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We Regret
ESTEEMED OROGs:
PLEASE FORGIVE THE NATURE OF THE FONT SIZE AND COLOURATION OF THE POST INCLUDED BELOW. IT IS A POST FROM LONG AGO...ALMOST SEVEN YEARS. IT RESISTED ALL REMEDIATION. IT IS, HOWEVER, A NECESSARY PIECE OF INFORMATION SHOULD ONE WISH TO BE A WELL-INFORMED TEXIAN...AND NOT JUST ONE WHO PRETENDS TO THE SACRED OFFICE OF TEXIAN CITIZENSHIP.
WE HAVE DONE SOME CORRECTIONS, ADDITIONS, AND UP-DATING BEFORE RE-POSTING. THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME AND PATIENCE. This entry comes partly from an earlier year's blog (April, 2010) because much of history does not change, unless successfully re-argued. We attempt at this moment to re-visit these same moments of the Texian Historical Calendar. These are the profound times, and those were profound times. Few, in the right, opposed the many and powerful who were in the wrong. The only thing the few had in abundance was resolve.....and even that was measured by small numbers during the darkest hours. All men stood to lose their lives and fortunes. Women would be left with fatherless children, if they were lucky. Fortunes, small and great, would become nothing overnight should the Presidente-Generalissimo Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna dispose of the "filibusteros y invasores viken~os" (filibusterers and Viking invaders).
The one person who stood to lose the most was the man pictured below. He was Lopez de Santa Anna's most vigorous detractors and opponents. A native of the Yucatan, de Zavala was prominment on the political and social scene throughout Mexico. This is important, because in those years, the Yucatan Peninsula was clearly a separate identity, socially and politically and culturally from the rest of Mexico. This is not so odd, because Mexico in reality was essentially a loosely bound geographical area, not too precisely proscribed, consisting of as many as seven or eight different and functionally somewhat autonomous regions and States.
It is best to remember that the Defenders of the Alamo never knew that Texas had declared independence and withdrawn from the Mexican Union. The Alamo fell on the 6th of March, 1836, four days later. Their battle flag was the Mexican tri-colour with the number 1824 written on the center white field. Some think that that banner was designed as a statement of desire to seek reconciliation with Mexico. It was and it was not. It was first and foremost a statement of total rejection of the person and authority of Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. At best, Texas would never have remained withing the Mexican Union. A commonwealth arrangement was possible. Some dispute the fact that the 1824 flag flew over the Alamo, but it is well documented, even in the diary of Lt. Col. Enriquez de la Pena, XO, First Zapper Batallion, which was the first group to breach the walls. It is said that two flags were taken by the Army, one was the white star/blue field of the New Orleans Blues, Volunteers, and the other the Mexican 1824 flag. Some say the Lopez de Santa Ana had the latter destroyed, some say it was taken at San Jacinto, after the defeat of the main body of Lopez de Santa Anna's army and his capture. Legends say that a collector probably has it to this day, hidden away. I doubt that.
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Sixty men signed the Declaration of Independence. Ten of them had lived in Texas for more than six years, while one-quarter of them had been in the province for less than a year.
The composition of the delegation has been condemned at times, but consider that only 2 of the general officers in the Centralist Government's Army of Invasion were Mexicans by birth....Lopez de Santa Anna and Urrea. The commander of the considerable Mexican naval force in the western Gulf of Mexico was an American at a slightly later date. The other five were European, or from elsewhere in the New World.
Notice also the absence of the name of Stephen F. Austin, the "Father of Texas".....but his absence was due to ill health. The lack of more Latins comes from two reasons (1) the English speaking group was already in the vast majority of the Texas population even at the early time, and (2) the greater bulk of the Latin group, which actually did oppose Santa Anna by overwhelming percentage, was mired in the San Antonio - Goliad area, already well "behind enemy lines", making travel north to Washington on the Brazos extremely dangerous. Especially for the Latin element of the population, Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna had brutal solutions for their "treachery".
The three Latins present, interestingly, had a combined worth equivalent to the 57 others. Stephen F. Austin was elected finally as President and de Zavala became essentially the Executive Officer, having been elected Vice-President of Texas and serving in the absence of President Austin.
More later.
