Happy 79th Birthday to Rudolfo Anaya!

Painting By Christina Fajardo
My Grandma Rosita Valdez Padilla's House
Puerto de Luna, NM

In 1972 I went to live with my grandma Rosita Valdez Padilla in Puerto de Luna, New Mexico. I attended my junior year of high school 12 miles down a winding 2 lane road that followed the Pecos River in Santa Rosa. That year was life changing for me. It was also the year that Rudolfo Anaya's novel, "Bless Me, Ultima" was published. It told a somewhat similar story of Antonio Mares and his relationship with Ultima.

Rudolfo Anaya

In Rudolfo's novel, six year old Antonio Mares y Luna, tells the story of the older curandera, Ultima who has come to live with them. The story is very near and dear to my heart. It took place in Puerto de Luna. My parents were born, raised and married in Puerto de Luna. It took place just after WWII. My father was in the army during WWII and my mother worked for her uncle at the post office in Puerto de Luna during the war. She would sometimes have to take telegrams to the families of fallen soldiers on her horse. She was only 19 at the time. That seems like a lot to expect of a teenager who was related to everyone in Puerto de Luna. However Professor Emeritus and New Mexican author, Rudolfo Anaya wasn't just telling my story, my family history, he is a hometown hero of Santa Rosa and Puerto de Luna. He has the most widely read and critically acclaimed novel in the Chicano literary canon since its first publication in 1972, the year I was living with my grandma in Puerto de Luna. Of course, by that time, I was just walking in his footsteps and he had moved on to Albuquerque where he would become the Godfather of Chicano Literature, the treasured son of New Mexico. 

This year Rudolfo became one of the newest recipients of the National Humanities Medal. I can't tell you how exciting it was to watch him on TV receiving the awarded from President Obama. While leaving the stage, he held up his hand and said "Viva Obama!" 

U.S. President Barack Obama awards the 2015 National Humanities Medal to author Rudolfo Anaya

What it must have felt like to be acknowledged by the coolest President we have ever had for playing a key role in weaving our New Mexican culture into American society through his body of work. I only dream of breaking the barriers he has broken by telling his story of the civil rights struggles of Hispanic people of New Mexico. He has given me the courage to tell my story as a female Hispanic woman. By telling his story of Ultima, he helped me to solidify the importance of a boy and his relationship to his wise and aging grandmother who held the secrets of life that only she could convey to him as a young boy before he grew too old to have the time or interest. I've personally cherish those times with my own children and grandchildren and I feel blessed when they come back and repeat information that I have bestowed upon them. 

Rudolfo has been a huge inspiration to me. Telling his stories has given me permission to tell my story. I write my blog to keep my very unusually rich New Mexican family story alive. My son said to me just the other day "Mom, you don't even know how many times a week I brag about the work you do, researching our family history and writing our story." It warms my heart to know that he understands how important it is. If I die without telling the stories, our history dies with me. My brother Phillip reminds me all the time that I am the keeper of the stories and the family history. My mother before me was the keeper. I only wish I had started writing while she was still alive.

The movie can be bought on Amazon Prime. 
I have streamed and watched it many times.

Rudolfo explains in this video how he receives guidance from his ancestors.

A Conversation with Rudolfo Anaya by Directed by Lawrence Bridges

It is an amazing thing to have those connections to the past. Sometimes late at night when I am working on my family tree, if there is a missing link to connect one family member to another, it is as if my guides come and the information just appears out of nowhere. So that answers the question of "do we live forever?" I would have to say yes. We are energy and energy never dies. I feeling the presence and blessings of my ancestors when I am working on our story.

Without getting way into my family tree, I am related to Rudolfo Anaya and Ultima, AKA Anastacia Lucero Boney.) A dear friend of mine, Jasmine is Ultima's great great granddaughter and now has a store in Santa Rosa, NM called Casa de Ultima. She does farmers markets around New Mexico and she always takes the Ultima doll I made for her with her to the markets and displays her among her herbal remedies and soaps.

Ultima Doll
Made by Christina Fajardo

Christina at the Rudolfo Anaya Statue
Park Lake, Santa Rosa,NM

Happy 79th birthday to you Rudolfo Anaya! You have been a huge inspiration to me. Your spirit will live on forever in your stories.

COLORES | From Curandera To Chupacabra: The Stories Of Rudolfo Anaya | New Mexico PBS

The Common Hispanic Mutation

This entry in my blog is dedicated to all of my relatives that either currently have Cerebral Cavernous Malformations or have loved ones that have died of this very rare disease. I pray that one day very soon there will be a cure. Until then, I will continue to be an advocate by sharing as much information about the disease as possible and offer moral support to those in need.

It's been a rough week in my little corner of the Universe. My conclusion... nobody should attempt dealing with serious, chronic health issues alone. Having an advocate that knows your medical history to accompany you when you go to doctor's appointments and treatment makes all the difference in the world. It has taken me a few days to regain my composure after an appointment with a neurologist earlier this week. I suggest if you are going to see a specialist for the first time it is good to have someone with you, to back you up, so they don't think you are a drug addict or hypochondriac. Advocates are also a big plus when we are physically and mentally drained, which happens often when one has a chronic illness. My heart goes out to Barack Obama every time I have heard him speak of his mother fighting Cancer and simultaneously fighting the insurance companies for the last year of her life. And I am grateful that he took that very painful event in his personal life and turned it into something wonderful. The Affordable Health Care Act.

My issue is a little different but just as frustrating. As we all know, nobody likes to go to specialists and confront serious congenital health conditions. And to make things worse, when you go to the doctor, they ask the reason for your visit and they want an easy answer in ten words or less because that is all they have time for. They want to draw blood, write a prescription and send you on your way. Unless it is is a neurosurgeon then they want to figure out when they need to schedule brain surgery. This week was no different. I left my new neurologist's office feeling like I had been hit by Santa Fe freight train.

