Soy de Duval

Andres Tijerina addresses the crowd at earlier Beasley's book signing. For those who missed the earlier book signing of historian Andrés Tijerina’s  Beasley’s Vaqueros , the author will be at the Twig Book Shop on Friday, December 16, beginning at 5 p.m. The bookstore is at 306 Pearl Parkway, Suite 106, in San Antonio For directions  from your location, click here .  Beasley’s Vaqueros presents the life and work of South Texas artist Ricardo Moreno Beasley. Between roughly 1940 and 1980, Beasley produced dozens of pen-and-ink drawings of working vaqueros, the Tejano cowboys of South Texas. His vibrant, action-packed scenes capture the joys of working with cattle, horses, and an often unforgiving landscape of cactus and mesquite. In addition to a selection of Beasley’s work, Tijerina collected and translated an extensive interview with the artist discussing several of his poems. Despite having lived much of his life after World War II, Beasley’s art and wor...

A packed sanctuary came out to St. Francis de Paula in San Diego to learn about relics. Photos by Father James Farfaglia Father Carlos Martins Last night, November 28, 2022,  Father Carlos Martins, a Vatican-appointed expert on relics, presented an extraordinary Vatican collection of over 150 relics, some as old as 2,000 years, at St. Francis de Paula in San Diego.  Among the treasures was  a portion of the Veil of Our Lady and one of the largest remaining pieces of the True Cross in the world.  "Treasures of the Church" is a ministry of evangelization of the Catholic Church.  Directed by Father Martins, its purpose is to give people an experience of the living God through an encounter with the relics of his saints in the form of an exposition.  The exposition began with a multi-media presentation on the Church’s use of relics that is scriptural, catechetical, and devotional, leading to a renewal of the Catholic faith for many people. Attendees were ab...

Photo by Thelma Bazan Cuellar Sonia Barrera, Guest Blogger On Saturday, Nov. 19, nearly 200 descendants of San José’s founding family braved wind, rain, and unseasonable cold to dedicate an official Texas Historical Marker at the Antonio López Family Cemetery. Eight generations of López are laid to rest at the cemetery established circa 1903. “This official historical marker represents a link to the past, not just for our family, but for all Texans," Laura De La Rosa, the event’s master of ceremonies and a three times great-granddaughter of Antonio Lopez, said. "It’s an acknowledgment of the role our ancestors played in settling this area and in helping to build this Great State of Texas.”  The San Diego VFW Post 8931 Color Guard opened the ceremony, and Father George Thomas Parappallil, Pastor of Saint Joseph Mission in San José, provided a blessing. Duval County Judge E. B. Garcia read the Texas Historical Commission’s proclamation of the cemetery’s historical status. The C...

  Andres Tijerina signs book for one of many admirers who came to the Witte Museum in San Antonio to hear about the author's latest epic work.  An overflow crowd showed up at the  Ewing Halsell Hall at the Witte Museum on Sunday, November 20, to admire the work of San Diego Tejano artist Ricardo Beasley depicted in Andres Tijerina's latest book Beasley's Vaqueros . A large number of those in attendance came from Duval County and the surrounding area and most if not all purchased a book. In his presentation, Tijerina praised not only Beasley and his art but also the many vaqueros which were the subject of the artist's drawings.  The works are on display at Witte's  Russell Hill Rogers Art Gallery and will remain on exhibit until March 20, 2023. Friends of Ricardo Beasley came out in great numbers to pay tribute and give recognition to his talented works.

Parishioners at St. Francis de Paula in San Diego are witnessing ongoing renovations every week. By Father James Farfaglia,  Guest Blogger St. Francis de Paula in San Diego is currently renovating its stained-glass windows. This is part of a larger preservation project of the inside of the church, with an expected completion in Summer 2023. Dario  Bucheli The new carpet is being installed this week. The inside of the church has already been painted and looks really nice.   Next,  Dario  Bucheli will clean and renovate the parish's statuary and  the gold leaf stars on the blue dome. This should be completed by Christmas. Bucheli and Adrian Cavallini have  been professionally clean ing the Stations of the Cross. The newly renovated Stations of the Cross will be delivered next Tuesday, November 22.  The final phase, pending final approval from Bishop Mulvey, is the sanctuary upgrade. The St. Francis de Paula Renovation Project is ma...

Cover of a new book on the art of Ricardo Beasley. By  Juanita García Tijerina , Guest Blogger The Texas State Historical Association has published Andrés Tijerina’s book Beasley’s Vaqueros: The Memoirs, Art, and Poems of Ricardo M. Beasley  on the art of San Diego native Ricardo Beasley. Andrés  Tijerina  Andrés Tijerina has written many books on Tejanos and Texas history and has won many national awards for his books. Still, the best ones are about South Texas ranch families and vaqueros. One of my favorites was his Tejano Empire: Life on the South Texas Ranchos , which includes many of Beasley’s art drawings. In writing  Beasley’s Vaqueros Andrés relied on the people of San Diego and surrounding towns for leads on the original Beasley drawings, among them Tomas Molina, Chuck Barrera, Servando Hinojosa, and Homero Vera. Homero took him to the old Jerry’s Restaurant in San Diego, where one of the drawings was still on the wall. Lupe still had five drawings...