El Gringo Viejo
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Friday 27 April 2018
The Establishment of Constitutional Law in Texas
Sunday 22 April 2018
Important Repost - Texas is Independent of the Central Government in Mexico City - this date, 1836
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Monday, 20 April 2015
From a previous post: The True Meaning of the Battle of San Jacinto
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True Meaning - San Jacinto : We call the OROGs and others, especially the new visitors to A Gringo in Rural Mexico, to be aware that we shall, during the use of any archival posting, up-date with new data, corrections, changes of opinion, and/or the incorporation of new evidence that El Gringo Viejo; thinks would assist the reader in his/her own debate and understanding. Those changes will be written en bleu within the existing text. We invite other evidence, challenge, agreement, and understandings....which we frequently publish if it is a reasonable observation.
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The term "true meaning" of one thing or another.....the Feasts of the Nativity, Resurrection, All Souls and All Saints for instance....has been a sport of intellectuals, analysts, and commentators for hundreds, even thousands of years. As a compulsive commentator, this means that the OROG knows that El Gringo Viejo is going to be commenting on some matter he considers to be important very soon.
And, that very soon has arrived. This time it is concerning the not-so-famous, and generally over-simplified matter of the Battle of San Jacinto, 21 April 1836.
Texans have been all over the map on this matter. In and around Austin and a few other precincts of the Republic of Texas, the Battle of San Jacinto represents the best image of the worst people in the world....the Americans, Anglo-Saxons, Southerners, men, and individuals who consider themselves to be sovereign entities. That is the common opinion held by the University of Texas elites, certain women's and leftist political groups, and their satraps, the ethnic and racial agitators, and various sorts of anarchists.
But, surrounding the Island of the Bunny's Burrow, is a wondrous circle of Briarpatches ....San Marcos, New Braunfels, Round Rock, Georgetown, Plugerville, in short communities tiny, small, and somewhat larger that are filled with reason. They range from Stepford-type places, where a person finds Stepford wives, husbands, pets, children, home and lawn, schools, private arts and study classes, the best AAA minor league baseball and shopping....to dirty-fingernailed, blue-collar types of people and communities where a person has to prove he/she has dirty fingernails and/or calloused hands in order to register to vote or buy a lottery ticket. Their unifying factor? Traditionalist, private sector, conservative reliance and practice.
Most of the rest of Texas, even in the South Texas area, there is, and always has been a mediocre to a fine understanding of the meaning of the victory by the Texian Forces over the Centralist Forces of the government of Antonio de Padua Maria Severino Lopez de Santa Anna y Perez de Lebron, (aka - Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna or more simply Santa Anna). It is easy to make an ethnic or racial issue of this matter, but in fact it was none of that. Even the ones who fought the fight thinking that ethnic and racial matters were important to the issue.....were wrong. It was a much, much bigger issue.
With reference to the above, we reiterate that which has been written by El Gringo Viejo before, that the Anglo-Irish settlers in the San Patricio Colony, near present day Corpus Christi, sided with the Mexican Centralists and their military during the issue. While this occurred, another body of Texians north of that point....the Mexican/Spanish rancheros, business people, cattlemen, and farmers sided overwhelmingly with the Texian 1824 resistance effort and full-statehood cause, and then, fairly early in the game with the move to Independence from the control by Mexico City and its bi-polar political posturing. The chameleon nature of Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna did no good for Texas, less for Coahuila and Zacatecas, and absolutely nothing for Mexico.
AT THIS MOMENT, THE BATTLE HAS BEEN OVER FOR ABOUT THREE HOURS. THE ISSUE WAS SETTLED IN LESS THAN AN HOUR.
So, to the point of this analysis and commentary. The very large and pursuing segment of the Mexican Centralist forces a total of 15,000 in five armies headed by 14 generals and colonels....commanded by the Presidente Generalissimo himself....had hounded a rag-tag "army" that never numbered more than 1,000 effectives, in a single grouping. The number of Indians, other farmers, ranchers, volunteers arriving perhaps from the United States, other Mexican republicans, might have raised the total, total, total of willing combatants to perhaps as many as 2,000. On the day of the engagement....this day....on that battlefield....it had at most 920 ready combatants, with no more than 50 rough and ready cavalry. They would assault a very battle-hardened, fairly well to very well trained, accustomed-to-victory army of at least 1,900 soldiers. In baseball, this would have been akin to a major league team condescending to play a scrimmage game with a single A or at best AA minor-league team.
