Soy de Duval

TOPICS: Courthouse Duval County Texas Historic Preservation Historical Commission POSTED BY:  CARDENAS.AE@GMAIL.COM   JULY 18, 2016 This year, the Duval County Courthouse is celebrating it centennial. It was 100 years ago on October 1916 that the present courthouse was completed and dedicated. Two important events are on tap to observe the momentous event. The first is right around the corner. This Thursday, July 21, the Texas Historical Commission will hold a public hearing on an application submitted by Duval County to restore the courthouse to its original majesty. The historic restoration grant process is extremely competitive and the county needs all the public support it can muster. The meeting will be held in Austin in the Capital Extension, Room E1.026 beginning at  9 a.m. If you are in Austin on Thursday you are urged to attend the meeting in support of the Duval County application. If you cannot attend the meeting please call your state representative or st...

Las Villas del Norte presentation TOPICS: Genealogy History Research POSTED BY:  CARDENAS.AE@GMAIL.COM   MARCH 16, 2016 On Sunday, March 13, I made a presentation at Las Villas del Norte genealogy group in Mission, Texas. Click on the image below to see a video of the presentation. You will be sent to Las Villas del Norte website where you can play the actual video. Thanks to Moises Garza for the invitation and for recording and placing the video online.

POSTED BY: CARDENAS.AE@GMAIL.COM MARCH 12, 2016 Confirmation of land titles during the early days of Texas involved a complicated process. The King of Spain made many land grants in South Texas prior to Mexico gaining its independence. During Mexican sovereignty, the state of Tamaulipas either confirmed these grants or made new grants of its own. After Texas became a country and then a state, it established laws by which landowners could confirm ownership. On December 15, 1826, Mexico adopted Decree No. 42 known as the colonization laws, which allowed foreigners to colonize vacant lands in the state, provided they submitted to the laws of the republic. This law defined a sitio as a square league or 25 million square varas , a vara being three geometrical feet. A labor consisted of one million square varas or 1,000 varas on each side of a square. Four years later, on October 28, 1830 the Tamaulipas Congress adopted Law No. 47. The Congress saw a need to increase the population in ...

POSTED BY: CARDENAS.AE@GMAIL.COM MARCH 5, 2016 On October 15, 1835 Don Jose Antonio Gonzalez, a citizen of Camargo complied with requirements of the Colonization Law in regards to La Huerta grant, which was located in the jurisdiction of Camargo. He paid $46 12 1/2 cents and 11 grains which was the appraisal for 4.5 leagues of land, three labores and 125,000 square varas . A month later, on November 22, 1835 notice was given to adjoining landowners that title to La Huerta was being confirmed to Gonzales. The notice was signed by Jose Matias Ramirez, Provisional Alcalde of the town of Camargo. The transfer was completed on December 1, 1835 when Matias Ramirez took Gonzales by the hand walking to and fro over the tract of land. In a loud voice, Ramirez proclaimed that “citizen Antonio Gonzalez in the name of the free and sovereign people of Tamaulipas and by the authority in me vested I put you in judicial possession of four and a half leagues of land, three labores , and 125,000 squa...

This is not Company C, but they depict the Texas Rangers from this time period. POSTED BY: CARDENAS.AE@GMAIL.COM FEBRUARY 23, 2016 In 1887, the area around Duval County was still a frontier region and the governor sent Company C of the Frontier Battalion of the Texas Rangers to the new town of Collins to keep watch. In October, Sgt. Grimes and three men went to Duval County to look for suspected horse thieves but they returned in three days empty-handed. Two days later, however, Private Durbin and three others went to Cameron, Hidalgo, Starr and Duval Counties and arrested Donacio Ochoa, Augustine Felipe and Amando Oyos. Sgt. Grimes took four other Rangers to Concepcion on the following day looking for smugglers and horse thieves, and they arrested Baltasar Rito for horse theft; Nicolas Sanchez and Andres Delgado for smuggling; and Hilario Cruz for carrying a pistol. The Rangers took the suspects to the “civil authorities,” presumably the Duval County Sheriff. Texas Ranger badge. P...

TOPICS: ¡Con Gusto! Cookbook Lent Recipes POSTED BY:  CARDENAS.AE@GMAIL.COM   JANUARY 23, 2016 Lent comes early this year. Ash Wednesday will be on February 10, less than three weeks from now. Now is the time to pull out your ¡Con Gusto!  cookbook and start looking for recipes. Capirotada, a Lent favorite. Of course, the most traditional Lenten dish in South Texas is capirotada or “ sopa ” as we called in our home. Different cooks use different ingredients, and you can find four recipes in  ¡Con Gusto! . Edna Rios of San Diego uses cinnamon sticks, brown sugar margarine, anise, slices of toast, cheese slices, raisins, apple and pecans. Esmeralda Garcia’s capirotada has sugar, ground cinnamon, ground cloves, buttered toast, seedless raisin and shredded cheese. The book also has recipes from Evelyn Garcia Tobin of Edinburg and Blanca Perez of San Diego. Albondigas, salmon patties. Another popular Lenten dish is albondigas, or salmon patties. Lydia Canales f...

TOPICS: Andrew Valls Benavides Clemente Reyna Duval County Texas E.A. Glover Hayes Dix POSTED BY:  CARDENAS.AE@GMAIL.COM   JANUARY 12, 2016 On Feb. 6, 1893, two men at a Benavides bar got into a disagreement and were about to start swinging when a newly elected constable stepped in to stop the fight. The constable, who was an amputee, with only one arm was pushed back by one of the two men and the lawmen drew his pistol but was shot and killed by a bystander . Nobody served time in jail as the Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas reversed the conviction in a lower court, ruling that the lower court failed to instruct the jury that the fatal shots could have been in self defense. Now let us visit the story as closely as possible given the scarcity of available historical records. The Corpus Christi Caller would have been the newspaper of record for this type of incident but most issues from 1891-1898 are missing due to a fire. Clemente Reyna was elected constable for Duval Count...