Busy, Spinning Wheels, Working a lot…or a little

_____________________

     We have been "off the saddle" for a bit…lots of details, large and small…things that need attention…things that want attention.  It all makes life interesting.  We can start from the end and work backwards…I am substantially left-handed…

     During the past few weeks, we have gone and come back to-and-from our place in NoWhere, Mexico three or four times.   The normal stay is usually nine to sixteen days, each time.   Since our little adobe hut is a structure that is either a small, huge place or a huge small place all projects are either meticulously detailed, or something that requires substantial effort.

     A medium-sized cypress branch fell from about 120 feet up, down by the river's bank and rendered a glancing blow, off the crown of my head.  It struck the very crown of my bald dome.   Everything seemed to be fine, although my dog, "Prieto" (Blackie) kept looking at me strangely as we returned from our little constitutional amongst the towering cypresses, and I thought he was concerned about something, or perhaps he wanted a treat for being a good dog.

Noble "Prieto"
______________

     Coming in, I noticed in one of the window panes of our corridor that my right shoulder and right side of my head were covered with someone's blood…and it turned out to be mine, of course. The stuff was moist still, so I hosed myself down, rinsed the white T-shirt so as to be white again, and then patched up the substantial, but minor, wound.  Prieto stayed with me, close by,  the rest of the day.

     As as aside, I allow Prieto inside the house while, when our majordomo is en campus, he would not, will not, never, never allow Prieto or any other dog into the house.   Since I (and my boss…my wife) am only the owner, it is necessary to defer to the majordomo's orders.     
    
    In any regard, a couple of weeks later, while lugging firewood into the house, a trio of hard to grasp and control logs decided to jump out of my grasp.   One medium-sized, 18-inch long and 8-inch thick log decided to fall on the tip of my big toe of the left foot.  Once again, time and effort was dedicated to cleaning up blood and, in a very gingerly manner, bandaging up the end of my big toe.
     These attempts at self-destruction have self-cured, and nothing of similar nature has occurred since.

_________________

The Cordilleras of the
land of the Pena Nevada
________________

     The Winter was fairly tough on the area.  Not far from our place, we could take note of three separate snow events in the mountains…just three or four miles to the west of our little mud house. Such events are not that rare…nor are they that common.   One thing that was certain until the last two nights before the writing of these words…precipitation had been quite a rare commodity, whether rain or the little snow dustings.

     The image to the left is an example of our view to the west…it is what my clients see, and what my adjacent neighbour - the owner of the Hacienda de la Vega and I see every day…and sometimes during the light of the full moon, even at night.

     We always like this image because it shows the massive, silver and gold laden mountains…impenetrable in their 90 per cent…ranging at their crests from 4,000 fasl all the way up to over 13,000 fasl.   The mountains' complexity is enhanced by the fact that there are essentially six parallel cordilleras running north and south that developed these various ridge by ridge increases…each increasing in height from east to west.   The length of the cordilleras range from 40 to 100 miles.
     The highest peak is the Cerro de la Pena Nevada (Snowy Peak), and it lies about 30 miles due west of our place and the compound that is the Hacienda de la Vega, our neighbours.  To make the trip by a relative straight line, even by motor vehicle, it would take a minimum of a week.   On a round-about approach, one can make the drive of a circuitous distance amounting to about ninety miles in a little less than two hours.

     The orchard in front of the mountains is a result of a planting less than three and more than two years ago.   The lime orchard pictured replaced an 80 year old Valencia Orange orchard that produced well for those times, but finally began to give up the ghost.   Our neighbour determined that it would be better to take advantage of the burgeoning lime demand, especially with the improved quality of the limes and the increasing demand from Europe and the United States and Canada…and to a degree, Japan.  So, the old Valencias were literally bulldozed out, and a new "Super Lime" arrived to start a new dawning in the Mexican citrus industry. 
     The trees pictured above are between 10 and 12 feet high now, showing a precociousness that surprised everyone, except perhaps Don Rafael and your humble servant.   Below we are including the infant plant that genuinely was planted right at 30 months ago.

This little squirt is the same one seen  in the

photo above closest to the camera's view.  From

a foot and a half to 12 feet seemingly overnight.