One side had two cannons, known as the Twin Sisters, while the other side had managed to lug 9 cannons literally across almost the entirety of Texas.
There were 8 more brass Napoleons and the big 12-pounder on-site in the middle of camp. Another 30 cannons were within a day's arrival distance, along with another 5,000 mediocre to crack, excellent assault forces including the much feared cavalry with their lancers. Let us say....24 to 36 hours of forced march distant.
There were 8 more brass Napoleons and the big 12-pounder on-site in the middle of camp. Another 30 cannons were within a day's arrival distance, along with another 5,000 mediocre to crack, excellent assault forces including the much feared cavalry with their lancers. Let us say....24 to 36 hours of forced march distant.
It was Sunday. Each side knew of the other's exact position and strength. They were well within direct observation, one of the other.There was no chance for deception save for one thing. That would be the choice of one side or the other concerning ....."When?". Houston settled that issue during the early morning hours of the 21st Instant. Houston began a walk among the troops at 04:00 telling them to form up.
As the orders went out a few short minutes later that the men muster and prepare for their deployment and orders to advance....fear, joy, excitement, commitment, final bonding between battle-mates, quieting of mounts who sensed something was up, and then....the predictable orders up and down the line...."No firing until the order is given....no firing until the order is given!!!!" And then, quietly at first, and walking; then, a trotting but still silent advance; and then the bolting of the small cavalry group in the advance and to the right of the line of infantry....sweeping forward at breakneck towards the enemy still sleeping during the Sunday afternoon siesta period, in the face of the enemy during those "second-dawning" moments.....and then the entrance into the most formidable military encampment on the North American Continent at that moment....carnage of the worst sort...the devastation of the entire Presidential Divisional Forces....hundreds dead and wounded, many drowning in the San Jacinto River and its surrounding swamps. Official numbers seem to back up these: Mexican forces had 630 killed, 208 wounded, and 730 P.O.W. while the Texians had 9 killed and 30 wounded.
These figures are corroborated by Mexican estimates, and might even indicate that the Texian forces were probably over-adrenaline infected. But it is a very mystical coincidence that the number of Mexican effectives killed very closely estimates the number of Texian effectives who were essentially murdered by order of Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna at the detention in Goliad added to the number that were lost at La Mision del Alamo.
As the orders went out a few short minutes later that the men muster and prepare for their deployment and orders to advance....fear, joy, excitement, commitment, final bonding between battle-mates, quieting of mounts who sensed something was up, and then....the predictable orders up and down the line...."No firing until the order is given....no firing until the order is given!!!!" And then, quietly at first, and walking; then, a trotting but still silent advance; and then the bolting of the small cavalry group in the advance and to the right of the line of infantry....sweeping forward at breakneck towards the enemy still sleeping during the Sunday afternoon siesta period, in the face of the enemy during those "second-dawning" moments.....and then the entrance into the most formidable military encampment on the North American Continent at that moment....carnage of the worst sort...the devastation of the entire Presidential Divisional Forces....hundreds dead and wounded, many drowning in the San Jacinto River and its surrounding swamps. Official numbers seem to back up these: Mexican forces had 630 killed, 208 wounded, and 730 P.O.W. while the Texians had 9 killed and 30 wounded.
These figures are corroborated by Mexican estimates, and might even indicate that the Texian forces were probably over-adrenaline infected. But it is a very mystical coincidence that the number of Mexican effectives killed very closely estimates the number of Texian effectives who were essentially murdered by order of Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna at the detention in Goliad added to the number that were lost at La Mision del Alamo.
It was a horrible disaster for the hopes of a Mexican totalitarian's vision of empire stretching from the Arctic Circle to the doorstep of South America. And, it was a exhilarating moment for the men who had won against all odds and established in Texas some hope for common law, natural law, and the sovereignty of the individual.
