They Walked Before Us...

They Walked Before Us In Their Moccasins, Boots, and Bare Feet

Part I : Times Have Changed

Our story, like that of other families, is one of roots and wings. It is also never-ending, continually being written by each of us.

It is so difficult to believe that my Nana has been gone for twenty years already; that there will soon be three generations of children in our family that never met her. Tata went to her side fourteen years ago as well. When Tata’s sister, Tia Nani left us… their generation in its entirety was gone. For my children from here on out all they will know of them are the pictures they see on our living room wall. When I was young, our family gathered often, spilling out of whatever small house Mis Abuelos occupied at the time. Holidays, special occasions, and nearly every Sunday after Mass. Kids all over the place, women in the kitchen or living room laughing at the weeks stories, men outside discussing plans for the coming week. Nana scurrying around with her apron tucked up high, and Tata enjoying his beer and maybe even serenading us with a song on his guitar. Back then, they were the center of the universe.

Now, each branch of the family has developed into its own universe. Aside from funerals, we rarely gather anymore, at least not the same way. My Tia Helen is about to witness the birth of her own fourth generation. She has twenty six Grandchildren, forty nine Great-Grandchildren, and soon…one Great-great Grandchild. How time moves on…

Part II : A Historical Context

Every land has a history, and history would not exist without the people who make it. Every people have a culture, and culture would not develop without the surroundings in which it forms.

In researching my family it amazed me that for centuries we have mostly lived where we live now. Yes, Tata hails from Mexico, but did you know that Tucson and Alter were once associated towns in the same state in New Spain (Mexico)? Arizona had only become a state three years before he was born. How about these facts? One of Tata’s direct ancestors was the father-in-law of Tomas Ortiz, one of the original land grantees from Arivaca where Nana was born. Families regularly traveled by foot, horseback, or buckboard between Altar, Arivaca, and Tucson. One branch in Tata’s line dates back to Tucson when it was a Presidio, wherein our relatives were commanders and soldiers, and later owners of vast land grants that swept today’s border region. The Mexican “elite” to which they belonged, held most land grants until the 1820’s when the Apaches began driving them from their lands and back into their villages deeper in Sonora. By the 1880’s, when they were able to safely return, American land and cattle owners had taken possession of the land. Although many of the actual land owners disputed their occupancy, the American’s had stronger business and political ties and many of these families lost their land grants. For this reason, Tata’s people went back into the Altar Valley, and would not return to this area until after his birth a couple of generations later. About the same time Nana’s family came into the Arivaca/Tucson area from the San Ignacio region during the mass fleeing of Yaquis from the Mexican Military in the late 1800’s. So you see, our roots run deep.

Tucson

Historians have established that originally the Tucson area was populated by Pima Indians. Their villages were scattered all over the land when Jesuit Missionary Eusabio Kino arrived in the 1690’s bestowing the name “San Cosme de Tucson” on the region, which had been simply “Chuk-Son” to the Natives. The translation was literally “water at the foot of black mountain”, which referred to the flowing Santa Cruz at the base of what we know now as Sentinel Peak or “A”Mountain.

With the arrival of the missionaries began the second incarnation under Spanish rule (1775-1821). The nearest military garrison of the Royal Spanish Army was at Tubac until 1776 when that post was evacuated and moved to the newly built Presidio, “San Augustine de Tucson”. Presidial life was not unlike modern era military base life. Inside the fortress were homes, barracks, stables, a church, and a cemetery all situated around a plaza, which served as the gathering place. The purpose, to live contained and protected against outside attacks. Soldiers had daily duties including sentry and escorting civilians beyond the walls to perform daily tasks. There remained a few scattered dwellings across the desert landscape, but most ranchers had left their homes for the security of the presidio walls. Officers in these forts held administrative and political roles, and the Commander also granted him the role of judge of the settlement. The Tucson Presidio was then part of a region called the Pimeria Alta, which included modern Southern Arizona and Northern Sonora, Mexico.