   Notice the underground irrigation leads, just

 installed 30 months ago.

     

   We cannot even estimate what the value of the crops will be when the entire green carpet of these newfangled sour wonders are well into the galloping pace of the Lone Ranger's horse, Trigger.

This particular topic will be continued to-morrow.

El Gringo Viejo

_____________________________________

Thunder of Angels - a few points regarding the Life of Norman Francis Newton, Sr.

________________________

Milton Birchard Newton and
Nola Frances (Neal) Newton
This is about two hours after
 their marriage in the Lower
Rio Grande Valley of
Texas
1933
_____________________

     It was stated in a newspaper article that Norman lived near McAllen where his family had an orange orchard.   That is partially true.   But, the fully fleshed out picture would be that Norman was born during the early stages of the beginning of World War II.

     My father (and his) thought that he could serve the Cause by joining up and going to the front.   The Selective Service people negated his intentions because he was a veteran…but of the 1st Division, 12th Regiment (mounted) of the United States Army.
   He was a lesser officer, as a young man, during his service on the frontier (mainly between Brownsville and Rio Grande City) from 1929 through 1934.  Horse Cavalry officers were not in heavy demand after the attack on Pearl Harbour.

     The officials informed Norman's father that his service would be to keep the plow in the furrow, produce and care for the substantial extensions of citrus orchards in the County of Hidalgo, Texas and also to farm anything open to maintain nutritional foods during the hostilities.

     At that time, our father, Milton Birchard Newton, Sr. had his 20 acre farmstead, several score (at any given time) of legal Mexican workers (and a few who 'appeared' mystically), and as many as thirteen tractors deployed or under maintenance, as well as a few older, ornery, draft horses.
   The property that he owned, or maintained, and/or cared for amounted up to about 2,500 acres.   Much of that was in Valencia orange and pink (becoming red) grapefruit for which the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas was becoming famous.   We also did cotton, okra, corn, and tomatoes.

     My mother's accounting records showed that during their many years of agri-business…she and my father paid out money orders to 1,300 different Mexican workers…almost all of whom preferred money orders shipped out to Guanajuato and Morelos States…and a few others…and the money always arrived.   Almost all of whom, as well, returned to work for the Newtons on multiple occasions.
     Sometimes I would accompany my mom to Telegrafos de Mexico in Reynosa to ship the money out,  and Norman and/or older brother Milton  would accompany their mom…or dad…to that chore on other occasions.   It was a different time.

     There are so many lateral stories about this, that many books could be filled with many interesting pages.   But to this point…Norman Francis Newton, named for his grandfather…Norman Newton…(a Yankee through and through…two brothers lost to the Confederate forces…one thirty days before and the other 30 days after Gettysburg), began to realise that life was not to be a bowl of cherries.

   According to his mother (a Southern girl - from Winchester in southeastern Tennessee, with five Confederates sacrificed on the field of battle…one a great-uncle of Rush Limbaugh), and several of the Mexican workers, Norman had tantrums and became nearly bellicose when he, at the age of three, was not allowed to work on the acreages and orchards.  He desperately wanted to participate in the Large Matters affecting his parents during those times of War with the Empire of Japan.

     In other words, Norman Francis Newton was given to the notion that he had to contribute…he had to produce…he had to carry his share.   He was milking cows when he was four…effectively.

      The Mexican workers were puzzled that our father could speak Spanish well, and the first child…Milton Birchard Newton, Jr. could speak Spanish quite well…but not Norman.

Milton Birchard Newton, Jr. Ph.d.
and his very young daughter, Helen
1972
_____________________________

       Oddly enough, the governess of the affairs of the home and close effects…an Indian woman by the name of Guadalupe Gonzalez Gonzales from Cholula, Puebla …was determined to make sure that Norman did not learn Spanish.  She had been punished for speaking Otomi' language as a child, and she did not wish for Norman to suffer that trauma in the English -  Spanish - Indian language debate.

     BUT…my father's man for all problems and purposes, Augustin Salinas, a true descendent from Spaniards who colonised the Escandon Period back in the 1750s…especially in places such as Mier and Camargo and Reynosa…was very grumpy about all this.   He essentially taught my eldest brother Andalusian Spanish and began on me after the Stork dropped me off in 1947.