The capture of the man who at once was the head of the government, the army, and the entire Mexican political reality at that time had learned his military craft as a young Royalist officer in the Spanish Army. He was a white Criollo (Spaniard born in the New World), and learned to relish his time and activity in the Army. He served in various venues, including during a sweep of Texas many years before where opponents of the Crown were picked up and executed even after surrender....and their heads removed and displayed for days in prominent viewing areas so as to chill the fervour of those disposed to revolt. It was his experience and he had enjoyed it.
Late in the Wars for Mexican Independence he changed sides (one of his more predictable characteristics) and brought his considerable abilities to the service of the Mexicans in their efforts to secure Independence. By 'considerable abilities' we are not being sarcastic. One "misunderestimated" Lopez de Santa Anna at one's own jeopardy. He was one of those few practitioners of the military arts and sciences who could think in Theatre Strategy and battalion level tactics, simultaneously. Luckily, his biggest enemy was his own ego and sense of self-importance.
He held various military and political positions, always at or near the edges of power until, around 1830, he began to have irresistible control and effect upon the exercise of political power at the highest levels. It was his abrogation of the Mexican Constitution of 1824, a liberal reform document providing for an American style tri-partite government with the citizens having certain inalienable rights, that put Zacatecas, Durango, Coahuila y Texas, the Yucatan Peninsula, Guanajuato, San Luis Potosi, Chihuahua and certain other regions into full rebellion against Santa Anna as a person and as a political force.
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| This depiction is near the age of Lopez de Santa Anna around the time of his invasion of Texas |
To show how important and improbable this victory by the Texians was. it should be noted that with all it inefficiencies and breakdowns, the forces of Lopez de Santa Anna during the period from 1835 through 1836 had 28 major engagements that could be called battles or at least very significant battalion level engagements. Lopez de Santa Anna's forces lost only two. The first one and....the last one. The decision of General Urrea to acquiesce to the demand that Mexican forces withdraw to the south of the Rio Bravo (Grande) before any consideration of dealing with the captured Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna was also a source of wonderment to historians and contemporaries to the issue.
There were enough forces to overwhelm the Texians in a second, but some think that Urrea's hatred for Lopez de Santa Anna and his war crimes, arrogance, arbitrary nature, and generally corrupt manner caused him to take advantage of this chance to humiliate the despised generalissimo. Militarily, had the wish been upon them, Urrea and Filisola and Perfecto de Cos could have easily circled the Texian forces, especially to the north, cutting them off from retreat into Louisiana, and committed a "Fannin's Fool's Mate" upon them. Houston and Somerville were hopelessly exposed. There was no cover, little forage save for gaseous swamp grass that did little or no good for ox, mule, donkey, or cavalry charger. Only the Mexican Centralists had oats, corn, and wheat, mouldy though it might have been.
Such mould, if fresh, was actually good for the beasts...and to this day....corn mould known in the Nahuatl {Aztec}language at 'Huitlacoche (wui - lah - KO - chei) is considered a delicacy by all classes, especially in the central areas of Mexico. El Gringo Viejo eats it by preference....it is one of those "good bacteria" things like beer, yogurt, sour cream, etc. Excellent canned varieties can be found in the more elaborate HEBs in Texas and other such stores.
Urrea would die a few years later during a duel in Mexico City, but Lopez de Santa Anna would live on to torment the Americans and the Mexicans before dying, broke and friendless in June of 1876 at the age of 80. His death occurred naturally and in solitude.
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But Texas as a continually evolving, conservative, imperfect, common-law, and natural-law political entity lives on. It is the central beaming, casting light of that airport beacon-light onthe side of the mountain...that most brilliant light within the that shining city that people from around the world wish their side of the mountain could be. Texas remains a concept that is bigger than reality, bigger than itself, bigger than Hollywood, bigger than any imitator, and a force entirely capable of returning to freestanding status.
Recent serious surveys had found that a plurality, about 38% of Texans, now seriously believe that Texas should seek a path apart. Among Latins in Texas 25% favour separation and the re-establishment of the Republic of Texas....that number being roughly equal to the number of Latins who are active and/or self-identifying Republicans.