The next banner to fly over this region contained an eagle and a serpent. In 1821 with victory and independence from Spain, Mexico took power and control of the outposts and military personnel. Tucson became a part of the State of Occidente, which included Sonora and Sinaloa. In 1848, following the outcome of the War with Mexico, the United States annexed territory, including Arizona North of the Gila. U.S. President Franklin Pierce supported “Manifest Destiny”, which was basically the belief that it was America’s destiny to expand continuously. He sent James Gadsden as his minister to Mexico to negotiate aggressively. On the other side, President Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna was in debt on the coattails of back-to-back wars with Spain and the U.S. He wanted to avoid a third war and needed desperately to replenish his national treasury. The result would be the Gadsen Purchase of 1854 in which all of Arizona and the Northern part of Sonora was secured by the U.S. for the price of $10 million.

Tucson was now part of the United States and overnight Mexican Citizens became “Mexican-Americans” as part of the New Mexico territory. Along with this change became a shake-up of the social system developed through the years among frontier families. Despite promises to do so, the U.S. Government failed to honor standing land grants as presidial families returned to their ranches. Soldiers and civilians alike had to make decisions about staying and working land that they could no longer claim ownership of. Some returned to the Altar Valley across the border and rejected U.S. Citizenship, while others remained to make a go of it. The U.S. was on the verge of its own Civil War and as for this new territory, it was the land, not the people that were desired. After all, the country was clearly divided as to the beliefs about people of color, which included the Mexican, Indian, and Mestizo population that still dominated the area.

During the Civil War, the Confederate South actually briefly occupied Arizona Territory until the Battle at Picacho Peak on April 15, 1862 returned possession to the Union. This would prove to be the final exchange of allegiance as the outcome of the War Between the States would determine the re-unification of this country. Arizona would achieve full Statehood, the forty eighth, with a stroke of President William Taft’s pen on February 14, 1912.

The Yoeme (Yaqui) Nation

As early as the year 552 Yaqui’s were living in family groups along the Yoeme Vative (Yaqui River) in Mexico, North to the Gila River. By 1414 there is proof they had organized into unified cultural and military groups. They traded and often lived among other Indian tribes, however, maintained their own language and beliefs. This tradition was centered on living as equals among all men and respect of the spiritual homeland. Although peaceful in nature, history will show that in defense of home and family a deep fighting spirit prevailed.

In 1533 thousands of Yaqui lives were lost when the first known Spanish Military expedition came through the valley to capture slaves. Between 1608 and 1610, there was a second wave of these attacks. Preferring peace to war, elders asked Jesuits to come live among the villagers to do missionary work and help in economic development. During this time most Yaqui’s settled into eight sacred Pueblos around the Altar Valley: La Navidad del Senor de Vikam, Santa Rosa de Vahkom, La Asuncion de Nuestra Senora de Rahum, Espiritu Santo (Ko'okoim), Santa Barbara de Wiivisim, San Ignacio de Torim, San Miguel de Veenem, and La Santisima Trinidad de Potam.

Around 1684 silver was discovered in the Yaqui River Valley and the Spanish began encroaching on the sacred lands, claiming the wealth belonged to the Spanish Crown. In 1740 the Yaqui and Mayo Indians united to fight for the land. This would begin a war which would span 190 years, and would involve first the Spaniards and then the Mexican Military after independence was won from Spain. For generations soldiers and villagers alike were taken prisoner; sometimes sold into slavery, or even tortured and executed following raids by the military. In 1868 one hundred and twenty men, women, and children were locked into a Yaqui Village church and shot by troops. Resistance remained, but many families fled into the mountains of Southern Arizona to escape persecution. By 1887, the Mayo had stopped fighting, and there were only about 4,000 people left in the Valley. Refusing to give up, Arizona Yaqui’s sent arms and ammunition to help in the efforts of the Sonoran’s defense of the lands they considered theirs. In 1897 the Mexican Government signed a peace treaty, but would prove to continue raiding the villages to take and deport slaves.