A standing-room-only crowd attended a  presentation sponsored by the Duval County Historical Commission at the District Courtroom in San Diego. Graciela Treviño Gonzáles, Guest Blogger An overflow crowd gathered at the 229th District Courtroom in San Diego on October 15 to observe the Centennial and honor the memory of three men, Vicente Aguilar, Dionisio Maldonado, and Crescencio Oliveira Jr., slain by Texas Rangers in 1920 in Bruni. They were on their way to a wedding in Parás, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, where Oliveira was to marry María de Jesús “Chuchita” Gutiérrez. Keynote speaker Dr. Carmona. “It was important to correct the narrative,” Lydia Oliveira Canales of Benavides said. Canales is a longtime Duval County Historical Commission member that sponsored the gathering. “The evil was in those that abused their power with vigilante justice.” The incident involved the killing of three Mexicanos by Texas Rangers in 1920 when Texas Rangers, local sheriff’s departments, and vigilante gro...

  By Robert Moncada,  Guest Blogger South Texas communities are historically known for their vibrant architecture, including banks, libraries, churches, courthouses, and many other buildings. These structures serve as landmarks for many rural towns. For example, in San Diego, St. Francis de Paula Catholic Church, the A. L. Muil Building and the Hoffman Bank have stood the test for over 100 years. Although different in their purpose, all the buildings share one thing in common: their architect. Jules Leffland was an architect from Denmark who gained fame and fortune throughout Texas. He was heavily involved in South Texas development from 1886 until the 1910s. Many of his works are listed on the National Register of Historic Places and have earned historical markers from the Texas Historical Commission. Jules Leffland After beginning his career as an architect in Denmark, Leffland emigrated to Victoria, Texas, in 1886. In Victoria, 15 buildings bear the Leffland design. I...

  By Cicero Moraes - Facial reconstruction of Santa Rosa de Lima from her digitized skull in Lima, Peru, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=42706655 . The Catholic Church in Benavides is known as Santa Rosa de Lima. Before we get to a discussion on who this saint is, we will look at a brief history of the parish. First, the parish has not always been known as Santa Rosa de Lima. One of the earliest mentions of a church in Benavides was in 1887 when the Corpus Christi Caller, on July 2, noted that A. L. Muel had finished building a Catholic Church in Benavides. It first appeared in the Official Catholic Directory (OCD) in 1890 as a “chapel” visited by priests from San Diego. The name of the church does not appear in earlier references.  The first mention of the parish’s name came in 1916 when the OCD noted that the “mission” at Benavides, still attended by the priest in San Diego, was named St. Paul. This name remained the church’s moniker until 1941...

  In doing some research on St. Francis de Paula, I ran across this amusing tale reprinted from the London Spectator in the Galveston Tribune of January 12, 1900. Hope you enjoy it. 

Women at Methodist Church gathering*, San Diego, Texas. (n.d.). Retrieved March 9, 2022, from https://digital.utsa.edu/digital/collection/p9020coll008/id/5183/rec/62 Writing about his experience in San Diego in 1891, a New York Sun reporter wrote: “at the risk of offending the fair and fashionable ladies of Gotham City, there crowded into a small barn-like theater or Teatro of the town last night more pretty women than any theater in New York ever held at one time…their hair was brushed smoothly back over their shapely heads, a la Mexicana, with here and there a Texas Lilly gleaning like a star in their tresses the señoritas had the wonderful pure Madonna-like beauty which northern eyes never see save in pictures of Santa María painted by old masters… Murillo probably used their great-great-grandmothers for his creations of the Holy Mother.  *These are not the señoritas that the reporter spoke about, but they are from that same generation.

The Berlin Bridge Company built three iron bridges in Duval County in 1890. The company erected this  bridge in the 1890s but is not one from Duval County.   In May 1890, a correspondent with the Galveston newspaper visited San Diego and was quite impressed with what he saw. The reporter described San Diego as "most decidedly Spanish or Mexican." But the residents, although coming from different places, all understood Spanish and English. So it was hard to tell whether an individual you met on the streets of San Diego was Spanish, Mexican, American, German, French, or some other nationality. He observed that he witnessed a group of "fashionably dressed and well-educated ladies" in conversation." Their first sentence was in English and the next in Spanish, "with equal fluency." ( The Galveston Daily News . (Galveston, Tex.), Vol. 49, No. 22, Ed. 1 Tuesday, May 20, 1890.) In other happenings that year, the Duval County Commissioners Court issued a contr...

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Graciela Treviño Gonzalez receives a state history award. AUSTIN, Tx. - On February 4, Duval County Historical Commission Chair Graciela Treviño Gonzalez received the  George Christian Outstanding Volunteer of the Year  award   from the Texas Historical Commission.  She was recognized for preserving Duval County's heritage and promoting visitation to historic places in Texas.  Gonzalez with state preservation officials. "I am honored to receive this recognition," Gonzales said. "I worked with our commission, Judge Saenz, the THC team, and the architects to move forward on the preservation of the historic courthouse." Gonzales and the Historical Commission began to preserve the courthouse several years ago. They partnered with local officials to get funds from the Emergency Courthouse Preservation Grant Program administered by the Texas Courthouse Preservation Program.  Additionally, under Gonzales' leadership, the Duval County Historical...