That we could have come from San Jacinto against all odds, been annexed, seceded, "Reconstructed", re-admitted, and then arrived back to the point where we began....rejecting an arbitrary, arrogant, corrupt and far-removed central government, is a matter of interest to observers of contemporary as well as historical Texian issues. (Up-dated polling during the past couple of years indicates that Texians are favouring withdrawal, at this time, by a two X one margin. My suspicion is that the Latins of the white collar professional, skilled blue-collar, and proprietor class would be in favour to the same or greater degree.)
So, true meanings? Until Gabriel plays that last tune, the true meaning of the Battle of San Jacinto is not known. We should hope, however, that it does not mean that Texas is resigned to be a dull piece of gravel in an recovered aluminium-metal crown that marks the monarchy of fools such as we have in the White House and executive department of to-day's central government.
Thank you all, as always for your time and interest. We shall try to be "back in the saddle".
El Gringo Viejo
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A Little Better View of the Magueyes..
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Here we will submit another couple of pictures that might give a better perspective concerning the nature of our property and our overall approach to rhyming the wild with the tame in terms of animals, growies, and purposes.
The orderly people in the civilised world would be very concerned about the old man who let his grounds turn into a wild, unkempt wilderness. No pride of ownership, no industry, so full of slothfulness, no concern for his neighbours...what a shame.
BUT! Please forgive a brief divergence. There is a "rest of the story"... related to our last submission. To wit:
SPECIAL UP-DATE: In our previous Blogpost we displayed photographs of a predominately red and black bird with a bright red collar. During the entirety of El Gringo Viejo's travels, urban and rural, desert or Tarzan-like mountainous jungles, he had never seen this particular bird.
While, as we have stated many times, I am not a hard-core (or even soft-core) birdwatcher, my parents taught me the names of birds as they would come by our very nice farmstead north of McAllen, Texas in those times...the late 1940s through the mid-1960s. Those species began to mount up into the scores and then hundreds. My brothers and I could name them along with scores and scores of both domesticated and wild-growing flowers, shrubs, and trees.
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| Crimson-collared Grosbeak |
In any regard, being absolutely ignorant and stumped by the appearance of this bird and several of his brothers (and sisters-in-law), we consulted a very famous and highly reliable authority concerning this bird's nomme de plume (literally ?). Dr. Timothy Brush, although still perpetually a young man, is also a long-term student and teacher concerning matters of ornithology. Many of the blind and ignorant turn to him first for guidance about the birds they have seen or heard. The good Doctor is a full professor at the University of Texas - Rio Grande Valley.
He established authoritatively the following:
"Okay, it looks a Crimson-collared Grosbeak, a specialty from northeastern Mexico—Nuevo Leon, Tamaulipas, and a not much farther south. Very rarely one will come over to our side of the border in the winter. Fairly secretive birds so you are fortunate to have them come so close!"
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Returning to the original issue concerning the freeze damaged and unkept maguey plants, and our failure to make them disciplined members of an English garden. We would like such a thing as well or better than even Miss Marple or even Dr. Watson's wife. But we require, at this point, the allowance of time for three families of cactus wrens to finish the hatch, rearing, and introduction to the real world of about 10 - 12 baby wrens who presently have very fine habitat.
The cactus wrens, however, like stubborn soldiers, refused to abandoned their battlements. They piled more chaff, leaves, and small twigs and limbs around the eastside base of the magueys. They especially incorporated their "thatched footballs" with their tunnel entrances into this disorder, making certain that there was quick escape to the fence of our east-side neighbour, Anastacio, about two feet from the nesting compounds.
The broad, long leaves, no matter sub-species, always could be used for fibre. At one time, it is said, over 8 per cent of the Yucatan's land area was taken up in hennequin production. The area around Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas (near our little place), was also an important hennequin producing area, with several hundred thousand acres in production and fibre extraction operations. More later...and thanks for investing time in something so hard to explain, but easy to understand, if someone will just explain it. El Gringo Viejo
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Thursday 19 April 2018
A walk around the gardens at the Quinta
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We finally, after repeatedly repeating our repetitious repetitions to try to enter the above picture on to our blog entry, managed to post it through. This squirrel who makes a fool of himself most of the morning, and then again in the early evening, going out to the end of a limb, or hanging upside down to snatch an especially inviting berry. He is a nut for our mulberries. All of our squirrels can fly (glide) a little with good accuracy, perhaps 10 or 12 feet, and at a 30 degree decline or more.