Over the 36 year time period that I have suffered with a seizure disorder and migraines, I have seen numerous neurologists. Each time I feel like I spent useless time, energy and money, never to return for a second appointment because I felt unheard and degraded with no solutions for my health issues. My first mistake this time was finding a neurologist online. I chose a young female neurologist mostly because her bio said she also does acupuncture. How could I go wrong with someone open to alternative medicine? The first clue that I made a bad choice was when I called her office, nobody answered and there was a message stating that I couldn't leave a message. When I arrived to the medical complex, I couldn't find "Building F" so I walked around the complex in the pouring rain with a sopping wet, poorly drawn map that was sent to me via email. Map Quest only gave a street address on my phone. A minor inconvenience compared to the rest of the visit.

The doctor entered the office giggling that I looked like a shivering wet dog. She asked for the purpose of my visit. I was careful in answering because in my past experiences with neurologists, I have been accused of wanting pain killers to get high because I didn't want to take Imitrex for my migraines because it made me feel like I was having a heart attack. Another time I was accused of trying to sue someone after a car accident because I was taking notes during my appointment.

So this time I arrived with a neatly organized folder of medical history. I really wanted to start the conversation with "I need to have some tests done for an illness called Familial CCM, Cerebral Cavernous Malformations, or sometimes called The Common Hispanic Mutation.  It is caused by mutations in the KRIT1 gene and causes low pressure vascular lesions of the central nervous system. It consists of clusters of dilated thin-walled blood vessels that predispose individuals to seizures and stroke. These clusters of dilated thin-walled blood vessels are often misdiagnosed as brain tumors. They seem to multiply with age, as do the symptoms. But I decided to simply say "I have a history of seizures and migraines, my seizures are controlled with medication and the migraines aren't as bad as they used to be." So of course she responded with "So why are you here?" I said "Because I believe I have a genetic disease called Cerebral Cavernous Malformations (CCM1). I believe my brother has it as well. We have the same symptoms, his are worse because he is six years older. The disease is hard to detect so I need to have an MRI of my brain and spine with dye and genetic testing. If I test positive, I want my MRIs sent to a doctor in New Mexico who in the last year has received federal funding to do a study on the disease." She sat back and laughed and in a very condescendingly Czechoslovakian accent said "You can't just read information on the internet and decide you have this disease and ask for tests." THEN I pulled out my folder containing my medical history. I handed her a letter written and signed by 5 doctors from the Angioma Alliance endorsing the critical importance of pursing clinical genetic testing for patients who have a family history of CCM1. Keeping in mind that identifying a patient’s genotype may have immediate clinical implications for the patients and their family. It also stated that it is important for clinical monitoring as well as for future research endeavors. She said "Genetic testing is expensive. There is no reason for you to have the test. You are not going to have any more children. Maybe your children need the test, not you." She left the room with the letter from the Angioma Alliance and I sat there for about 5 minutes fighting back a strong urge to leave but I was waiting for the rain ease up.

She came back and started typing on her laptop. Apparently she had gone to do some research in the other room. I then handed her a report from my last neurologist stating that I had been diagnosed with another rare spinal/brain disease called Syringomyelia, a debilitating disease serious enough to be on disability. However the symptoms are the same as the symptoms of CCM1. I have reason to believe I was misdiagnosed. Either way, the only solution for either disease is to have spinal surgery if the symptoms become serious enough. I then handed her a report from my cardiologist stating that I have a 3 cm aneurysm on on aorta which is being closely monitored because if it reaches 5 cm I have to have open heart surgery. Meanwhile, I have to take blood pressure meds because sometimes my blood pressure spikes for no apparent reason.

Oh yeah, and about that genetic issue... my brother had open heart surgery in December to have his whole aorta replaced because his aortic aneurysm had grown to a dangerous 5 cm and during that same week, my other brother had an outpatient procedure to fix his Atrial fibrillation. I then handed her another report stating that I have an extremely rare right sided aortic arch with a Kommerell Diverticulum on my heart. She of course didn't know what that was. My cardiologist had never even seen one because fewer than 50 cases have been reported. It simply means that my aortic arch goes to the right instead of the left and has a bulge on it. And last but not least I have a aortic valve insufficiency which basically means the valve does not close properly so blood leaks back through the aortic valve. With each heartbeat, more blood than usual enters the left ventricle and so it needs to work harder. She left the office again. This time she came back in the office looking at me as if to wonder why I am still alive and started treating me in a totally different tone. I'm in fact, not a hypochondriac or a drug addict looking for legal prescription drugs. She documented 5 very rare medical conditions on my chart and ordered an EEG and 3 MRIs and still maintained that I didn't need to have genetic testing because she said it is obvious that I have the disease and there is no cure. No reason for an expensive test. I just went with that because I was too tired to pursue the matter. She said your physician's assistant at Victory Medical Center takes very good care of you and then she asked if I needed any pain meds and I told her I don't take them, I take turmeric for inflammation. She agreed that was a good idea as she handed me the notes she took and orders for tests.

I walked back out in the rain feeling completely wiped out. I drove south and upon arriving home, took a two hour nap. It took me two days to recoup from the very draining one hour doctor's appointment which felt more like a court date. And that is why I am writing this blog. I don't want anyone to go through what I went through earlier this week. Therefore, I have attached a few links about CCM1, the disease that I know many of my relatives have, most of whom have not been correctly diagnosed. The heart issues that I spoke of above are a whole other issue or maybe they go hand in hand, I don't know. Either way, my brothers and I have a congenitally compromised cardiovascular systems. My father died of a heart attack 15 years ago today and his father died of a heart attack as well. My maternal grandfather had 5 strokes before he died. I had a 1st cousin die of a brain aneurysm at the age of 50 and his brother and niece have migraines and other brain disorders. That's just the tip of the iceberg, there are too many more to mention.