Governor Alan Shivers

As a very young Governor of Texas
 after untimely death of Beaufort
 Jester, died in 1949.  Shivers was
 a "boy" of 43 years at that time.
 He married the daughter of John
Shary, the founder of industrial-level
 farming and citrus and irrigation
 modernisation.
Shivers was a true hero among the 
Lower Rio Grande Valley farmers.
He accompanied Eisenhower to the
dedication of Falcon Reservoir
in 1953.
________________________  

     BUT…Guadalupe (Lupe) would jump on the bones of Augustin, and Augustin would jump on the bones of Guadalupe (Lupe) about when, where, and how the second Gringo and the third Gringo would be allowed to learn the two languages…and/or any other languages.

     So, to make a long story even duller and more pointless, Norman did not learn Spanish, per se.  The first brother spoke Spanish like a Huelvan ambassador…I learned it without thinking twice.   But Norman…took cover from his "cuidadora" (caretaker / defender) although he still milked three cows each morning before 07:00 hours…at the age of six or seven.

     Norman could understand Spanish almost  totally.  The more complex and elevated and eloquent, the better he understood it.   BUT, he simply did not speak when there were peers and other people around.

     During a horrible Winter's norther…and the high winds bearing dust so dense as to appear to the brown fog…Norman swept the front porch, exposed to the north winds…pounding sandy, gritty Texas Panhandle silt through our screens…while he was collecting 52 pounds of dust.

  When he was done, he left the front porch pristine as though it had been prepared for a visit by the Queen of England.   He was almost 10 years old at that point.   Even his teachers at Wilson Elementary and later at David Crockett Elementary, were stunned by his work ethic.  His grades varied from middling to excellent…but his ability to work at any project…and his person-to-person skills were off the scale.  He could talk to anybody.

       During that time, in McAllen, the High School had an unwritten rule, actually imposed by the various students…at McAllen's only secondary school.  The rule was that the "Latins" would enter from the west-most entrance to the main school buildings, and the "Anglos" would enter from the large front entrance to the old section.
     But...Norman would go out of his way to enter though the Latin Entrance.   

     Norman taught me,  such things as how to part my hair on the wrong side, as he did…how to tuck my baseball leggings up to my knees so that the umpire would think that all low-balls were below the knee…all the important stuff.
    During his early years in High School he began to really take an interest in the area of local control politics.   He was put up as a candidate for "next-year's" President of the Student Body, of a AAAA-level school (highest possible in those years).   The campaign was a crushing blow on the hopes that anyone beyond Norman would be considered for President…if Norman declared…he would be elected.   He was elected.

David C. Newton
"El Gringo Viejo"
 with his guard dog

 Norman said frequently that he wanted to go
 to the "Quinta Tesoro de la Sierra Madre"
pictured in the background.

He did take several excursions with us in the
 1980s and early 1990s and enjoyed Mexico
 immensely in those times.
___________________________

      He and the McAllen delegation went to the State Student Body  organisation and Norman wowed the people there.   He told them about the fact that he, and his little brother, passed out Eisenhower -  Nixon stickers and propaganda in front of the United States Post Office on the fourth block of South Main…and on the East side.
   Those events took place during the earliest campaign periods of the Eisenhower - Stevenson confrontation during the 1952 national elections. Eisenhower won and a year or so later, came down to celebrate the finishing of the massive Falcon Reservoir, out to the west of McAllen.

   Because of this brother, I stumbled into being President of the Teenaged Republicans of America…McAllen chapter…the largest in the Republic of Texas…for two terms…1962 - 1963.

   And yes Virginia, Norman is still a Republican, probably hobnobbing with Saint Peter, at this very moment.  They are probably laughing over the fact that our Southern grandfather, Reginald Andrew Neal did not speak to his own daughter (our mother Nola Frances (Neal) Newton) for three years, after he learned that his daughter was supporting a Republican for President.   (A true story…)   

     Almost none of this is of interest to people of reasonable thought process and  logic.  But, it is of interest to the people who lived through this life.
   We truly appreciate questions and inquiries during these moments of sadness and celebration of life and the the passage of life as we know it.

