My Roots

Above is the Guadalajara, Jalisco Mexico coat of arms. It represents the beginnings of my childhood. Born the third month in the year 1980, I spent the first five years of childhood living with a couple of aunts, uncles, and my grandmother. In 1985, my mother and I paid a visit to an aunt living in Franklin, Indiana at the time. She had a son my age and we became like brothers. To this day, we maintain a close bond. It was during this visit that mother met my stepfather at a Singles Dance at church. They couldn't understand each other because my mother spoke no english and my father spoke no spanish, but they somehow fell in love. I always kid my mom that she only did it to get the papers to become legalized, but to this day they have raised my two younger sisters and I. These sisters mean the world to me. After one year of visiting this aunt we treked it back to Guadalajara for my parents engagement and paperwork to be finalized. We eventually made it back into the U.S. at age 6 or so where I was immediately enrolled in preschool and I started my language learning skills. My mother in Mexico, worked for the Mexican government as a secretary to support all of us in the household and was gone for most of the day. My father, Maximiliano, had no part of my childhood growing up. My mother wanted nothing to do with him and would never permit him to take me out by myself of fear that he would abduct me. According to my mothers story he was a "lazy son of a bitch," she would say. As for knowledge about his side of the family, I know little. From memory I can recall "Tio Alfredo--" a tall 6'3" green eyed man that really cared for me and an aunt with pale skin and blue colored eyes, story has it she was beautiful. I remember my grandmother, my father's mother, being short and frail; always wearing an apron and doing chores in the kitchen. I'm curious as to my geneology. Is there any criollo running through our veins or are we full descendants of American Indians? The question has been boggling my mind for a couple of years now, and one of my goals is to take a trip to Mexico to see these relatives before they have gone. The little neighborhood where we lived was called "Colonia Oblatos"--ghetto then by our standards now, but back then it was home. "2132" was the number of the blue house that has taken years of sacrifice to updgrade and maintain to its highest standards. Abuelita lives there now, and is loving every minute of it. The areas has been cleaned up and now houses the middle class.
Guadalajara now is the second most populous city in Mexico and is the State of Jaliscos' capital. The city is named after the Spanish city of Guadalajara, whose name originates from the Arabic word (وادي الحجرة) "wadii al-Hajara", which may mean "river of stones", "valley of stones", or "valley of the fortress". According to FDi magazine, Guadalajara is ranked "city of the future" over all other major Mexican cities, has the second strongest economic potential of any major North American city behind Chicago, and was among the top five most business-friendly Latin American cities in 2007. I'm most proud of Guadalajara's most recent development project "Puerta de Hierro."