So here is what I know about the rare disease called Cerebral Cavernous Malformations, KRIT1, sometimes called The Common Hispanic Mutation. About three years ago, while doing genealogy research, I came across some information about the disease. It causes vascular anomalies, that look like mulberries (mora in Spanish) Interestingly enough, as a child, I spent my summers eating mora while sitting in my grandma's mora tree next to the irrigation ditch at her house in Puerto de Luna, New Mexico. The photos of these vascular anomalies looked strangely familiar when I first saw photos of them. These purplish red mulberry shaped vascular anomalies cause many symptoms like seizures, migraines, a burning sensation in limbs, toes and fingers, strokes and sometimes sudden death. Cavernous malformations can form in any part of the central nervous system.

Some people with CCM also have cutaneous vascular malformations that look like this.... and guess what I have a "birthmark" that looks exactly like this and so do my offspring.

These Vascular Anomalies on the
Forehead are Common in My Family

This is one of the few photos I have of myself when
I was a baby. You can see the vascular anomaly on my forehead.

About 50% of the carriers of the (CCM1) mutated gene are asymptomatic but if you carry the gene, your children have a 50% chance of also having it. Even though it is a very rare disease, and the gene wasn't identified until 1999, it isn't rare to me at all. It mainly exists in the Hispanic community of New Mexico. Not Spain. Not Mexico. I've met a few cousins on facebook and Ancestry.com who either still live in New Mexico or have ancestors from New Mexico who either have the disease or have had a loved one die of the disease. It isn't really a club you want to belong to but at the same time, it's comforting to have relatives in the same sinking boat.

I can't really remember the year I read The New York Times article about CCM1 but it was written in 2007. It was a compelling story of a seemingly healthy 9 year old suddenly passing away due to a brain aneurysm.  When I read the symptoms the little girl's aunt, Joyce Gonzales described of the burning sensation in her arms and legs, I knew I was onto something. As I read it, I was myself having a burning sensation in my leg and toes (as I do today.) I immediately contacted Joyce in New Mexico. She had been working extensively, building a family tree that linked most everyone with the CCM1 gene mutation back to Ana Moreno de Lara de Trujillo, my 7th great-grandmother, married to Cristobal Baca. 

Update: I originally wrote this blog in August of 2016. I am updating it and it is now 2021. I have now discovered that Joyce Gonzales is my second cousin.

Joyce Gonzales 

Dr. Leslie Morrison

Joyce immediately put me in contact with Dr. Leslie Morrison, a Pediatric Neurologist from UNM who is a specialist in the CCM1 gene mutation. Since then Dr. Morrison has received federal funding to do a study on the gene mutation. I also had several conversations with a cousin in Santa Rosa, NM who is an asymptomatic carrier of the CCM1 gene, however she has two children with the disease. One of her child had been misdiagnosed with a brain tumor and the other had spinal surgery to have her angiomas removed. I gathered all my info and took it to my doctor and asked to have the gene test and after waiting about 6 weeks for results, I discovered that they had ordered the wrong genetic test. By this time, I'd a dental procedure and the infection in my gums went to my faulty aortic value and I ended up being very ill for about 3 months so I dropped the ball on the gene testing and a possible trip to New Mexico.

Meanwhile, as I mentioned above, my brother Phillip was having very serious health issues of his own. After a seizure in 2009, he was diagnosed with a "brain tumor." He had it removed, recouped and then he had to get a pacemaker for atrial fibrillation. He had also been diagnosed with a 5 cm aortic aneurysm and in December 2015 he had open heart surgery to completely replace his aorta. His physical therapist gave him a score of 110% after his heart surgery however, he is still having issues trying to find a seizure medication that both works for him and doesn't have horrible side effects. I'm still not sure why medical marijuana for seizures in adults is still not legal in Texas. It is a total mystery to me. I have had issues with my seizure medications in the past but doing well with the one I take now, but with my brother still having major issues with his, I sure would like to see medical marijuana legalized.

angioma.org

My headaches aren't anywhere as close to as bad as they used to be but I still have daily episodes of severe weakness, burning sensations in my spine, back, limbs and toes. About twice a month I have these awful episodes that for a lack of a better word I call the WaahWaahs. It starts with a strange tightening in my lower back around my spine and then I feel a "click" in my brain like it is misfiring or maybe an angioma bleed. It's hard to explain I just know that once that happens I am going to end up in bed off and on for a couple of days so I have to cancel all my plans, turn off my computer, TV, music and curl up with my cat in bed under my down comforter in a cool, dark, quiet room. It is an overwhelming, scary feeling and I have often thought it would be a good time to go to the ER and have an MRI to see if in fact my brain is bleeding.

So about a month ago I decided it was time to jump back on the path of CCM1 research and see a new neurologist. I say research because there is no known cure. That's the reason I haven't been in a real big hurry to get the actual genetic diagnosis. Then what do I do? Have brain surgery or spinal surgery. No. I don't think I am ready for that. I guess I have to agree with this last neurologist. If it quacks like a duck, it is probably a duck.

However, with that being said, I have been staying on top of all the research going on in Albuquerque, NM from afar. And coincidentally night before last, I hopped on Facebook and saw a post on a FB group I belong to called "The Genealogical Society of Hispanic Americans." Someone had posted an article about Cerebral Cavernous Malformations in New Mexico. 102 people shared the article and I stayed up until about 2:00 chatting with distant cousins that share this disease. It may be a rare disease world wide but it is a huge scary disease in my corner of the Universe. I have attached lots of reading material and most importantly, the first link below which is a must watch video.

alliancetocure.org

angioma.org

Dr Leslie Morrison & Joyce Gonzales On Cerebral Cavernous Malformations in New Mexico 

Article Written on July 12, 2013 About the Common Hispanic Mutation in New Mexico

Legislation could help speed cure for genetic disease - Saturday, May 30, 2015 

The New York Times Article Written on September 4, 2007

Mice with a Mutation in Ccm1(KRIT1)

National Center for Biotechnology Information

Cavernous Angioma and New Mexico 

UCLA Treatment of Cerebral Cavernous Malformations


For New Mexico Families, Connecting the Dots of an Ancestral Disease

Los Padillas!