_______________________________

      Below, one can see the "Three Newton Boys" in December of 1963 - David

C hristian (aged 16) the Acolyte, Milton Birchard (aged 27) the Best Man, and on the right, the Groom Norman Francis (aged 21) in front of the old rambling farmstead home that served us so well.

________________________________

Posted by David Christian Newton, this day, 13th of February 2020

     This posting is tinged with sadness, obviously, but we must remember that a small cadre of people decided to make Texas a two-party State a long time ago.
    The person who prosecuted the nuts and bolts…the 18 to 24 hour episodes…many hundreds of days, was my brother Norman Francis Newton, Sr.

    We would humbly  suggest that a large percentage of the changing of Texas from a Democrat back-water and making Texas a cutting edge political subdivision in the World had much to do with the large name below, 

 Norman Francis Newton, Sr.

(Que en Paz Descances)

We appreciate your statements and prayers.

DCN

EL GRINGO VIEJO

18 February 2020

Mission, Texas

USA

______________________________

RUSH LIMBAUGH - The Living Mount Rushmore

_____________________

A Tribute to Normalcy, a Recognition

of Class, a Knight of Generosity

Rush Hudson Limbaugh, III

_____________________________

     We sponsored Rush's "Rush to Excellence Tour" back in 1989 when he was doing the sell-out crowd-pleasers in numerous medium-sized and even some large venues.   It required a security check and a check for 1,250 American dollars…drawn from four different sponsors who were all conservative, preferably GOP members-in-good-standing, and who could lease the entire McAllen Civic Centre for the early evening up to the witching hour.

     Before that event, Rush was hosted at a luncheon given by by notable Republicans and conservative types at the "Big Bank" in McAllen…(actually a  sizeable, 17 story building in the middle of downtown).   Rush received about twenty people there, including my boss…The Wife and my mother.

     Later my mother and god-mother attended the Rush to Excellence Show, which delighted them and about 4,200 attendees…far and away the largest group to attend a function at the McAllen Civic Centre.

     My wife and I had determined to let the "older ladies" enjoy the moment since both were widowed, but still very active.   My mother, having lived in the Lower Rio Grande Valley from 1926…and in or adjacent to McAllen since 1936 still had a lot of old friends there.  She and my father had moved to Austin back in 1965 because my father had been given several choices of very prime positions in his profession…psychology…and they had decided to strike the tent and move to the land of Higher Cotton in Central Texas.

     It was of some interest when I pointed out to my mother, after she reviewed the courtesy photos taken by the Rush people and my wife, that Rush Limbaugh looked remarkably like her brother, William Grant Neal, and they were more or less the same age.

     Later I learned that Uncle Billy's grandfather was the son of Asa Grant and Amelia (Meli) Limbaugh.   This would mean that Uncle Billy and my two brothers and I were all first cousins, three times removed together as it pertains to our relation to Rush Limbaugh and his brother David.
  This descent was based upon the Saxony / Prussian immigrant who arrived in America in the 1830's, one George Frederick Limbaugh, who served in Washington's Army at the gruelling Valley Forge winter of 1777.  George was the XO of a Battalion of primarily German speaking, eastern Teutonic people. George Frederick had middling title in terms of aristocratic lineage, but truly wanted to move to the New Lands to the west (America).   His progeny in America was and is noteworthy and noble.

________________________

   

David Scott Limbaugh,

Rush's younger brother

_________________________

      During these times of lament, we also enjoy the fact that these people are neither distant nor close relatives, and that they were and are people who carried great affection and dedication to the fact that they were Americans, through and through.

     We shall  light our Anglican candles and read our ancient orders of the Episcopal way…while we await his restoration in the days to come for Rush and his people.   We hope for his quick restoration and return to the work he has done so well.

     _________________________

formal name of Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna? LEAVE THE POST-PUBLICATION EDITTING ALONE!!!!!!!!!!!

Preambulation:

Without gloating, we took groups to this destination at

10,000 FASL many times during the 1980s and early

1990s.   We were the first to touristically programme

groups of 20 to stay at this stunning destination. Many

ghosts and many happy people returning to

spend time.  We were the first  spend nights, in groups,

to this mystical silver compound.   It is thought that 15%

of all the silver that left Mexico and arrived in Spain was

shipped from Real de Catorce.

