Soy de Duval

As most of you know, I am working on my latest book, Soy de Duval, the Nineteenth Century History of Duval County.  As an update, I am working on my final chapter, and it’s almost done. So as you can see, we are nearing publication; unfortunately, I cannot give you a definite date yet, so continue to sit tight, and we will get to the end soon. One issue that I am still trying to resolve is what to call the different groups of players. I am working with Mexicanos for Mexican nationals, Mexican Americans for Americans of Mexican descent, and Americanos for all the newcomers. Mexicanos is a given. The other two not so much. Let’s first look at Americanos . The newcomers to Duval County came from many different places. Some came from Texas, others from the United States, and many from Europe. While they all spoke English, many—like Mexicanos— did so with an accent. They came from places such as Germany, France, Ireland, Scotland, Norway, Italy, and other countries. So, technically,...

  POSTED BY: CARDENAS.AE@GMAIL.COM FEBRUARY 5, 2021 While doing some research on the Portal of Texas History earlier today, I ran across a copy of the 1970 Rattler yearbook from my alma mater, St. Mary’s University. Naturally, I wondered whether I had made it into the yearbook and lo and behold I found this: Alfredo Cardenas, 1970 St. Mary’s University I will pass on the temptation of editorializing on this photo, I will leave that up to ny readers. But it got me to thinking about those times and I remembered I had written a story for the school newspaper, The Rattler. I recalled it because 1) it was the first piece I ever wrote outside of our school newspaper, El Vaquero and 2) it was an interesting piece involving an altercation between the venerable Congressman Henry B. Gonzalez and a member of La Raza Unida. So off I went in search of that article and sure enough I found it and share it with you below. It would be negligent of me if I did not at least give you an update on ...

  POSTED BY: CARDENAS.AE@GMAIL.COM SEPTEMBER 21, 2020 Greetings! I am afraid I have become somewhat of a stranger over the last several months. My sincere apologies for that, but I have a good excuse: aside from my responsibilities as a husband, father, and grandfather (yay), now I have seriously begun to write my next book. Which I hope will be my opus! That is to say, the work I have been working on for years. Soon, within the year, hopefully, I will publish Soy de Duval, the Nineteenth Century History of Duval County, Texas. To meet this self-imposed deadline, I will dedicate all my spare time to the book. So, don’t expect to see Soy de Duval blogs any time soon. I genuinely hope you will understand this decision. What I have thought of doing, if you, my readers, think it would satisfy your need for Duval County historical stories, I could repost some “oldies but goodies” of past blogs. Let me know, either by replying to this blog or commenting on Facebook, that you would like ...