When I began my ancestral journey,  I was looking forward to writing this blog about my Padilla ancestors because it was the branch of my family I knew most about. Little did I know I would discover literally thousands of relatives that I never knew existed. I discovered Padillas on both sides of my family! My dad's 3rd great-grandmother was a Padilla. Not to worry, as you can see on the chart below, there's enough other DNA in the mix to make that safe.

In the beginning of my research, I got stuck on my maternal Great-Grandfather Jose Manuel Padilla because I had his middle name wrong. To make it even more difficult, there are thousands of Jose Padillas in the world. After all of my research, I have concluded that there seems to be parallel family units in several countries with the same surnames as the ones in my family tree. I've discovered multitudes of Padilla, Fajardo,Valdez, Chavez and Montoya families that have married each other all over the world. For instance, I found a Felipe Fajardo who was born in 1883 and lived in Albuquerque. He was  and he and his wife had children named Phillip and Anita. Uh... those are my father, my brother and my sister's names. That parallel family had me very confused for a few days when I began looking for my dad's sister, my Aunt Anita. I thought there may be some skeletons in the closet that I had not been told about. Even now, I only have a couple of photos of my Aunt Anita and no census information on her or my father when they were children because their mother died of the 1918 Spanish Influenza. My father was only 3 years old.

So, my first important discovery was that my paternal grandmother Josefita was a Labadie not a Montoya as I had always thought. She and her siblings had been adopted by her step-father Antonio Montoya so my dad is a Labadie, not a Montoya! This was a BIG find. In that branch of the family tree, my 4th Great-Grandfather Dominique Labadie MD, was born in 1738 in in Veloc, Gascony, France. (in the South of France) He first settled in St Louis, MO. This may have been my family's first connection to St Louis. Then he came to New Spain, Kingdom of New Mexico in Santa Fe in 1765. As a young medical doctor, the 27 year old married my 4th Great-Grandmother, Maria Micaela Padilla, (I love her name) who was born in 1748 in San Juan, Rio Arriba, New Spain, Kingdom of New Mexico. Maria Micaela was the daughter of one of the original founding families of Albuquerque. She was born in 1748, in San Juan, Rio Arriba. They married in Santa Fe on November 2, 1766. and had 15 children. It became very common in the next few years for the young men of St Louis to venture west and marry into the Hispanic families who were rich in land and cattle. She died in 1804 and he died July 23, 1815 in Santa Fe.

I was able to trace that branch of Padillas back to Spain about a year ago but I was unable to connect that Padilla to my maternal branch of Padillas until this week. While doing some research the other night I finally hit the jackpot, in discovering my great grandfather's name was Jose Manuel Padilla. So here is the comparison of my mom's Padilla lineage to my dad's Padilla lineage:

My mother was very proud of her Padilla/Valdez heritage. She often spoke proudly of her great uncles and their importance in shaping the early political climate of New Mexico. The Labadies were as important, if not more so, in shaping the early New Mexican government. More about that later but I do come by my political passion honestly. I only learned about 2 generations of family history and I am guessing it's because that was all my mom knew about. There's no way I would have been able to do all this research without a whole lot of time on my hands, lots of coffee, my trusty little Macintosh laptop with ultra fast internet speed.

I've always known that "Los Padillas" is a community south west of Albuquerque, New Mexico obviously settled by Padillas but I couldn't connect those Padillas to my family in Puerto de Luna, a few miles to the east. This week I discovered "Los Padillas" was settled by my 4th Great-Grandfather Diego de Padilla. His grandparents had lived there prior to the 1680 Pueblo Revolt when the indigenous Pueblo people fought back against the Spanish colonizers in the province of Santa Fe de Nuevo Mexico, present day New Mexico. 400 Spanish people were killed the remaining 2,000 settlers were temporarily driven out of the province. This is where the reality of the history strikes a chord with me. I now know, from the deepest part of my soul that history does in fact repeat itself and it is our job is to learn from the past and use that knowledge to better our future. Our current political climate and division among us is nothing new but it makes much more sense to me because I have a deeper, personal knowledge of the past.

It is no secret that during the Spanish Inquisition some of my Sephardic Jewish ancestors were literally kicked out of Spain due to their religious beliefs, meanwhile some of my ancestors were responsible for these atrocious actions. As if that weren't enough, my Spanish ancestors were then sent to the Americas to convert everyone to Catholicism by the power hungry Spanish government and it's religious officials. They proclaimed the need for a pure and unified Spanish-Catholic race, forbidding intermarriage between Catholics and anyone else, believing this would destroy their ideal of purity of blood. Well, in my case, it worked fairly well for them for close to 500 years, even after leaving Spain. According to my DNA test, I am 26% Native American, so 74% of my ancestors played along with staying in the herd.

As in every situation, some of the settlers had good intentions, others came to the Americas out of greed and the need for power. In the long run, thousands of Spanish explorers and indigenous Americans died in the name of religion. The division we are seeing in our country today is nothing new. But instead of the King of Spain we have a greedy, power hungry top 1% of the population who are more than happy to elect a leader to lead the blood hungry masses into complete chaos in their attempt to divide and conquer for personal gain while using religion as an excuse to hate people. The reality is that no religion teaches us to hate people due to different beliefs or skin color. There should be no walls to keep people in or out. We are all created equal, yet the the fear of lack and greediness of those who are most often in power overshadows the need love one another. My very insightful son said to me the other day that most often people see those with money as the ones to support and follow, when in fact it is the healers and the mystics that deserve our respect and honor. I think that the Native Americans knew that yet they were often forced to change their beliefs or die. My journey is not to learn about those that divided and conquered in the name of religion. My goal is to learn about those that have been the spiritual leaders, the healers that brought people together. I am happy to say I have found many in my personal history that were just that. I am blessed to have their DNA.