                           Sad, Happy, and Stunning…

___________________________

     The following remarks are partly apologia and partly explanation.   We shall explore and expose various things, both commendable and lamentable.  It shall be a review of things that we encountered during our last stay down at our place in Mexico, along with political activities  which are American and Mexican, but more importantly, Texian.

I.   THEREFORE, WE RETURN TO THE TOPICS OF CONCERN:

     Several years ago, this writer decided to establish his own Hawaii and Shangri-La all in one place.  He had always had this peculiar affinity for being comfortable in Mexico…he could speak the language and its variants…his wife spoke Spanish as well and had substantial white Arab, Celtic, Angosturan, Portuguese, Azorean, French, and Hebrew mix of a southern European.

  She also allowed me to do everything morally advanced and anything legal so long as she managed the banks and IRS.We established a very successful small, first class / deluxe Excursion Company back around  1977.   We covered every important, not-so-important, unknown, secret, very well known, common, mundane, or exotic place that could be reasonably and comfortably accessed and enjoyed.   One is pictured above…which was a place that your Humble Servant delivered (him present at all times)…that had foreign tourists stay one, two, or three nights  in what was essentially lunar, no-where, Huh? Mexico.

     We struck out to form a place of retirement for my wife and me during our dotage at the age of 55 or so.  That worked well until we approached and passed the retirement ages and conditions changed in Mexico, slightly but changed nonetheless.   Our comfortable little Quinta Tesoro de la Sierra Madre allowed us a very comfortable…primitive…adobe…advanced…functional…picturesque…and all of that,  and for many years we had that sporadic arrival of quircky tourists and birdwatchers and loungers and Euros and Japanese and Yankees…that steadily lost traffic due to the press and certain realities that are bad but nowhere year as bad as the "mainstream press" spins.

    One thing remained the same.  My boss had the checkbook…which is strange since she is essentially a General Purpose Accountant…!!   I would go down  (and still do) to our place…all legally bought, registered, fairly taxed, totally recognised by the three levels of federal, State, and local governing groups in Mexico our "Adobe Hut" with the lofty (but legally and morally correct) name of "Quinta Tesoro de la Sierra Madre".

A"widescreen" interpretation of the Hacienda de Santa
Engracia…about 3/8ths of a mile to the East of the Quinta
 Tesoro de la Sierra Madre (1720 'til now).  There is
 actually no curve…the rural highway is a very straight,
 dull, and boring and more improved as of December, 2019.
 Other improvements are underway.
  (Welcome to Mexico!!)  
__________________________________________________

Early Spring at the Quinta Tesoro de
 la Sierra Madre

__________________________

The Boss

 begins the process of reminding her

 granddaughter who The Boss is.

We have five (5) granddaughters (and not

 one grandson).

  They all obey their grandmother

 But  the grandfather…?   Not so much.

 The Grandfather's name is

 "Hooz'dat?" according to the girls.

_______________________

But, we move along.

     During the past four years especially, things gradually ground to a stop, with a bit of return to normalcy starting about 18 months ago.  But the activity is nothing like our restoration of the Hacienda de Santa Engracia by backing the owners of said Hacienda with our promise that, during the late 1970s and early 1980s,  we would deliver several thousand American (and other foreign) tourists who would spend pleasant time at that ancient and venerable old, resuscitated  Hacienda from the first quarter of the 1700's.

   In the late 1970s and during the 1980s and 1990s we pulled many, many busses and autos through the portals of parking area of that fine place.

   It still exists, but is gradually returning to the inertia of it previous existence.   We shall see if someday we can finish our efforts of restoring the

Hacienda de Santa Engracia's touristic visitation

to its previous resplendent impressiveness.  It was truly a secret Dutchy on the edge of civilisation during the Spanish Colonial Period.   It is all from another time.

   My time ends fairly shortly on this planet and/or theatre.  But the area around Santa Engracia (Holy Grace) continues to entrance Mexicans, Texians, foreigners of all sorts and social levels…we accentuate "all sorts" and of "all  social levels.