In Arizona the Yaqui communities were growing up as more and more people fled for their safety. Because of relative proximity of potential enemies, some were forced to “blend in” with their surroundings, claiming Mexican or even Spanish ancestry in an attempt to escape tortures. The Yaqui language and ceremony went underground, which still threatens its survival today. Guadalupe, near Phoenix and the Tucson Pascua Villages and Barrio Libre became the transplanted homelands here in the United States. On January 8, 1918 the final Yaqui battle with U.S. Troops took place at Arivaca when the Tenth Calvary intercepted a group of American Yaquis en route to render aid to their Sonoran brothers. In Mexico, however, it wouldn’t be until 1927 when the war finally ended. At Cerro Del Gallo (The Hill of the Rooster) the Yoeme lost their battle and were forced to establish Mexican garrisons at all of their pueblos and villages.

It wasn’t until 1939 that Mexico finally recognized and returned to the Nation their sacred lands and rights. On the American side, the Pascua Yaqui were granted two hundred and two acres of land in 1964 and on September 18, 1978 the tribe became federally recognized.

Part III : They Planted the Seeds

I imagine that the specifics of my Nana and Tata’s early relationship, unfortunately, were probably lost to us when they died. However, you never can be too sure as time and perseverance can often reveal many things at one time thought to be lost to the ages.

My Nana, Victoria Maria Canez, was born on August 9, 1918 at Cerro Colorado in Arivaca, Arizona. She was the fourth daughter of Francisco Canez and the first of his second wife, Juanita Frasquillo Canez. Nana apparently shared a close relationship with her mother in a household that included her three half-sisters from her father’s first marriage to Manuela Corona. Nana used to say that the sisters were jealous of their father’s attention to her mother, and to the younger children. She said she often argued and fought with them because they would be cruel to Juanita, not behaving for her at all. Somehow though, they must have eventually come to terms with these childhood issues because as an adult my Grandmother shared regular, cordial visits with all of her siblings. As a young girl she helped her Mom with household chores and childcare as well as attending the small schoolhouse which still stands in Arivaca today. She was forced to abandon her studies, however, when tragedy struck in 1930 and her Mother died of Septicemia a few days after the birth of her youngest brother, Jose Juan. “Childbirth Fever”, as it was often called, was an unfortunate result of unsanitary surroundings during the home birth. At twelve-years-old Nana would become the primary caregiver to her siblings, all except for the baby, who went to live with a nearby Uncle and Aunt. She also became the tender of the house and really would never relinquish that role again. Until the 1950’s she never worked outside of the house. Only then, once she had her own family, she began tending to other houses to help support her large family, once opening a small family restaurant with my Maternal Grandmother, Margaret Purscell called “Margarita’s”.

As I understood it, Nana was the younger half-sister of three: Eva, Esther, and Benita…and the older sister of three more: Francisco "Pancho", Jose Maria "Gia", and Jose Juan "Little Joe". Then, a few years ago I found out that she also had a younger sister, with whom she had a very close relationship. Ignacia, also known as Nancy or “Natcha” had somehow been forgotten to a certain degree because she had died at age sixteen and my Nana had stopped talking about the heartache. Since nobody could recall what had killed Nancy I set out investigating on my own. I would discover two different things that would blow my mind. First, a picture of her existed taken just before she died. In it she is flanked by two of her brothers, posing beneath a bright sun next to their adobe home in Arivaca. Although all three are squinting, I could clearly recognize, in the face of my long deceased Great Aunt, my little sister looking back at me. In fact, my sister Breanna is the spitting image of this poor soul whom I found out had succumbed to bronchial pneumonia. While searching through death certificates in pursuit of this answer, I also found something else which apparently nobody else in the family was aware of up to that time. There was another death certificate listing Francisco and Juanita as surviving parents. My Nana had another sister, born between Tia Natcha and Tio Pancho. Josefina had died of acute colitis at one year. Why we had never heard of her is a mystery, but she has now proudly been restored to her rightful place in the family tree.