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Our first image is one of our powder-puff bushes that announced that it is ready to confront Springtime, after our trying Winter experiences.
We have several of these bushes, and they seem to have the ability to plant and sprout wherever the wind might blow. Therefore, one can imagine how many we have after these several years.
The entirety of the daylight hours, various and numerous (by the hundreds) of hummingbirds visit these blossoms looking for the very rich...and sparse...nectar that fuels the incessant "Flight of the Hummers".
This, to the left, is the image of the jaguarundi (hah - gwar - UHN - dee) a large cat found in large stretches of eastern Mexico. It prowls in semi-arid thickets in the far northeast and throughout the tropical, wet, and "green-mountain" precincts of the Sierra Madre Oriental.
This cat is normally about 5 / 6ths of the size of its first cousin, the puma (mountain lion), which also rarely, but certainly, has begun to return even to our little patch of ground next to the Rio Corona and the high slopes of the adjacent above-mentioned mountains to immediate west.
She seems to prefer our neighbour's hens and eggs to legitimate work (baby and juvenile crocodiles and carp and perch). Oddly, our neighbour's hens have generally been able to avoid the normal intentions of a lazy girl jaguarundi. They are in very agile physical shape, much faster afoot than many might think, and their chicks scatter in such a way as to confuse the vision of the large "cats of the jungle".
In spite of the moanings and groanings of the Tree Hugger Class, it is certainly true that bobcats, jaguarundies, pumas, and such are actually increasing in number. This is in the USA as well as Mexico.Bears in the nearby mountains are no longer comment-worthy as a saloon or supper topic due to the commonality of sightings. The photo to the left is a true picture of a "snack- attack" by two obviously well-fed Mexican Brown Bears from the nearby Los Mitras and Huajuco Mountain complexes that are adjacent to the westernmost metropolitan complex of the Metroplex of Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, which doubles as Mexico's "industrial giant and hub of "first-world status" for that nation.
None of these presumptuous (but accurate) statements take away from the fact that the South Texas (last remaining area) ocelot is dealing with precarious future investment options.
Also, the wholesale emplacement of those horrid wind generators...the area around our neighbouring Reynosa across the Rio Grande from McAllen, and entrenched into the western rural (out of sight) area of western Hidalgo County (my county)...is truly killing hundreds of forever "down-scanning-view" hawks and eagles (including Bald Eagles) every month, just in southernmost Texas and northeasternmost Mexico. Where are the Greenies in this issue?
So now we have the Mexican Black Squirrel, pictured to the left, obviously a male, who has become ravenously addicted to the mulberries on the tree next to our corridor. The birds are tolerant of him, but I am not, because I know that when the mulberries run out, he will begin to search out electrical wiring insulation. We have also caught him, not only eating our mulberries, but also smoking mulberry leaves down below in our more hard-to-reach parts of our property. He has been reported to the proper authorities. Meanwhile we are looking for other beasties to entertain us during the day. There is an abundance, even including insects.
El Cielo is a natural and cultural resource regarded as one of Mexico's true nature treasures. Our Charge d'affaires and his people were and are involved in the protection of that area to this day.Now, to the left, one sees the true fact that Texas Asparagus truly is bigger than anything the Jolly Green Giant can produce. Reasonable measurement of the asparagus shown in the photograph places the shorter at 9 feet and the larger at 12 feet.
Truth be known, these are actually the design of nature, and the signal of the end of the spiked-leafed plants from which the "asparagus" springs. Known as "maguey" (mah GAYE), foreigners frequently refer to them as "cactus". But, it is not a cactus...and is more closely related to the lilly. The production of the stalk indicates that the maguey is ready to "retire", and the new baby magueys will appear at the top of the stalks. They will be planted as the first petal of their flowers begin to fall.
Usually, a maguey plant will publish its stalk after seven to twelve years. It is not a plant to be hurried or even fertilised or overly attended or irrigated. The plant has been used for detergent (from the tuberous attachments to the roots), for a needle and thread by breaking off the very dangerous point of the leaf and forcefully, quickly ripping the central fibres of the leaf out.
