Email this page  Print this page  del.icio.us  digg

Digging up roots

Tucsonans pore over archives, searching for bits of family history

Fred McAninch and Arnold Smith, friends and Tucsonans of decidedly un-Hispanic surnames, seek their Mexican and New Spain pasts.

Both have zealously devoted hundreds of hours and followed divergent paths to fulfill missions that have nothing to do with jobs, remuneration, degrees or social standing but everything to do with something more important - identity.

Both, along with hundreds of Arizonans from more traditional Mexican backgrounds, have started their historical inquiries at the Arizona Historical Society and their paths offer instructive primers for Latinos from both Phoenix and Tucson interested in establishing - or clarifying - their pasts.

"It's funny how you get interested in this stuff when you can use it least," said McAninch, "but whenever you do start, it's fascinating and you get hooked."

A TROVE OF INFORMATION

The Arizona Latino yearning to learn about his roots has a number of places to search, but the best starting point and most comprehensive clearinghouse is, without doubt, the Arizona Historical Society.

The Society, headquartered in Tucson with branches in Phoenix, Tempe, Mesa, Flagstaff and Yuma, not only offers troves of written information in books, maps, monographs and newspaper clippings, but also preserves oral histories and photos. Just as impressive, librarians maintain informal lists of scholars - lay historians, club members and academics - who help guide the curious.

Arizonans tend to think of Mexico as a homogenous society made up of Spaniards, Indians and their byproduct, Mestizos, said James Griffith, a retired University of Arizona researcher revered for his knowledge of northern Mexico history and folklore. "What's not known is that there are puros mexicanos (pure Mexicans) with names like Ormsby, Pemberton and Kavatas. Their names, puros nombres gabachos (roughly, "absolutely White names) "may not sound Mexican," said Griffith, "but these people are Mexican culturally. And most of them can trace their roots back generations."

The passage of time works both in favor of, and against the researcher.

New research projects and the gradual digitization of existing projects (to say nothing of DNA testing) means that information is easier than ever to obtain. Yet, time itself, assimilation of cultures and the death of witnesses conspire to eliminate other sources of knowledge.

Distinguishing between lore and truth gets trickier with every retelling of a story, said Dr. Adela Allen, a Mexico City native and president of Los Descendientes del Presidio de Tucson, a club of pioneer descendants and history buffs who recently organized Tucson's 231st birthday. "Legends are usually a better read than history."

ABANDONING A SURNAME

Smith, who grew up in Tucson speaking Spanish as a first language, began his quest when he was discharged from the Air Force in 1952. Up until then, he wondered about his heritage and, in particular, why he had an Anglo last name. Stranger, while he insisted that he was Mexican, others insisted he was White.

The schoolteacher, since retired, came to the Arizona Historical Society and began a search for details about a great-great grandfather, Jose Maria Martinez, a commandant in the Presidio of Tucson from 1836-38 who then retired to Tubac.

Smith was helped by University of Arizona historian Bernard Fontana and wound up spending days reviewing historical documents donated to the university by Sen. Carl Hayden. "I didn't know a thing about my ancestors at the time," Smith recalled. "My father and my aunts wouldn't say a word about the past - they just refused."

What were they hiding? Why wouldn't they talk? Who was this commandant?

No potential source of information was ignored. Smith looked into records from the Diocese of Tucson and from churches throughout northern Mexico, which kept meticulous records of births, baptisms, marriages, deaths and burials. A chance conversation with a Mexican diplomat yielded a rare opportunity to search one of Mexico's most complete libraries - the archives of the Secretary of Defense.

Smith flew to Mexico City and, under the vigilance of soldiers, looked at two-century-old military documents. He was entitled to the trip, he learned, because of his family relationship and not because of his scholarship. "They treat records like gold," said Smith. "You surrender your passport when you go in and you are escorted everywhere by a soldier. Whenever I wanted to look at a document, I would tell a soldier and he would get it."

"Mexican historians found out that I was going and said, 'Oh my god, we can't get in and this gringo has been granted access.' "

Simple errors in spelling can sometimes be the greatest impediment to research.