  For instance, I am not a Saint, and will never be.   As are most of the people around the Santa Engracia catchment, they can trace their entrance into the area into the late 1930s and later.   The Colonial populations was less than 6,000 souls…man, woman,  and child.

    The Hacienda was once over 600,000 acres in extension, but as we have stated...nothing like the population of to-day.   To-day, 300 years later, it is approximating 400,000 rural and small-town folks…an explosion by best estimates of 2,000 times of the original colonial folks.   As those before, so are those of the moment.   As were those from before, so are those who came later…but the mystique of the entire zone…its birds and animals, its crops of citrus and specialty vegetables, and the passive / active art of the apiarists, etc.

     It is a sad place to abandon or to sell-for-cheap, but my time has come.  I am speaking of thinking about abandoning a place that had its own soul…perhaps a greater soul than my own. One small injury and another knee problem and just plain wearing out causes one to become reasonable.   And yes, Virginia, I am talking about the Quinta de la Sierra Madre.

_____________________________

My Eldest Brother

Dr. Milton Birchard Newton, Jr - Ph.D

 Professor, Lousiana State University,

 Schools of Geology and Geography

(Chairman various years)

1936 - 1988

(QEPD)

 Seen with his pride and joy !

Daughter Helen

 in those times (she looks like

a doll, no?)

_____________________________

II.   Therefore, we now turn to the matters at hand…..

     The problem sociologically in the area where I am situated in Mexico…and where many outside the Yucatan and certain very few other places in Mexico are situated...is that we are inundated with people from Central America who have no catechism and who have horrid sociological pathologies during these times.

     Suffice to say the Stork had to fly on overtime to deliver in Nicaragua and especially in Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador.   Many…many…many…and many more…and more yet…and many more yet…and many more beyond that…. come to flood us with their needs

       And if we do not comply they will put us to the edge of the blade.   It is the nature of the people who are born without souls…without catechism…or instruction concerning right and wrong…and who are dedicated to their own self-gratifications.  They accuse us of the same things they are actually doing and then vigorously laugh about our catechisms and folkways.

   Our lives are somewhat rigidly controlled by the idea that there is a Supreme Being and a Judgement of those who are born of the the flesh.  The mass of folks who are coming up did not think…in my opinion…about anything except eating, procreating, throwing trash and going about their human digestive discharges.

     All the while, they are charging Los Pinches Gabachos (Abominable Anglo Saxons especially Americans) for the bill.  And…what about the Latins who are here, resident and citizen?   The invaders from the South declare, "They are worse than the Pinches Gabachos!"  according "them - the local Mexicans"…because "they" have sold-out to "La Gabachada (gringos).

     

 The leftist press, which endorses all nature of false "democracy", declares that we who have some form of Catechism, however debilitated, are at fault because there are millions of human-looking bone-reapers, just looking for another piece of flesh on the back door or on the highway.

   

       The fact of the matter is that many, many, many of the "intellectuals" of the latter 1700s and into the times of  Rousseau, Thoreau, Emerson, and the other deranged (although talented) writers of the 1800 - 1930 period were weirdos who dwelt inside of their brains.    

    They thought of "Egalitarianism" and notions that would  provide "proof" of the fact that all Men (people) are created equal and should remain "equal" among their many fellows, should be respected.

Henry David Thoreau -

There are those who see

a certain resemblance to

a young Abraham

Lincoln in this

countenance.

_________________

    The fellow pictured to the above-left is one of those we place in the "kooky-bongo" category, because he was, is, and forever shall be a "Kooky-Bongo".     The leftist press, which endorses all nature of false "democracy" and "kooky-bongoism", declares that we who have some form of Catechism, however debilitated, are at fault because there are millions of human-looking bone-reapers, just looking for another piece of flesh on the back door or on the highway.   It is our fault that they eat human flesh and cause the rot of the soul due to their own avarice, self-indulgence, and egocentrism.   In other words, it is their fault that we try to do the right thing.

        He was, according to  of his superior health and intellectual brilliance, one who  understood of the value of the rule of thought that included any idiotic fad that crossed the gate.   He lived to be well over 45 years of age…but not 46.