So there is your Padilla history lesson for the day! I have interesting stories about many of these Padillas but the basic run down is that Juan de Padilla was born in Seville, Andalucia, Spain in 1558 and for 4 generations after that, the Padillas were in transit from Spain, through Mexico, into New Mexico. I am sure they endured many hardships on their journeys. Those memories live on in my DNA and I honor their memory.

This day in History - April 13, 1556

This is a story of an amazing woman, Doña Gracia Nasi (her Christian name was Beatrice de Luna Micas) Her family was from Aragon, Spain. I have been able to trace my mother's side of the family back to the key players to this time and place in history. This would have been 14 generations or 400 years before my time. Gracia Mendes Nasi's family fled Spain to Portugal when the Catholic Monarchs, Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon, expelled the Jews from Spain. 

Doña Gracia Nasi was born in Portugal in 1510. Even though her aristocratic Jewish family had fled Spain they had recently been forcibly baptized Catholic. In her dramatic life, she became one of the most respected figures of the Sephardi world in the sixteenth century. She was renowned as a resourceful businesswoman and a leader of the Sephardi. She became known among her contemporaries simply as “La Señora.”

On this date in history, April 14, 1556, twenty-five crypto-Jews were burned at the stake in Italy. In response, Doña Gracia bribed the Pope to delay the establishment of the Inquisition in Portugal and organized a merchant boycott of the Port of Ancona, Italy which brought ruin to the town.

Little is known of her early life. She was descended from the distinguished Spanish Jewish family bearing the name Nasi. Her parents may well have been among the Spanish-Jewish exiles who left Spain for Portugal in 1492, only to be forcibly baptized in Portugal in 1497. Her family assumed “de Luna” as its Christian name.

Doña Gracia realized the power of wealth and spent her money wisely by helping people. She established centers for Jewish study, and synagogues and spent a great deal of resources trying to take care of the poor. She helped Marranos escape persecution and relocate to Turkey, and organized a trade embargo on the Pope’s lands. She was arrested several times for helping evicted families. Although she was denounced by her sister, nothing stopped her from helping Jewish people. Doña Gracia settled in Ferrara of Italy, where she openly declared herself a Jew. She continued to help a large number of Jews hiding their identity. She became the patroness of scholars.

Little is known of Gracia Nasi’s last years as well. When she died in 1569, the loss was deeply and widely felt. Her death spelled the loss of a legendary personality— along with her sense of privilege and imperious behavior, symbolized triumph over great adversity, and intense devotion to Jewish life.

Doña Gracia Mendes Nasi was one of the wealthiest women of Renaissance Europe,” but there was so much more to her than her wealth! Widowed in her twenties, she was left with an infant daughter and a partnership in the House of Mendes, one of the great banking houses of the time. She and her husband were Conversos or secret Jews, whose families had been forcibly converted to Christianity but who secretly maintained their commitment to Jewish life and tradition. Besides being a businesswoman, Doña Gracia also managed one of the largest refugee operations in European history, moving converso families out of Spain and Portugal into the Ottoman Empire, where they could openly practice their Judaism and where they were no longer under the threat posed by the Inquisition. At the same time, she was a high-profile refugee herself, moving from city to city as politics shifted. She eventually moved to Istanbul where she died in 1569.

Read about Gracia Mendes Nasi in the Jewish Currents

March 31, 1492 Jews Expelled from Spain

In 1469 Catholic monarchs King Ferdinand II and Queen Isabella married to unite the kingdoms of Aragon and Castile. On March 31, 1492 they gave the Jews four months to convert or leave Spain. Many Jews converted to Christianity to escape persecution, but many "conversos" continued practicing Judaism in secret.

“Tens of thousands of refugees died while trying to reach safety. In some instances, Spanish ship captains charged Jewish passengers exorbitant sums, then dumped them overboard in the middle of the ocean. In the last days before the expulsion, rumors spread throughout Spain that the fleeing refugees had swallowed gold and diamonds, and many Jews were knifed to death by brigands hoping to find treasures in their stomachs.”

The Spanish Inquisition is the most famous of the inquisitions carried out between the 12th and 19th centuries by the Roman Catholic Church.

Image of a page of the original Edict
Signed by Ferdinand and Isabella
Source: The Nahum Goldmann Museum of the Jewish Diaspora, Israel.

...More on the Fajardo, Labadie and Padilla Family Tree

Last month on February 16, 2016 at 2:00 pm., my dad's first cousin Lola passed away.  I remember her as a beautiful, petite, red head who was quiet and kind hearted. She was always dressed beautifully and loved to dance. She had been married to the love of her life, John Solano, since 1949. John was also an adorable, sweet soul who loved to play music. They were a perfect match. They had two adorable children Andy and Lorraine. This month on March 17, 2016 at 2:00, one month and one day after Lola passed away, John joined her in heaven. Truly a love story that would make a great movie. I just imagine that Lola greeted John in heaven and they happily waltzed away together.

 

 Johnny and Lola
with their children Andy and Lorraine
and grandson Steve

Before I started my ancestry research, it was difficult for me to understand the relationship I had to the trail of "relatives" that came over and sat in my parent's living room speaking "Spanglish" over a pot of coffee. Other than the numerous first cousins, aunts and uncles that we spent holidays with, at my maternal grandma Rosita's farm in Puerto de Luna, I just accepted that I was somehow related to anyone that came over and spoke "Spanglish."

