Los Portales

Newsletter August 24, 2015

Greetings Members,

As the City of San Elizario continues to grow, the San Elizario Genealogy and Historical Society grows with it. Currently, we are the only tourist-based historic preservation organization in the City of San Elizario. We will need to step up to the plate every time we are called upon to lead in this area. We will continue to maintain our mission: to preserve, educate, and promote San Elizario and its precious history. We have entered a new purpose in San Elizario, Texas. I commend the hard work of all the volunteers that help during our special events and those volunteers that reli-giously volunteer at the museums. With fear of forgetting some, the volunteers are Manuel Alvarado, Sam Sanchez, Transito Macias, Heber Hernandez, George Sanchez, Aurora Bustos, Lillian Trujillo and others. Thank you to the Board for all their hard work and volunteerism. Thank you dear Ray Borrego and the veterans committee for doing an excellent job.

We are always looking for volunteers to help us at the museums. The hours are few and one day a week will help.

Hope to see everyone at the upcoming Founders Luncheon.

Al Borrego,

SEGHS President

Los Portales information:

Tuesday - Saturday: 10am-2pm Sunday - : 12:00 noon - 4pm Monday - : closed Phone: 915-851-1682 Fax: 915-851-0045 E-mail: saneligenealogy@att.net Web site: www.sanelizariogenealogy.com

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Founders Day Luncheon

This year will mark the twenty-fourth celebration of the Annual Founders Luncheon, an event established to honor and pay tribute to the elders of San Elizario and to encour-age families to trace their histories and discover new family connections. In addition, there will be guest speakers whose presentations will highlight their personal family sto-ries and San Elizario happenings over several generations. Program speakers will include Ralph Skaggs (Skaggs-Montes family) and Ronald Bowling (Bowling-Madrid Family). Their family photographs, keepsakes, and heartwarming anec-dotes are sure to bring back memories of days gone by and, hopefully, inspire others to discover their own stories to document and share. The Founders Luncheon will be held on September 27, 2015, at the L.G. Alarcon School Cafeteria, 12pm to 4pm, with lunch served from 12:30 to 1:30. The program will follow . Reservations must be received no later than September 18. Tickets are $10.00 per per-son. (Please note: This year there will be no complimentary tickets for elders.) A draw-ing will also be held. Prizes include a Presidio Chapel painting, a gift basket and an au-tumn wreath donated by Kila Sanchez. Luncheon and drawing tickets will be mailed to SEGHS members. All members are encouraged to participate and to bring relatives and friends to enjoy an afternoon of remembering the “good ol’ days” and rekindling friendships. Make plans to attend an afternoon of good food and fond memories. Fidencia Vargas & Elfida Ytuarte Family Miguel & Teresa Teran, Olga Hernandez

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Veterans Talk

Edwardo M. Pedregon Veterans Museum: 1501 Main Street , San Elizario Some new memorabilia and new displays have been added. We need volunteers at the museum to greet, welcome and log in visitors and guests. Anyone interested, contact Ray Borrego at 383-8529. Veterans Memorial Walk: 1501 Main Street, San Elizario We have 448 bricks on the ground and counting. Bricks sell for $40.00 each. An-yone wishing to purchase a brick, please contact Ray Borrego at 383 8529 or visit our website at www.sanelizariogenealogy.com. Veterans Memorial Plaza: Plaza in front of the Church Our wish list for 2015 includes having the County replace burned-out light bulbs at the Plaza. Annual Veterans Day Parade and Ceremony: We are already making plans for our annual Veterans Day Parade and Ceremo-ny. This year the Parade and Ceremony will be held on Saturday, November 7, 2015. San Elizario Veterans Committee: 1501 Main Street, San Elizario We hold our meetings on the first Tuesday of each month, at 6:30 pm, at the Veterans Museum. We welcome everyone, veterans and non-veterans, who want to continue the tradition of remembering and honoring our veterans and those currently serving. First Annual Veterans Appreciation Fiesta: We had our first annual Veterans Appreciation Fiesta on June 12, 13 and 14, 2015. We plan to make this Fiesta an annual event and our main source of fund rais-ing. Volunteering: There are no requirements, only the w illingness to want to help the veterans and the community with the museum, memorial walk, annual pa-rade, and other projects. We welcome high school and college students who need to do community service for school credit. Ray Borrego, Chair San Elizario Veterans Committee of the SEGHS 915 383-8529 E-mail: rayborrego99@msn.com Websites: http://www.sanelizariogenealogy.com