  He understood everything well over the first 24 years or hours or minutes…before the "troubles" started.   He, like Sam Houston, and thousands of other "community importants" fell for the "cure" of bone aches, psychological urgencies, bad dreams, various pains and vexes…oddly both  Houston and his 'contraincante' Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana were addicted to lithibrium, and it showed.   

We lament…and have had several complaints already, that the word "contraincante" is not a correct word  or term  for an unre-calcitrant enemy.  The supposed leader of the Mexican Union…had only one Mexican Union and that was Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. 

Walden's Pond -  Thoreau's refuge...

____________________

this note:   The reader who reasonably objects to any civility to the person of Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna is herein excused.  I, as the sponsor and father of this publication…do not only concur…but profoundly agree with the objector.   To me…the common Mexican soldier at Goliad and San Jacinto…I, we…have no rancour.   My wife's people in what became north-central Mexico,  300 years ago, also fought for the Confederacy up along the grants on the North side of the Rio Bravo (can we say 'north' without rancour? during the War Between the States)…being part of the Division of Benavides, on of the greatest defenders of the Southern Cause.

       The fact of the matter is that many, many, many of the "intellectuals" of the latter 1700s and into the times of  Rousseau, Thoreau, Emerson, and the other deranged (although talented) writers of the 1800 - 1930 period were weirdos who dwelt inside of their brains.

    The leftist press, which endorses all nature of false "democracy", declares that we who have some form of Catechism, however debilitated, are at fault because there are millions of human-looking bone-reapers, just looking for another piece of flesh on the back door or on the highway.  According to the intellectual social engineers, we are obligated to allow the human-looking bone-reapers to eat those of us, and our children.

Antonio de Padua María Lopez

 de Santa Anna y Pérez de Lebrun

(and yes Virginia

  that is and was his complete

 and formal  name given to him

 by his family.)

             ________________

      Our only escape from these beasts…whom we know do not truly exist... who have some form of passing over the protections of those who think that baptism is the "inoculation" against this matter.   Catechism of True Faith,  I am given to understand, is the only exit from this perpetual torment.

   

       The fact of the matter is that many, many, many of the "intellectuals" of the latter 1700s and into the times of Rousseau, Thoreau, Emerson, and the other deranged (although talented) writers of the 1800 - 1930 period were weirdos who dwelt inside of their own brains.

    They thought of "Egalitarianism" and notions that would  provide "proof" of the fact that all Men (people) are created equal and should remain "equal" among their many fellows, should be respected.

    We are given as an example of a self-indulgent ogre the case of Presidente General Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana. He understood everything well over the first 24 years or hours or minutes of his conflicted, self-absorbed, lithibrium fuelled life.…before the "troubles" started.   He also valued 30 and 50 year old wines and 100 year old mescales and tequilas.

   He, like Sam Houston, and thousands of other "community importants" fell for the "cure" of bone aches, psychological urgencies, bad dreams, various pains and vexes granted by lithibrium. Oddly enough both  Houston and his 'contraincante (Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna - pictured left) were addicted to lithibrium, and it showed.

     As he sits for the picture to the left, he is missing a portion of his lower leg…left on the field of battle against certain French armies who were concerned about Mexico not coming current with certain foreign debts that had gone seriously over term.
   Truth be known…he won the battle, although he had to sacrifice a good portion of his corporeal existence. The overall result of the conflict was resolved by negotiation. Look up "The Pastry War" between France and Mexico.

     The French Army (and certain others) on the beaches at Vera Cruz in  1839 were not prepared receive Santa Anna nor his funny looking bunch of "Indians" who certainly could not stand up to the excellence of the French Army (and  certain others), but they did.   The fact remains, the Chameleon of the Mexican Military probably was, in the Americas,  the greatest military leader of all times…in various ways.   And, we include Washington, Bolivar, and others, but he was also a horribly flawed egotistical maniac, along with being a philanderer, a drug-addict, a murderer, a woman / wife abuser, an Indian hater, a Euro - American hater, a Texas - Texian hater, a complete monkey-crazy lithibrium and heroin kooky-bongo druggie (including the time at San Jacinto, before the Texian attack), and a really crummy President of Mexico at various times.   Asides from that,  he was just a regular fellow...

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