One of Smith's breaks came when McAninch found extensive references to Smith's grandfather, but the discovery was only by chance. McAninch saw references to a soldier with the last name "Martin." Recalled McAnanich: "These were French priests doing the spelling and they'd left off the 'ez.' "

Eventually, Smith would learn that stigmas and racial stereotyping were just as profound centuries ago as they are today: family members, seeking to conceal their Mexican roots, had buried the Spanish surname and substituted Smith.

A 30-YEAR SEARCH

While descendants like Smith and McAninch dig for information about their ancestors, the history of southeastern Arizona presents a complex timeline of distinct periods through which researchers must navigate.

Tucson has been continuously settled for more than 12,000 years. Prior to modern history, the Anasazi, Hohokam and Mogollon people lived between what is present-day Phoenix to the Mexican border. In this case, surnames will not be of any benefit as they were certainly not recorded.

Historians routinely break down Tucson's development into three modern history categories:

Spanish Period 1775 to 1821 - In 1775, Spanish commander Hugo O'Conor established the Presidio of San Augustin of Tucson. The presidio remained under Spanish authority until Mexico declared its independence from Spain in 1821. Many Tucson families trace their roots back more than seven generations as descendants of these founders.

Mexican Period, 1821 to 1863 - Tucson was essentially a Mexican village during this period. After the Gadsden Purchase in 1854, Tucson fell under the jurisdiction of the United States. According to the 1860 Census, Tucson had 623 people, 170 of whom were Anglo. In 1863, it was accorded Territorial Status and separated politically from New Mexico. Throughout Tucson and Pima County, the names of pioneer families - the Drachmans, Carrillos and Hughes, in particular - adorn buildings, parks, schools and monuments.

Territorial Period, 1863 to 1912 - Tucson is now the capital of a U.S. territory, even though Mexican culture (and Spanish) prevail. The railroad made it to Tucson in 1880, starting a growth phase that continues today. Pionners with names of Jacome, Levy, Bloom and Ronstadt -- retailers, government officials and entrepreneurs, are still visible in Tucson's landscape today.

As for pioneer families who have maintained a toehold in the southern Arizona economy? It just hasn't happened.

"Basically, the Hispanic elite was replaced in this town," says University of Arizona professor Joseph Wilder, director of the Southwest Center and editor of Journal of the Southwest. "And then the replacements were replaced."

Virtually everyone in Southern Arizona exploring family background winds up at a genealogical resource center run by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Known as Mormon Family History Centers (www.familysearch.org), these facilities offer detailed information about the gamut of American families. Smith and McAninch were no exception, visiting the LDS Family History Center on Tucson's east side.

The odyssey undertaken by McAninch paralleled many of the steps taken by Smith.

Another McAninch, a history zealot in Kentucky, had kept most of the extended family informed about its history, said Fred, himself a former curator of the Sosa-Carrillo-Fremont Museum in Tucson. But that relative's research came to an absolute halt when he bumped up against Arizona and Mexico, where Fred would have to pick up the slack.

McAninch attended Amphitheater High School and was surrounded by Mexican classmates. "I was interested in my Hispanic roots but a lot of my classmates were just too poor" to have the time or luxury of digging into their heritage, he said. "I became fascinated with how this Ulster-Irish family became Hispanicized," he said.

Over the years, that search has taken him on an intellectual sojourn.

The McAninches' presence in Mexico began when their father married a Mexican schoolteacher and the couple moved to Tamaulipas state as the father pursued a career in oil exploration. Later, the couple moved to Tucson, home of a maternal grandmother.

Trips to the Historical Society, the Morman research center and church archives, coupled with the memories of McAninch's mother have provided McAninch with keys to the Mexican side of his family.

Yet, even scholars wind up being stumped, believing that just one more research mission, or one more inquiry, might produce the answer.

In McAninch's case, the most vexing challenge was to learn about a grandfather, a doctor by the name of Valentin Sandoval (so named because of his birthday, McAninch says).

McAninch's mother had told him before she died that her family had lived in La Parroquia de Jesús (Guadalajara) for generations.

"My mother was baptized there before the turn of the century (1900) and I tried finding records of her baptism," he recalls. "I never did locate my grandfather's family, nor learn much more than what my mother had told me. It's really something that I should spend some more hours on and I'm sure I could come up with more."