Lola and my dad were first cousins. Twice. My dad's mother Josefita Labadie was married to Doroteo Fajardo and her older sister Lucinda was married to Doroteo's older brother Victoriano Fajardo. Lucinda and Josefita's parents were Dorotea Dolores Chavez and Juan Labadie but when they were young girls their father passed away and their mother married Antonio Montoya. I imagine that my grandma Josefita's stepfather was a very nice man because she named my father Felipe Montoya Fajardo. This created a lot of confusion when I began doing research on my father's side of the family tree. It took me over a year to narrow down where the French name Labadie came into play in the family tree.  To confuse things even further, church records showed that my grandparents were married on May 12, 1915 my father was born May 26, 1915. Then only 3 years later in 1918 my dad's mother Josefita passed away of the Spanish Influenza. At some point during that 3 year period, my dad's sister Anita was born. My dad spent a lot of time with his first cousins so they were in fact much more like brothers and sisters.

Lola was from a large family and had an older brother named Jose that my father was very close to growing up. Jose married my mother's younger sister Connie before he went to serve in WWII.

My mother Agueda Padilla,
with her younger sister Connie
and Connie's husband Jose Fajardo
In Puerto de Luna, NM

When Jose and my father Felipe returned from the war, Jose and Connie convinced my mother to go out on a date with my dad. She had mixed feelings about the whole thing because my dad had a Ford Model T and was known for charging the girls a quarter for a ride in his car from Santa Rosa to Puerto de Luna for the dances on the weekend. Soon, my mom would just pay him for the whole night with the money she made working at the post office so she wouldn't have to share him with the other girls. Within a month of dating, my dad's step-mother Perfecta became deathly ill in Amarillo, where his father and his new family had moved to so my grandpa Doroteo worked for the Santa Fe Railroad. My mom refused to go with him because it was improper for her to go on a trip with him so.... he asked her to marry him. He admitted he was afraid that if he left her in Santa Rosa, one of the others who had just returned from the war would swoop her up. I didn't hear this story until shortly before my mother passed away in 2005 after asking her why I had never seen wedding photos. There were none.

Here's Doroteo and Josefita's family tree compared to Vicoriano and Lucinda's. They are both Fajardos on their father's side and Labadies on their mother's side:

Click on image to enlarge

Click on image to enlarge

So as I mentioned my mother Agueda and her little sister Connie married the two Fajardo boys. Here's the comparison of our family trees. Much like the family trees above, only in this case, the women are Padillas and the men are Fajardos.

My Mom and Dad's Family Tree:

Click on image to enlarge

Aunt Connie and Uncle Jose's Family Tree:

Click on image to enlarge

Happy International Women's Day!

Happy International Women's Day!

This is a day of gratitude to all of the women (and men) in our lives and those that have gone before us, who made freedom and opportunity for women possible in our lifetime. I especially want to thank my mom for doing her best to make a better life for her children. She was very active in the Democratic Party and used to take me with her to work on elections. I can't thank her enough, however, I did get to take her to the governor's mansion when Anne Richards was Governor. 

Here's to each and every one of you! 

Click here to hear Michelle Obama speak about
International Women's Day

Phenomenal Woman

This is one of my favorite poems written by one of my favorite women. When I am feeling a little down, I read it. When I feel like I have been judged unfairly, I read it. I read it out loud to speak it into being. It is powerful and it is true. 

Phenomenal Woman

Written By Maya Angelou - 1978

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.

I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size 

But when I start to tell them,

They think I'm telling lies.

I say,

It's in the reach of my arms,

The span of my hips, 

The stride of my step, 

The curl of my lips. 

I'm a woman

Phenomenally.

Phenomenal woman, 

That's me.

I walk into a room

Just as cool as you please, 

And to a man,

The fellows stand or

Fall down on their knees. 

Then they swarm around me,

A hive of honey bees. 

I say,

It's the fire in my eyes, 

And the flash of my teeth, 

The swing in my waist, 

And the joy in my feet. 

I'm a woman

Phenomenally.

Phenomenal woman,

That's me.

Now you understand

Just why my head's not bowed. 

I don't shout or jump about

Or have to talk real loud. 

When you see me passing,

It ought to make you proud.

I say,

It's in the click of my heels, 

The bend of my hair, 

The palm of my hand, 

The need for my care. 

'Cause I'm a woman

Phenomenally.

Phenomenal woman,

That's me.
And that is you.

DNA Test Results - I Am Excited!

I'm not sure why it took me so long to get my DNA test. Probably because my brother, Phillip got his done about 3 years ago and I didn't understand the results. I wasn't prepared to learn the difference in an autosomal DNA test, X-DNA test, Y-DNA test and mtDNA test or learning what my personal Haplotype is. I looked at the info and decided it was way over my head. So I did three years of research on my ancestry and now they are now able to provide information on my mother and father for the same price that my brother paid for just our father. I find them to be equally important so I am glad I waited.

Since I created my family tree on Ancestry.com I had my DNA test done by them so I can easily find others in my family tree. I sent my saliva sample to these lovely folks and bingo they created a colorful pie chart, map and graph that made me very happy, proving once again that I am an artist unwilling to compute numbers and figures but I get all giddy about colorful pie charts and maps that only sort of make sense because it is as it states, a very colorful ethnicity estimate. I have the raw data files that I will attempt to figure out later. I just recently found out that forty-six chromosomes make up our DNA. 23 from our father and 23 from our mother. So here is my pretty little DNA Pie Chart.

As the pie chart above shows, I have 45% Iberian Peninsula and 26% Native American ethnicity. That is the easy part because the rest of the pie chart doesn't make sense unless you refer to a written description on Ancestry.com and the map below. Obviously the Iberian Peninsula is the darkest blue area which includes Spain and Portugal but the paper work says because of migration, or as I would call it hanky panky with the neighbors, it also includes Sisily, Italy, France, Morocco and Algeria. And then the large light blue circle that encompasses 10 other regions including more of Italy and France and then there is Switzerland, Germany, England and a tiny bit of Ireland. And last but not least the 5% Middle Eastern from Morocco and Tunisia. Which makes perfect sense when you consider that from the 8th to the 15th centuries, parts of the Iberian peninsula were ruled by the Moors who crossed over at the Strait of Gibraltar from Morocco to Spain. The Strait of Gibraltar is only 9 miles across.

