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Los Tapatiós de California: Returning to Their Jalisco Roots

HISTORY

By John P. Schmal

Special to HispanicVista

 

     The Mexican state of Jalisco seems to inspire a sense of cultural identity and pride that is not nearly as evident with other Mexican states. Even among some second- and third-generation Americans, loyalty to and interest in Jalisco is commonplace among Mexican Americans. To many people, Jalisco represents the essence of Mexican culture, tradition and music. The Tapatiós are well-known for their energetic and colorful dances, which are usually accompanied by the mariachi music that made Guadalajara famous.  The state itself has been contributing large numbers of immigrants to the U.S. since the early Twentieth Century and continues to send many Jaliscans to California, Texas, Illinois and other American states.

One of the founding fathers of Los Angeles, Luis Quintero, was born in Guadalajara and his descendants, numbering in the thousands, live throughout Los Angeles and neighboring counties. In my own personal and professional dealings, I have known at least a couple hundred people who either came from Jalisco or whose ancestors came from the place.  In fact, my nieces and nephews have ancestors from Tequila and Hostotipaquillo in the valleys of northern Jalisco, not far from the Nayarit border.

Thousands of Jaliscans have been arriving in Los Angeles and throughout California each year for the last half-century, and, today, the sons and daughters of Jalisco work in California's banks, health care companies, publishing companies, schools, libraries and factories.  Many of them attend elementary school or are making their way through college, while others stand on street corners, looking for day laboring opportunities. Today, without a doubt, the lifeblood of Jalisco flows through the heart of California.

I spend a few hours of each month as a volunteer Family History Consultant for people who are seeking to find their roots in Mexico and have met with many individuals who were interested in exploring their Jalisco roots. Many of them also have ancestors from Michoacán, Zacatecas, and Guanajuato, but for some reason, they have a compelling urge to explore their Jalisco origins first and foremost. (Michoacán runs a close second, in large part because some people have a sense of pride for their Purépecha/Tarascan roots in Jalisco’s neighbor to the south).

Some of the most successful, rewarding and enjoyable research that I’ve done is Jalisco research.  Jalisco’s parish priests and the civil registrars followed a rigorous system of record-keeping that was not nearly as meticulous in some of the other Mexican states. As an added benefit, a significant number of Jalisco's parish records after 1850 are indexed, offering great opportunities for the family history researcher.

The most endearing characteristic of Jalisco records after 1800 is what I call The Abuelos Factor. Unlike some Mexican states and most countries of the world, a baptism record in the Jalisco parish books gives the family historian six new names to research: the padres (parents), abuelos paternos (paternal grandparents), and abuelos maternos (maternal grandparents) of the person being baptized.

As an example, the following baptism – translated into English from Spanish – was recorded on September 29, 1885 for Juana Luevano in the northern Jalisco town of Villa Hidalgo (a hop, skip and jump from the border with Aguascalientes):

     In  the  Parish  of Paso de Sotos on the 29th of September of 1885, I,
     Father  Estevan  Agredano... baptized solemnly and poured Holy Oil and
     Sacred  Chrism  on Juana, who was born on the 27th day at seven in the
     morning  in  this  place,  legitimate daughter of Tiburcio Luevano and
     Manuela  Martinez.  Paternal grandparents: Pablo Luevano and Manuela
     Serna.    Maternal   grandparents: Timoteo   Martinez  and  Fermina
     Rubalcaba. Godparents: Paulin  Diaz  and  Epifania  Aguallo, whom I
     advised  of  their  spiritual  and  parental  obligation.  In witness
     thereof, I signed it.

For the most part, people researching in Michoacán, Guanajuato and several other Mexican states do not usually have the benefit of the Abuelos Factor.  But many post-1800 records in Zacatecas, Aguascalientes and Chihuahua are influenced by the Abuelos Factor which makes jumping from one generation to another an easier process.

The  most  important  repository  of  Jalisco records for most Americans to research  are  available  through  the  Family History Library in Salt Lake city. This library probably has the largest genealogical resources for the state of Jalisco in the world and its catalog can be accessed at the following link:

 

http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Library/FHLC/frameset_fhlc.asp

For the state of Jalisco alone, the Family History Library owns at least 20,000 rolls of microfilm, covering roughly 200 cities, municipios, and villas. Of the 165 towns and villages whose Catholic churches are represented in this collection, 46 have registers going back to the 1600s while another 37 have records stretching back to the 1700s. Each roll of microfilm in the FHL collection can be ordered from any local Family History Center for $6.05. That roll of film will stay "in-house" for one month and can be renewed at the end of that period.

Most of Jalisco's 124 municipios are also represented in the FHL catalog. Although Mexico enacted civil registration in 1859, most of the municipios of Jalisco did not start keeping birth, marriage, and death records until 1867 or later. This collection is constantly being updated for some cities. In addition, the 1930 Mexican census is available for almost one hundred of the municipios. Another invaluable resource for the Hispanic researcher is the International Genealogical Index (IGI). In this database, many of the church records held by the FHL have been indexed. Of Mexico's 30 million baptism and marriage entries in the IGI, Jalisco accounts for about 3.5 million. In my own research, I have found this powerful and dynamic database to be of enormous value for pre-1880 baptisms and marriages.

 

Guadalajara, the second largest city in Mexico, is the capital of Jalisco. Founded in 1542, Guadalajara became the administrative capital of the province of Nueva Galicia. As the second largest tourist destination in Mexico, the Guadalajara Metropolitan Area enjoys the highest quality of life in Mexico. With a present-day population of around 4 million people, it is not surprising that many Mexican Americans search for their roots in the parish registers of Guadalajara and its immediate vicinity.

