Monday spent most of the day doing exhaustive research on the 1700s history of New Mexico. Have been given multiple links to Land Grant, Wills, Church records, family "name" pages and newspaper articles. Information overload. Found an article published in The Chieftain.com site, filed under Cuentos Opinion dated 1/23/2014, written by Marc Simmons, on the word 'genizaros'. The article sparked my interest because this is a word that I heard as a child from my Grandpa Julian. Mr. Simmons writes that 'genizaros was a true "localism" used in its own way with a special meaning to the people of the Rio Grande valley during the Spanish colonial era and basically disappeared from our use in the late 1800s. I think the widespread use of the word maybe disappeared, but was still used by some old Spanish families well into the 1900s. "During Spanish colonial era, government officials or priests who used the word in their reports to superiors in Mexico City took pains to define it, knowing that outsiders were unfamiliar with the local usage."
He went on to explain that genizaro is the Spanish word for "Janizary". Spaniards probably picked up the word during their wars with the Turks. Originally the word was the name for guards and elite troops of the Turkish Sultan in the old Ottoman Empire. The Spaniards gave it a new meaning: A person begotten by parents of different nations." (A distant cousin told me that when she got her DNA results she was surprised that Southeast Asia was one of the primary results. Of course this lead into the study of the Ottoman Empire, which didn't collapse until their defeat in WWI, having existed since the Paleolithic age. The Turks, like most conquering entities, occupied a large portion of Eastern Asia, Europe, North Africa and any other place they may have found themselves. You can read about it on the Wikipedia website, if this sort of thing captures your interests. I love history!:)
In 1778, Father Juan Agustin de Morfi gave this definition: "In all the Spanish towns of New Mexico, there exists a class of Indians called genizaros. These are made up of captive Comanches, Apaches, etc. who were taken as youngsters and raised among us and who married in the province." It's a well known fact that Native American tribes raided each other to obtain women and children as slaves or new blood.
Anyway: Spaniards would ransom child captives and place them in the homes of wealthy colonists who were supposed to care for them and raise them as Christians. Read Catholic. Thereby thoroughly Hispanicized Indians lost their language and culture. So sad that the Pueblo Indians would have nothing to do with the genizaros.
Another article, published in the Albuquerque Journal on 2/23/2014, and written by Elmer Maestas, on Governor Juan de Onate's 1590 battle with Acoma Pueblo was very interesting and clipped for my research. Mr. Maestas is working on a New Mexico history book concentrating on the military and wars. Another source. Yay!
My sister sent an email with a flyer from RAICES(Remembering Ancestors Inspiring Culture Establishing Self) for a May 3rd FREE presentation on traditional herbal medicine. I like FREE classes:))
Tuesday looked around my place and decided to do 3 weeks of laundry and general cleanup. Also finished a crocheted scarf I'd been working on for 2 months! Whew. Spoke with Cyn for an hour. Went for a long swim. On the way back I ran into one of the lovely ladies that lives for her dog, who was not too pleased that it was raining. "It's raining?", I asked. The dog won't do her thing if the grass is wet. Too cute. Checked my snail mail, found 3 letters form NMHIX informing me that I did not qualify for government subsidized health insurance, and, would have to pay more than $5000.00 per year. Thank you obamascare. Yes indeed obama-scare! The Hispano Cultural Center is offering workshops to get health insurance. Guess I'll attend one of them before the 15th so I can have health insurance. Although my meds are cheaper without it. As are the doctor visits. Go figure.
Wednesday picked my daughter up, went to storage for more boxes, had lunch and wondered where all this "stuff" is gonna fit. Condense, condense, condense. I should have rented a larger place:(
Thursday we went to the aquarium because my daughter's friend was diving to feed the sharks. She won a drawing! Ran my cell battery down taking pictures and short clips of the event. We had lunch at their café and saw all the aquatic displays. Later my sis came over and we went through more family pictures. Then had dinner at Olive Garden. Chatted with a cousin for close to 4 hours. We ended our visit well after midnight, promising to get together soon to document more descendent history. Love this pic.
Friday unpacked, did more laundry, took a 2 hour walk at a local store and dropped into a great murder mystery. Can't give all my time to research;)
Saturday went to see the cousin I spoke with for almost 4 hours at her work place. Lo and behold, I ran into a cousin from my dad's side! We hadn't seen each other since her dad's funeral almost 17 years ago! We exchanged phone numbers, tried to get as much into our meeting as possible because she was on her lunch break. She has also been doing genealogy and told me that she had met one of our Grandpa Mora's brothers. How cool is that? Then unpacked, unpacked, unpacked and found my KitchenAid mixer. Been wanting homemade bread for weeks, but not into kneading dough for 30+ minutes. More yarn too:)
At this rate.....who needs a job, huh? Still need to respond to emails. By the way....let us abolish Daylight Savings Time!!!!!
This scripture was part of my morning devotionals: He who keeps instruction is in the way of life, but he who refuses correction goes astray. Whoever hides hatred has lying lips, and whoever spreads slander is a fool--Proverbs 10:17-18.
Have a great week totally blessed by our Savior.
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