The graph above compares my ethnicity to the average person that lives in Spain today. I have 45% Iberian Peninsula DNA compared to their 51%. The people living in the Iberian Peninsula region are fairly admixed, which means that when creating genetic ethnicity estimates for people native to this area, there are similarities to DNA profiles from other nearby regions.

My DNA didn't change, but science does.

This is an updated calculated in Aug 2019.

This is an update as of August 2026

My cousin, Davy Delgado tells me that some of the Native American is very likely from my Castillo-Padilla branch of the family tree. Davy and I share a great-grand parents, Jose Delores Padilla and Marcelina Castillo. He tells me that the Castillo-Padillas were Comancheros before and after the Bosque Redondo era. I am going to take his word for it because he is the New Mexican historian extraordinaire. He lives and breaths our family history.

Early on in my ancestry journey, I met a cousin, Eric Castillo who lives in Pueblo of Isleta is nestled in the scenic Rio Grande Valley, 15 miles south of Albuquerque. It is one of the larger 19 Pueblos within New Mexico and was established in the 1300s. Isleta Pueblo covers an area of more than 329 square miles, surrounded by the Manzano Mountains to the east and to the desert mesa lands of the Rio Puerco on the west. The name Isleta in Spanish means "Little Island."

With that being said, I might possibly be part Navajo and Mescalero Apache and maybe even Hopi. As the story goes, from 1863-1868 the U.S. Army forcibly moved the the Navajo tribe from their traditional homelands in Arizona to The Bosque Redondo Indian Reservation in Ft Sumner. It was a tragic period of U.S. history. It is as difficult for me do research on this era of my history as it is to do research on Cortes conquering Mexico and the Spanish Inquisition. It seems that I always end up on my couch at 2:00 in the morning, with tears welling up in my eyes as I read about people being wrongly uprooted from their homes.

The Navajos were starved into submission and also forced to march hundreds of miles to the Bosque Redondo Reservation. They call this journey "The Long Walk." Some 53 different forced marches occurred between August 1864 and the end of 1866. Four different routes were used, based on the weather, water and rations available along the way. The Spanish Mission of San Agustin de la Isleta was built in the pueblo around 1629 or 1630 by the Spanish Franciscan friar Juan de Salas. During the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, many of the pueblo people fled to Hopi settlements in Arizona while others followed the Spanish retreat south to El Paso del Norte, present-day El Paso. After the rebellion, the Isleta people returned to the Pueblo, many with Hopi spouses.

So much for the history lesson of injustice. That lesson seems to repeat itself and it is something I would like to see healed amongst the human species. I really would like to see the day when we all realize that there is more than enough for everyone if there wasn't such greed amongst some.

Back to the DNA information. I also learned that sibling's DNA vary slightly. My brother Phillip and I had already sort of figured that out as it has always felt like maybe our siblings Gilbert and Nita got the Fajardo Catholic gene and Phillip and I got the mystic Jewish gene. Memories are carried in our genes. It is a proven fact and you can read about that  here.

Scientists have found that memories may be passed down through generations in our DNA

Your DNA contains a record of your ancestors, but you aren’t a carbon copy of any one of them. The particular mix of DNA you inherit is unique to you. You receive 50% of your DNA from each of your parents, however you may receive different segments of DNA than your siblings. 

Here is a chart that shows the possible variations in a family.
This is not my family, just a sample.

La Malinche - Caught Between Two Cultures

Since my last entry I have been studying the life and times of Hernando (Hernan) Cortés, born in Castile, Spain in 1485. According to Ancestry.com, I am a descendant of Cortés and I have found that most branches of my family tree overlap over a 500 year period so there is more to this story. When you consider the average person has 4,096 10th great-grandparents and it has been said that Cortes has at the very least a half a million descendants because several women had his children, I have my work cut out for me. It has taken me over 4 months to finally sit down and put all of my research of the Spanish conquistadors arriving in Mexico into words. Reading about it in history is one thing however, it is difficult to fathom the DNA that circulates in my blood. Imagine, if you will, the Spaniards befriending the Aztecs, impregnating their women, creating a whole new breed of Meztizos and then killing Emperor Montezuma in their continued effort to gain wealth and land. It's is a little overwhelming but then I realized there was more to the story... the Aztecs weren't exactly angels either.

Hernan Cortés

Hernan Cortés as he appeared in his shining armor

Cortés arrived in Mexico on November 8, 1519. November 8 just happens to be my brother Phillip's birthday. He arrived with an entourage of about 400 men. They were light skinned and wore beautiful shining armor. They brought horses and wine, both unknown to this part of the world. Cocoa was the drink of choice in for the nobles of Mexico. I've had vivid dreams about riding on a horse wearing armor and drinking wine from a metal chalice, never knowing what those dreams meant but I will save that story for another blog. Their arrival coincided with an Aztec prophecy of a white-skinned God arriving from the east. This would explain why the ruler, Moctezuma II (also known as Montezuma II) greeted Cortés with lavish gifts allowing him to stay at the Aztec palace in the capital of Tenochitilán.

On November 8, 1519, Hernando Cortés was received

by Moctezuma II in the city of Tenochtitlán. 

On my journey through the past, one of my main objectives is to bring to life the strong, intelligent women in history from a woman's perspective. Most recently I found an extraordinary Aztec woman, Malinali, known today as La Malinche. Her claim to fame is that of being Hernan Cortes's beautiful and reputedly treacherous Indian translator and mistress. He gave her the name Doña Marina when she was baptized a Catholic. Her story starts out with a boom! Her given name, Malinalli, signified her birth date on the Aztec calendar, May 12, 1502. My birthday is May 12 which blows my mind because on this ancestral journey I have found that important dates have repeated time and time again over a 500 year time span. Key players in my ancestry seem to share both birthdays and death dates.