The FHL owns an impressive 3,400 rolls of microfilm dealing with Guadalajara. Fifteen Catholic churches, some with baptism and marriage registers stretching back as far as 1635, are represented on 1,500 rolls of film. Padrones (local census lists) from 1639 to 1875 comprise 48 rolls of film and can be a very useful resource. Property and water rights records can be found on 269 rolls of microfilm and date back to 1584. Notarial and probate records, dating back to at least 1583, make up almost 1,300 rolls.

It is interesting to note that, as one goes back in time, the records of some cities actually become more detailed. For example, a researcher exploring the marriage records in Lagos de Moreno between 1650 and 1670 will find that they are amazingly detailed, even for Indian couples who have no surnames.

In pre-Columbian times, many indigenous groups inhabited Jalisco, and, in fact, the present-day territory of Jalisco was crisscrossed by a large number of small autonomous states speaking a multitude of languages, some of which are long forgotten. The area around Guadalajara was inhabited by Cocas and Tecuexes, while the northern Altos region was dominated by the Caxcanes and Guachichiles. The Otomies lived around Zapotitlán, Juchitlán, Autlán in the south, but it is possible that they were transplanted Indians who came to fill a demographic void left by the original inhabitants after epidemics had reduced their numbers.

 

The Purépecha Indians (Tarascans), identified with the State of Michoacán, inhabited some of the southern border regions. The Tepehuán Indians, presently inhabiting Chihuahua, Durango and Nayarit, once lived in some of the northern mountains of Jalisco’s Three-Fingers Border Region with Zacatecas. The Huicholes, who now live in Nayarit, also inhabited some regions of northern Jalisco until shortly after the Spanish contact.

 

An integral part of genealogical research is historical perspective and understanding Jalisco’s indigenous past is a step towards understanding your own family history.  Only three authors have dealt with the topic of Jalisco’s indigenous people at great length. The following two books may be of assistance to the determined researcher:

 

Peter Gerhard, The North Frontier of New Spain. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1982.

 

Eric Van Young, "The Indigenous Peoples of Western Mexico from the Spanish Invasion to the Present: The Center-West as Cultural Region and Natural Environment," in Richard E. W. Adams and Murdo J. MacLeod, The Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas, Volume II: Mesoamerica, Part 2. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2000, pp. 136-186.

 

In addition, Dr. Phil Weigand of the Centro de Estudios Arqueologicos, El Colegio de Michoacan, in Zamora, Michoacán, has spent years studying the archaeology and history of the indigenous peoples of Jalisco and Zacatecas. Dr. Weigand has written many books and articles on the topic of indigenous Jalisco, both pre-Hispanic and later, and most of these works can be found in the California University library system. Although most of his works are in Spanish, a few are in English.

 

Many people have come to me talking about the etymology of their surname and how it came from a certain place in Spain at a certain time. Sometimes they give very intricate details about a surname’s history, without really knowing exactly how they connect to the surname, and sometimes their sources of this information are just quotes off the Internet, not from published academic sources. 

 

This is all good information to know and may turn out to be useful (and hopefully accurate), but it is important for people to realize that there is only one way to actual trace your own family tree and that is to look for your ancestors one generation at a time, baptism by baptism, marriage by marriage, going back gradually through time. Like any genealogical research project, tracing your roots in Jalisco demands a certain amount of patience, perseverance, and determination, as well as an open mind. Once you get the hang of it, it is really quite simple and the rewards can be spectacular.

 

Jalisco is still a vibrant and proud state.  People who come from there have difficulty shedding their cultural ties to their tapatió heritage and generally maintain a sense of identity about their Jaliscan origins. The State of Jalisco, with its rich cultural inheritance, has become, in many ways, part of California society as well.  But no matter how American you are, it doesn’t hurt to know about your ancestors from Jalisco and the evolution that transformed them from Indian warriors and Spanish settlers into American citizens.

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Copyright © 2006 by John P. Schmal. All Rights Reserved.

Source:  John P. Schmal and Donna S. Morales, Mexican-American Genealogical Research: Following the Paper Trail to Mexico (Heritage Books, 2002).

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Contact John P. Schmal at: JohnnyPJ@aol.com

John Schmal was born and raised in Los Angeles, California.  He attended Loyola-Marymount University in Los Angeles and St. Cloud State University in Minnesota, where he studied Geography, History and Earth Sciences and received two BA degrees.  Mr. Schmal has been a life-long history buff and is also a skilled genealogist. His genealogical specialties including tracing lineages in Mexico, Puerto Rico, and the Southwestern U.S.A.  He is the coauthor of "Mexican-American Genealogical Research: Following the Paper Trail to Mexico" (Heritage Books, 2002).  He has also coauthored three other books on Mexican-American themes, all of them published by Heritage Books in Maryland. He is an Associate Editor of www.somosprimos.com and a board member of the Society of Hispanic Historical and Ancestral Research (SHHAR). Presently, in addition to writing weekly columns for HispanicVista.com (www.hispanicvista.com),  he is writing a book on the indigenous peoples of Mexico and on the ports of entry along the Mexican-US border.  Mr. Schmal has a passionate love of Mexican history and has been writing short histories of each state, which are being compiled at the following link:
http://www.houstonculture.org/mexico/states.html

 

© Copyright 2005, by John P. Schmal.