With that, the Indian lady could have a needle and about three to seven strands of sturdy fibre to either mend or construct clothing. The image of Mexican peasants and Indians dressed in white attire is related to the clothes made and repaired by that useful fibre.
There are various types of maguey, all closely related. All produce fibre. Another type produces the liquid that will finally distill into mescal...a high-octane liquor that used to be controlled at 120 proof. Another, in the west, and to a much lesser degree around the area to the south of Ciudad Victoria here in central Tamaulipas State is used in the production of the famous tequila that is less volatile but sometimes equated with the firewater-like (at least in the "olden days") mescal, which is more associated with the southern regions of Mexico, around Oaxaca (O ah HAH cah) State.
In the Yucatan, and in the area of central Tamaulipas, the English and Spanish loaded tonnes and tonnes of maguey fibre-bales onto ships to be taken to clothing and rope mills. Much of the maguey fibre was also produced in the Philippines. These areas still produce a little, but nylon has pretty much destroyed the old, tradition way. Cowboy lariats and the like are still made from the fibre, and perhaps always will be. It is still used in the production of denim, as in bluejeans.
More later. Please stand by to-morrow.
El Gringo Viejo
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Wednesday 4 April 2018
Willie Nelson - I Never Cared For You (Live at Farm Aid 1998)
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Just for fun...Willie is a good card for Texians....
(This is a brief apologia to a group of followers who are concerned that I have become too hard-core rightwinger)
Please understand, I have not fallen off of any track. But the fact is there is no such thing as "social progress".
Women receive the right to vote in the USA in the early 1920s. Everything has been perfect since. The women in Mexico received the right to vote in 1953. Everything in Mexico has been perfect since.
Alcohol is suspended as a legal intoxicant, and the world is perfect!!! Then, in 1933, alcohol is re-instated as a legal substance and everything is perfect, again!
Negroes are "emancipated" in 1863/ 1864 according to Mr. Lincoln. That solved all the problems.
Very excellent social / historical analysis shows that if manumission had been followed over the period from 1840 (when it began in seriousness in the South) through to 1890, there would be a huge black middle class with little or no dependence upon the Central government. Emancipation destroyed that process.
The only "slaves" by 1890 would have been 90 to over 100 years of age, who had refused emancipation because of their age.
These are simple, if obscure facts, and no...I did not and do not want for women to be disenfranchised. Not in Texas, nor Mexico, nor Tanzania.
It is just that "social progress" and "social justice" are buzz-words with no meaning. Natural law overwhelms all of humankind's intent. It is the Left's Song of the Sirene that always results in the ship with its sailors dashing itself on the rocks and resting in Davy Jones's Locker.
El Gringo Viejo
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Tuesday 3 April 2018
Ridin' My Thumb To Mexico - Johnny Rodriguez - Live 1973
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Rush allowed himself to be sucked into horrid scenarios, conclusions, and topical bilge that are and were simply not true. There is some reasonable evidence (very reasonable) that the Mexican military, while "aiding" the "migrants" were actually doing their real job, and that was to look for gang members from Central America, with their tell-tale MSXIII (and many variations) tats. They were also comparing thumbprints on their archival to find other miscreants, along with wants and warrants from foreign countries, (ie - the United States of America and the Republic of Texas).
In a typical manoeuvre, the Mexican military will take "political bloqs" such as these and divide them up, based on nationality, and in a "kinder and gentler" way, put them on an airplane from Mexico City along with constabulary from the country intended, and shipped to that country. Once there, they will be signed-over to the officials of the receiving country and the "sending country" will return and wait for the next batch. Mexico has 2,500,000 illegal alien Central Americans presently residing in Mexico with very temporary working papers. Most will not qualify for retention in Mexico.
We have tried to be brief, but cannot. Therefore, I type with one finger so as to tire more quickly. With deference to my fellow consuegro, I shall simply state that all that you heard on Rush's show to-day concerning the "Caravan" was false. He was willingly misled. Tucker Carlson was also blowing his mouth off, knowing naught about which he spoke last night. The fool Tucker had on as a guest failed to identify himself as a long term gringo-hater and America-hater arch-communist. Tucker failed to identify him as such, in spite of the fact that the man is proud of his hatred for America, and his detestation of the Anglo-Saxon people and those who befriend them or intermarry with them.