Statue of La Malinche
Coyoacán, Mexico

La Malinche Mural by Diego Rivera

La Malinche's parents were nobles, however, after beginning her life living a privileged childhood, tragically, her father died. Her mother then married her father's brother. They soon had a son and La Malinche was was claimed as dead, disinherited and sold into slavery. Talk about a Cinderella story!

When Cortés arrived in Mexico, La Malinche was one of twenty female slaves given to the Spaniards by a Mayan Lord along with other gifts of an Aztec calendar, gold, jewels, pelts and feathers.  At that time La Malinche was 16 and very capable of distinguishing herself with her beauty, grace and education. She immediately became Cortés' personal translator, negotiator and cultural mediator and then became his mistress. She gave birth to his first born son, Martin Cortés. La Malinche was in the forefront of written Mexican history. Cortés and La Malinche's son Martin was the first documented child of European and indigenous American ancestry, a Meztizo. Therefore La Malinche has been deemed the mother of the Mestizos, literally and metaphorically.

Monument of Cortes, La Malinche, and their son, Martin in Coyoacan

Needless to say, her story is intriguing and it is a perfect example of how history becomes distorted, depending on the story teller. For the most part of 500 years La Malinche has been condemned as traitor because she was was instrumental in the demise of the indigenous tribes of Mexico. Cortés stated in a letter: “After God, we owe this conquest of New Spain to Doña Marina.” She was perceived as a trader however, her actions saved thousands of lives from the brutal, blood-thirsty rulers by enabling Cortés to negotiate rather than slaughter while preventing human sacrifice and cannibalism. Coincidentally Cortés saved her from a life of slavery so in essence they really owed each other and built a sort of Romeo and Juliet bond on that connection. From my point of view, she was a fearlessly loyal heroine. But that is just me, a feminist, 500 years later. The disdain that's been felt towards La Malinche runs deep. There is a derogatory term for those who are attracted to foreigners, foreign values, thinking them superior or of better quality and worthy of imitation – "Malinchism" or "Malinchist." It even became a technical term, political, for everything that meant choosing foreign culture. Malinchistas were those who encouraged Mexico to open itself to the outside world. In a speech given in 1968 Mexican President Diaz Ordáz scolded the Mexicans saying “Our malinchismo is holding us back. We must get over it."  Needless to say racism isn't a new problem. It is built on the fear of what we do not understand about other cultures.

The Mexican artist Antonio Ruíz’s
Surrealist Painting “The Dream of Malinche,”

Malinche with Cortés: mural by Roberto Cueva del Río

Art Mimics Life

In Theatrical Productions -  La Malinche is sometimes portrayed as a victim of conquest, and sometimes the cause of her own destiny, but almost always, she is guilty. If she was indeed violated, it was because she didn't struggle enough. If she was a willing participant, she not only brought her own troubles, but she caused her child and all of her people to suffer.

In Art -  La Malinche is represents women's innate deception and guilt, using her beauty and sexuality to gain power and in so doing so, very much in need of punishment.

In Dance - The dichotomy persists. In "La Malinche," a ballet composed in 1949, she is at first an unwilling victim, then assumes the proud deportment of an aristocrat, and in the end, weighted down by the finery she wears. She then gives birth to the Mestizo child who then rejects her.

In Literature -  La Malinche has been compared to Eve, the temptress who through deception, leads men astray. Malinchismo represents one end of the spectrum of stereotypes of women while the Virgin of Guadalupe resides at the opposite end of the stereotypical spectrum. 

Painting of La Malinche and Hernando Cortés

See how much more interesting history lessons are when you have a woman injecting romance into the story? I'm not the only one. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Chicana writers, artists, and activists began to examine the story of La Malinche. They discovered neither victim nor traitor but the strength of a survivor. This is a story I can relate to. La Malinche did not choose her destiny, but neither did she crumble in the face of adversity. I've explored her fate and her abilities to negotiate difficult cultural demands. Much more difficult than my own, yet helping me to understand the ongoing struggle for personal and world wide cultural power.

La Malinche learned to wear the finest clothes and jewels 

Hernan Cortes, La Malinche (Doña Marina)
and son Martin Cortés' home
57 Higuera St., Coyoacán, Mexico
Now owned by Guatemalan artists Rina Lazo Wasem
And her husband, Mexican artist Arturo García Bustos
Rina studied with Diego Rivera and his wife Frida Kahlo

.... And the plot thickens...... As the story goes Cortés, La Malinche and their son Martin lived in the house pictured above in Coyoacán, Mexico. La Malinche wore the finest clothes and jewels, living a storybook life for a time.... however.... Cortés had a wife in Cuba, Catalina Mercada Suarez who arrived in Mexico in 1522. She mysteriously died in this house. Some say Cortés had her killed for the love of La Malinche.

So there is your history lesson for the day. I am still scrambling through 500 years of ancestors who married into each others families over and over and over so I am not sure that the lineage below is absolutely correct. I am sure there will be corrections but it has been an interesting journey of discovery and there will be updates to follow. Moctezuma's daughter, Isabel, the last empress of Mexico, also had a daughter out of wedlock by Cortés. It is extremely difficult to characterize Cortés however, he gets points for leaving his many children well cared for in his will, along with every one of their mothers.

Click This Chart To Enlarge

Listen to: The story of La Malinche

When I started doing research on my ancestry, I seriously believed I would be able to become a member of ancestry.com for approximately 3 months, do some casual research and be done with it and be able to give everyone in my family a 10 page ancestry book for Christmas. I wasn't prepared to learn that about 10 generations ago my ancestors came from Spain and created a little havoc along the way making them very important characters in world history. I also didn't take into account that each of us has 4,096 10th great grandparents. So think about it, if only 96 of my 10th great-grandparents made it into the history books, that means I have 4,000 that were slackers!

Read this chart, it is mind blowing!
You have 1,048,576 18th great-grandparents!