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1)Cruz Camargo 2) Tonio Lafebre, Cruz Camargo 3)Dr.Rick Hendricks & Luis Garcia Pictures from the First Thanksgiving Conference For 2015, SEGHS was proud to award Scholarships of $1000 each to the following recipients: Students Sponsors Ann Dee Alvidrez Macias/Alarcon Miguel Medina Borrego/Villalobos Ricardo Dominguez SEGHS Veterans Jorge Garcia Peña/JABO Sarahi Gonzalez Art has Heart Foundation Jaime Armenta Art has Heart Foundation Jillda Moreno Trujillo/Borrego Gift Shop

The gift shop has many books and items for sale including:

Bells of San Eli $15.00

Census of 1684 & Census of 1841 $10.00 Salt Warriors: Insurgency on the Rio Grande $25.00

The Tortilla Book $20.00 El Paso Prenuptial Investigations $35.00

Camino Real De Tierra Adentro $25.00 First Thanksgiving (Children’s book) $5.00

San Elizario; From Spanish Presidio to El Paso County Seat $25.00

The San Elizario Cookbook is sold out and we are in the process of having it reprinted. At this time the Gift store does not have any to sell. In addition to the books we have ceramic ornaments and magnets of the missions, coins depicting the mission, prints of the missions drawn by Sam Sanchez, a large laminated map of the El Paso area by Pete Flores, coffee mugs, tee shirts, holy cards and “A Visit to San Elizario” CD. We accept cash or check. All items are plus tax. New Member: We w ould like to welcome our new members, Mr. Ron Bow ling.

Prayers for the sick: Arnulfo Vasquez, David Bustos, Mike & Teresa Teran, Marta Garcia

Our Condolences: to the family of R ichard Madrid, son of Josefina Montes and Alfredo Madrid, pioneer families of San Elizario. Mr. Madrid passed away March 23, 2015. He is survived by one daughter Mary Bandah, brother Bobby Madrid and three grandchildren. He was a very faithful and hardworking member of SEGHS. May he rest in peace.

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In honor of feast day of San Elceario, SEGHS is submitting this very eloquent written story of San Elizario history

Los Carabineros

Los Carabineros is but one of the many traditions that have faded from the town of San Eliz-ario. The church would celebrate its annual feast of the patron saint “San Elceario” with a High Mass followed by a procession and a fiesta in the plazita.

Leading the procession were the Carabineros, offshoot of the old presidual Civilian Guard; fir-ing their volleys at regular intervals. The Carabineros were performing an important and an-cient function in the community.

In keeping with tradition, the squad of Carabineros were doing what has been a custom since the time of the Spanish Presidio in the late 1700’s. It was the Royal Order of 1779, which led to the practice of congregating docile Apache bands in or near the Presidio. They were en-couraged to settle voluntarily in the hope that they would eventually blend with the growing civilian Spanish community and adopt the ways of the citizens of San Elizario.

The need for a civilian military squad of Carabineros was evident soon after the Apaches be-gan to set their “Rancherias” near the presidio’s civilian population. The Presidio soldiers spent most of their time chasing renegades and not enough time tending to their fruit and vegetable gardens.

The hope was that the pacified Apaches would become farmers and help produce the neces-sary food stock to supply the population of the growing community, both civilian and military. It worked fine for a time, but the pacified Apaches had a hard time breaking old habits. They soon learned that when the church bells would ring and summon the faithful to prayer, the village would be left practically desolate. The empty village offered the Apaches a free-hand at the corrals, gardens and chicken coops. When the goats and chickens began to disappear and the aroma of meat cooking on open fire flames was all over the village, the villagers con-cluded that something had to be done to remedy this situation.

The Presidio’s commandant advised the villagers to raise a civilian guard to curb the Apache habits as the military guard had their hands full chasing hostile Apaches and Comanche Indi-ans. The Carabineros were organized out of the civilian villagers and put into service.

The purpose was to fire volleys at regular intervals during church functions. These volleys could be heard throughout the village. These (scarecrow) tactics would scare the docile Apaches into thinking that the Presidio’s Guard was patrolling the area. The Apaches would return to their teepees empty handed and the Spanish villagers would return home from church services to find their chickens, goats and other livestock safe in their corrals.

In remembering the lost traditions of the Carabineros loud volleys, it is good to remember our ancestors and to appreciate their struggles for the survival in the land that was unfriend-ly. We need to thank them, also, for the customs and traditions they left us as an inheritance which we must keep alive. By Sam Sanchez Sr.

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San Elizario Genealogy/Historical Society

P.O. Box 1090

San Elizario, Tx. 79849

Phone: #915 -851- 1682 Fax# 915-851-0045

Email address: saneligenealogy@att.net Web site: WWW.SanElizarioGenealogy.com

Physical Address: 1521 San Elizario Road, San Elizario, TX 79849