain. Eva laughed again. "This is a movie! These people are crazy."
The lawsuit tells us that land was very scarce, of course, in Spain and quite precious to Eva's family even then. It also helps us understand why her ancestor might have come to Mexico when he was just eleven years old: his family may have thought he would benefit from a fresh start.
At this point, Eva and I began to discuss the fact that although she identifies herself as Mexican--or Texican--her genealogy shows that her ancestors for the bulk of their history were considered Spanish. This, as I told her, resonates in the family even today. When our researchers interviewed her Aunt Irma, she talked about being Spanish and, quite frankly, was not at all interested in being identified as Mexican.
"That's funny," said Eva, "because I through and through feel Mexican, but obviously we wouldn't speak Spanish if it wasn't for the Spaniards. We wouldn't be Catholic if it wasn't for the Spaniards. But honestly, when I go to Mexico, I feel at home. When I go to Spain, I feel a connection, but I feel more at home in Mexico--maybe just because it's closer and it's what I know. In my family, I am the one who claims Mexico ancestry the strongest. Every time they ask, 'Where are you from?' my dad says, 'Spain.' 'Dad, we're from Corpus Christi.' We're not from Spain; we're from Texas. He would always talk about our ancestors, and I never really understood that when I was younger. But now I feel very proud that my family is from Spain. I feel very proud that the Longoria name has been so strong and unchanged."
I then told Eva that the admixture test of her DNA supported our genealogical research and her father's view. She is 70 percent European, 27 percent Native American, and 3 percent African.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/henry-louis-gates-jr/post_1026_b_754316.html?view=print
Eva Jacqueline Longoria was born on March 15, 1975, in Corpus Christi, Texas, one of four children born to Enrique Longoria, Jr., and Ella Eva Mireles. Her parents were both Mexican Americans, and Eva told me she always extremely proud of her roots. "My family really has a strong sense of where it came from," she said. "I always felt really connected to my culture, whether it was through language, through religion, through tradition. It was just the way we grew up. If people ask me what I am, I say I'm a 'Texican.' Not Texan, not Mexican. Texican. Many of us do. The Texicans are the indigenous native people that were here before anybody else except the Indians. We were here for a long time."
2010-10-07-x610.jpg
Through our research, we were able to trace Eva's family across centuries and continents: from Texas across the Rio Grande into Mexico and then all the way back to Asturias, Spain, where her eleventh-great-grandfather, a man named Pedro de Longoria, who was born in 1525. And we were actually able to identify the first member of the Longoria family to set foot on the continent of North America. His name was Lorenzo Suarez De Longoria, and he is Eva's ninth-great-grandfather, born in Oviedo, Spain, around the year 1592. He immigrated to the New World when he was just eleven years old, traveling as the servant of his uncle, Pedro Longoria (not the same Pedro as Eva's eleventh-great-grandfather), who had been appointed the magistrate of Mexico by the Spanish Crown. The Longorias arrived in Vera Cruz in the summer of 1603, thus landing in North America seventeen years before the Mayflower! Today, our society tends to stereotype Mexicans as recent immigrants; Eva's family predates even the Pilgrims on this continent, forcing us to reconceive the way we think about the place of Mexico and Mexicans in the history of the New World.
We could not determine exactly why Lorenzo left Spain at such a young age. But we found an incredible story about his family in the Oviedo archives--a story that may shed some light on Lorenzo's decision to emigrate. Sometime in 1593, when Lorenzo was just a year old, the family became embroiled in a legal battle with their neighbors in northern Spain. We don't often uncover lawsuits from the sixteenth century, so this was a very unusual find for us. It seems that Lorenzo's father and his brothers had confronted the family of Diego Suarez in order to keep them from harvesting on their land. There are different versions of what happened, but all the accounts indicate that there was violence. The two families essentially fought a battle using farm implements as weapons. According to the documents, Suarez said that the Longorias came armed with heavy wooden staffs, reinforced with iron, and pitchforks and that Pedro Longoria, then a cleric in holy orders, led the attack, "telling my sons that by God, he would see them sent to row in prison ships." The lawsuit also alleges that Pedro called the Suarez daughters "wicked shameless whores" and that he struck them several times with a pole. "Well, we know where I got my Latin temper now," said Eva, laughing. "Nice, guys."
On November 16, 1593, the magistrate ordered all the Longoria men to be arrested and imprisoned. Before this order could be fulfilled, however, the Longorias were able to produce a deed from 1568 proving that the land was legally theirs. And so Eva's family was exonerated, and they were set free--despite the violence. And ten years later, Pedro the pole-swinging cleric was appointed a magistrate in New Spain. Eva laughed again. "This is a movie! These people are crazy."
The lawsuit tells us that land was very scarce, of course, in Spain and quite precious to Eva's family even then. It also helps us understand why her ancestor might have come to Mexico when he was just eleven years old: his family may have thought he would benefit from a fresh start.
At this point, Eva and I began to discuss the fact that although she identifies herself as Mexican--or Texican--her genealogy shows that her ancestors for the bulk of their history were considered Spanish. This, as I told her, resonates in the family even today. When our researchers interviewed her Aunt Irma, she talked about being Spanish and, quite frankly, was not at all interested in being identified as Mexican.
"That's funny," said Eva, "because I through and through feel Mexican, but obviously we wouldn't speak Spanish if it wasn't for the Spaniards. We wouldn't be Catholic if it wasn't for the Spaniards. But honestly, when I go to Mexico, I feel at home. When I go to Spain, I feel a connection, but I feel more at home in Mexico--maybe just because it's closer and it's what I know. In my family, I am the one who claims Mexico ancestry the strongest. Every time they ask, 'Where are you from?' my dad says, 'Spain.' 'Dad, we're from Corpus Christi.' We're not from Spain; we're from Texas. He would always talk about our ancestors, and I never really understood that when I was younger. But now I feel very proud that my family is from Spain. I feel very proud that the Longoria name has been so strong and unchanged."
I then told Eva that the admixture test of her DNA supported our genealogical research and her father's view. She is 70 percent European, 27 percent Native American, and 3 percent African.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/henry-louis-gates-jr/post_1026_b_754316.html?view=print