Rush allowed himself to be sucked into horrid scenarios, conclusions, and topical bilge that are and were simply not true. There is some reasonable evidence (very reasonable) that the Mexican military, while "aiding" the "migrants" were actually doing their real job, and that was to look for gang members from Central America, with their tell-tale MSXIII (and many variations) tats. They were also comparing thumbprints on their archival to find other miscreants, along with wants and warrants from foreign countries, (ie - the United States of America and the Republic of Texas).
In a typical manoeuvre, the Mexican military will take "political bloqs" such as these and divide them up, based on nationality, and in a "kinder and gentler" way, put them on an airplane from Mexico City along with constabulary from the country intended, and shipped to that country. Once there, they will be signed-over to the officials of the receiving country and the "sending country" will return and wait for the next batch. Mexico has 2,500,000 illegal alien Central Americans presently residing in Mexico with very temporary working papers. Most will not qualify for retention in Mexico.
There are 2,000,000 who have been deported over the last 10 years. Hanging around in Mexico is somewhat difficult, although various hippies, warts, victims who want free beer, and it is estimated that a minimum of 100,000 Americans without CURRENT Mexican permissory documents may be "bumming their way 'round Mexico". Beware of the nice, pallid couple who come up and say, "The Mexican police stole all our money and documents, and we really need to get back to America. Our baby hasn't been changed since we left 26 months ago, I gave all I had to the judge, and he kept my husband in jail until I sacrificed myself to him, and our dog is still in the kennel...it's almost three years now. If you could just spare us your credit card number for a 10 dollar withdrawal or if you could give us a crummy 1,000 peso bill...to you it's nothing, monopoly money, but for us it's a couple of tortillas with a little bit of apple butter."
__________(Click on "Watch on YouTube")
It should be of interest that Juan Raul Davis - Rodriquez is borne of
some of the deepest generations of Texians that one might imagine.
He was a well known entertainer at a very early age (13), and sang at
the very, very impressive Garner State Park, in the Country of 1,100
Springs two-score miles (not by road) to the west of San Antonio,
Texas as a summer entertainer.
One night late, they were hungry
(supposedly and they captured a semi-wild goat (but on a private
ranch) and they barbeque'd him and ate him. They were ranch
kids, and knew skinning, quartering, gut-cleaning, and cooking
like all Texians used to know. Only problem was, gee whiz, the
owner of the ranch was not humoured.
Johnny was questioned and analysed in a Texas-country way by a Texas
Ranger...back when there were only 88 of them in Texas at the time (big trouble).
Joaquin Jackson, the Texas Ranger, decided to "speak for the boy" and
Joaquin Jackson, the Texas Ranger, decided to "speak for the boy" and
requested that he be released without prejudice.
Not long after, Ranger Joaquin might have suggested that the goat-story
was all lard and gibberish. He began to suggest that he (Joaquin)
and the prisoners listened to him sing
in the jail, and decided the boy needed to go to work with his vocal chords.
was all lard and gibberish. He began to suggest that he (Joaquin)
and the prisoners listened to him sing
in the jail, and decided the boy needed to go to work with his vocal chords.
Joaquin "knew some folks" introduced Johnny around, and the rest was
history. His (Johnnie's) "Mexicaness" helped endorse Texas Country Music
as a real deal forged with the blood of many sub-ethnicities and races.
history. His (Johnnie's) "Mexicaness" helped endorse Texas Country Music
as a real deal forged with the blood of many sub-ethnicities and races.
Some say, "No Johnny Rod, then no Willie Nelson..."
In my opinion, that is a stretch...but not much of one.
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I am just tired. Tired of the whole thing. Trump is a sour pill, but everything else on the other side is so many times worse. I wish Trump and Vicente Fox Quesada would look in the mirror and see the jackasses they are, and how much better they would serve if they said less and did more arm twisting with the back-door political mechanics. Fox has more and less discretion because he is un-electable by law...it is an interesting box to be in. It was said that the Presidency of Mexico is a six-year champagne and tequila binge, with a life-time hangover. To me, Trump is a daily migraine...for me. Pardon the whine.
El Gringo Viejo
El Gringo Viejo
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