My Tata, Manuel Gonzales Munoz, was born on February 3, 1915 in Altar, Sonora, Mexico. His parents, Rafael Munoz and Ramona Gonzales Munoz moved their family to the United States a year later. The family resided in Tucson, a few houses down from a family listed in the 1920 census as “Frasquio”, which may also give us a hint as to how Nana and Tata met as these neighbors were undoubtedly related to Nana Juana.

Tata was the sixth of seven. He and his siblings; Rafael, Jesusita "Chu", Dolores "Lola", Francisco "Chico", Socorro, and Erlinda "Nani" were brought up by strict and deeply religious parents. Even as an adult my Tata would take his family to church every Sunday, followed by a visit with his parents. My Dad says as kids they would always find trouble to get into around the yard because their Grandfather did not believe that children were to be around the adults when conversations were going on. (I have to admit right here to my father that he should rest assured that the tradition continued with me and my cousins when we were younger...if trouble wasn't around, we went in search of it!!!)

All of the boys were raised doing hard work and as an adult Tata would hold blue-collar jobs as a Contractor/Excavator, a Gravedigger, and finally a Landscaper for the county before he retired. Traveling up and down I-10 you are sure to see many of the plants and trees Tata once planted and cared for. All of the siblings would live to adulthood, but, his brother Rafael would die of a heart attack at age fifty. Like his wife, Tata was close to his siblings and maintained relationships with them until their deaths. Like Nana, he was pained deeply when he lost his brother, and could be seen most every weekend kneeling at his grave, often sharing a beer.

My Dad has speculated that Nana and Tata probably met through Tata’s sister Lola, who dated and married Nana’s first cousin, Juan. Apparently, once Tata set to courting her, even the distance between their homes in Tucson and Arivaca could not deter him from seeing her as often as possible. According to the story he used to tell his kids, he took the long walk out there often, arriving with no soles left on his shoes!!!

My Grandparents were married on January 21, 1934 and my Abuelos feet got a much needed relief from his “hikes” out to the Arivaca Ranch. They lived down the street from several households filled with his siblings and cousins. She kept house while he went to work, as was the tradition of the time. Weekends found Tata enjoying his favorite pastime, drinking. He drank as hard as he worked, sometimes causing conflicts with Nana, who had her hands full with the kids at home. My father, Frank, was one of nine living children. There were my Tios: Raphael "Ralph", Manue “JooHoo”l, Ramon "Ray", Arnold, and Oscar…and my Tias: Helen, Juanita "Jenny", and Monica "Mica". There was another, Emily, who died of Spina Bifida as a baby. At home Tata had a bit of a reputation as a “soft” disciplinarian, and Nana had to make up for it with an assertive brand of discipline to try and keep at least some semblance of order among her troops. So, as Dad has told me, “she would tell you something once and if you didn’t listen then she would grab whatever was within reach and whoop the #*% out of you!” He was in charge of household maintenance, she handled the finances. One of her favorite little quips to her kids was, “Dad makes the money first…but I make it last!”

Once we Grandchildren were in the picture, there are thirty of us, some of the strict characteristics she had shared with her children had morphed into an ornery playfulness, and Tata continued on with his “soft” ways. So, while I know there was an edge to them, my memories of my Grandparents are largely comical.

