Dem
47
GOP
53
Today, we hear from S.B. in Los Angeles, CA:
Both sides of my family in the L.A. area originated from Mexico. My mother's side of the family originated with a soldier who served in the Spanish army, and who came to Alta California in the late 1700s or early 1800s. He was deeded a small land grant in what is now one of the regional cities in the Los Angeles Basin. I have direct ancestors buried in the historical cemetery at the San Gabriel Mission. They were born here when the area was still a Spanish colony. So, rather than crossing the border, the border crossed them! They stayed in their new country and it was related to me that through the decades, the "ranch" was the home of the entire family in various "casitas" (small cabins) and that they would have giant fiestas in the common area. The "ranch" was eventually lost to the government when oil was discovered, but I remember the last vestige of this holding when I was a child, and it was discussed around the family table about how my grandmother had limited mineral rights to the property in the late 1970s.
My father's side of the family originated in the Guadalajara region of Mexico where, I was told, my great-great-grandfather was a master baker in their village. One of his daughters, my great-grandmother, emigrated to the United States across the border into California in the early 1900s. Her husband was a butcher who worked in one of the large stockyards near San Diego at the time. Their son, my paternal grandfather, was born in San Diego in 1920. After he grew up, he moved to the Orange County area, which is a suburb of Los Angeles. He married and was serving in the Merchant Marine in the late 1930s as a crewman on a freighter. He enlisted in the U.S. Army when World War II broke out. He was a machine gunner in one of the units with General Patton's Third Army. My father was born in January 1943, but he never knew or met his father, because the elder was killed in action on December 31, 1944, at the Battle of the Bulge.
I have tried to instill my children with the pride, determination and hope shown by these people, our family, struggling to find a better life and prosper in the U.S.A.
Thanks, S.B.
And note that the early California ranchers raised cattle without benefit of refrigeration. That meant that the only marketable commodities were the things that could be preserved and shipped without benefit of cooling. That translates to products made with cow hides (e.g., leather boots) and products made with cow fat (e.g., soap and candles). Hence the headline. (Z)