(Warning: here comes my signature sarcasm)

Nana was only like two feet tall, or something like that. A waist apron covered most of her body, so she wore it tucked up high above her tummy…and I’m pretty sure she wore dolls clothes and shoes. I remember once when she nearly smacked me, as she laughed, when I pulled a nearby chair up for her to stand on so she could reach the top of the stove when she cooked. Once we were grown, my brother, who stands six feet something would rest his elbow on her head and pretend he couldn’t see her, and she obliged him with a laugh every time as though it were the first time she’d heard the joke. It was his chance to get her back for the million times she grabbed and pinched his chubby little cheeks when he was small. She also had another strange habit of pretending to “eat him up” by actually biting him. She seemed to have her special “things” with each of us. My cousin Ramon had to dance to get cookies from her…it’s a wonder he didn’t grow up to be a stripper! Finally, each of my Grandparents drove vehicles that I will forever associate with them. For Nana, it was her blue Maverick, which I believe at the time was the tiniest car ever made. Nana at the wheel was a sight though…she made the car look like a Cadillac. Now-a-days she would undoubtedly be required to use a booster seat! Back then she just resorted to straining her neck to see over the dashboard. It was even funnier from behind because she wasn’t tall enough to be seen over the back of her seat, so it looked like nobody was driving and whoever was in the passenger seat appeared to be talking to themselves!

Then there was Tata. The only thing “softer” than his disciplinary style was his hair! By the time I came around it was a fluffy white coif which he kept permanently sealed down to his head with “Tres Flores” pomade. What few people know is that Tata actually stopped combing his hair in 1961, after that it just permanently stayed in place. My Dad has now inherited this attribute, last combing his hair the year my oldest son was born! Tata was also, as previously mentioned, associated with drinking…A LOT…but this was not quite true. In fact, he secretly worked for the Budweiser Corporation as a taste tester on the weekends. Actually, he must have been promoted to full time because I don’t really remember many times in my youth when he wasn’t downing a beer the way some people drink kool-aid. He functioned though, but, gave us many funny memories of his own. When I was little I once asked him the story of a bust of JFK that they always kept in their house. I expected a story of how they admired him or something…instead he tried to persuade me that it wasn’t JFK at all, but a bust made of him as a young man! There was a resemblance too, since President Kennedy copied Tata’s hairdo the same way James Dean would later copy my Dads. Tata had another habit while drinking that could be quite humorous…I know because I spent many hours at family gatherings just watching him walk around, picking up whatever drink was near to him and partaking in the refreshment…it didn’t matter that the drink wasn’t his. More than once I remember seeing cigarette butts floating, but, it never seemed to faze him. Finally, the vehicle I will forever associate with my Grandfather is an old pick-up upon which he placed a set of red whirling lights, the kind you see on a construction vehicle. I never understood this. He went through many trucks, but, he always mounted those lights…never used them, but they were there.

The final memory is a serious one, which ties me back to the beginning of this writing. My Grandparents were of the biggest and purest heart when it came to the only thing they really cared about…us, their family. There was never any question as to where their common ground was or what their priorities were. They brought us together without even trying and they were sure to be there to celebrate your every achievement. They were the ones who taught me that family looks out for family, no matter what.

Now, I'm grown with my own children, and these treasures of my life are long gone from this earth. I do retain a deep belief that they watch over me and will be there to greet me when my days have ended. These days I often glimpse a mental picture of the next life. For me, it looks a lot like my childhood memories of those family gatherings I spoke of before. Tata is taking a long walk across heaven in his cowboy boots every single morning and now he can drink all he wants without hangovers. He has a few Grandchildren there to sing along with him when he gets his guitar out, my sister Regina, brother Frankie, and cousin Boo Boo. Nana is busy back in their kitchen making chorizo, eggs, and home-made tortillas only now her feet never swell and there is plenty of time for her to rest every day. Every Sunday she still has her family dinners, only now when she looks around her table she sees her parents Juana and Francisco, her in-laws Rafael and Ramona, her children Juanita, Emily and Manuel, her sisters Nancy and Josephine and all of the other family members who have walked before us…in their moccasins, boots, and bare feet.

original writing 12/2005

revised 4/2/2008

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