Lupe,

Two other people have suggested taking a second look at the documents you think say "Angola" because usually when someone has been born in the capital city (Aguascalientes) of the state of Aguascalentes, it is sometimes written as "Aguascalientes, Aguas", or they abbreviate the state name some other way (Ags).

I looked at the immigration record you refer to and I don't see the word "Angola" anywhere. The index for this record says Birthplace: Aguascalientes, and Birth Country: Angola, but I think it was the state abbreviation "Aguas" that they mistook for Angola. I just can't see how they arrived at that. In the indexes for the Census records in Ancestry many of the names are so fractured in the index that it is hard to find who you are looking for unless you tediously look through each page for the community or county they lived in then. In the 1930 census on Ancestry doesn't it list Cruz' birthplace as "Mex" ?

Emilie
Port Orchard, WA
----- Original Message -----
From: tex1@clearwire.net
To: general@nuestrosranchos.org ; Bill Figueroa
Sent: Saturday, November 17, 2007 7:07 AM
Subject: Re: [Nuestros Ranchos] Santa Rosalia - Message for Tony Cobos

Bill,
I was the one asking questions about Angola. My Great grandfather has that
written in several of the items I have found. I'd like to email you a copy,
but I am afraid I havent mastered the attach thing yet. I went on Ancestry
Search. I put in Cruz Bustamante 1883 It comes up to Border Crossing
from Mex
to US. Its the 4th entry down having him as Birth 1878 Arrival 13, June
1921....on there it has AguaCalientes, AguaCalientes, Angola...If you could
shed lite on this, I'd appreciate it. Also the info you gave on the bookstore
address was also helpful to me. Thanks again. Actually I have to thank
Nuestrosranchos...I have had very nice helpful people giving me help Lupe

Quoting Bill Figueroa >:

> Tony,
>
> I missed the previous correspondence on this subject, but read your
> last message this morning. On the subject of Angola, I would like to
> share some information with the group that might shed some light on
> this obscure subject. First, I would like to confirm that Angola is
> a large country
> (about 2/3 the size of Mexico) in West Africa. It is bound by Zaire,
> Zambia, Namibia and on the west by the Atlantic Ocean. It is very
> rich in natural resources, but most people live in extreme poverty.
> I visited Angola once a month for seven years (1997-2004) while
> working as a contractor for ExxonMobil, and before that for nearly
> five years (1986-1990) while working for Chevron Oil Company. Angola
> has huge petroleum reserves and some of the largest deepwater oil
> reservoirs in the world. Luanda, Angola's capital city, is a long
> way from my home in Dallas, Texas. It usually took me two days to
> get there, flying via Europe from New York or Newark to Lisbon, Paris
> or Frankfurt, and from there to Luanda. Sometimes I flew from
> Atlanta or Miami to Johannesburg in South Africa, and from there to
> Luanda. Quite an exhausting trip.
>
> While conducting genealogical research in Aguascalientes and other
> parts of Mexico I've seen many references to Angola in old church and
> civil records. The parties involved were usually African slaves
> imported from west Africa to work in sparsely populated areas, such
> as Aguascalientes and Zacatecas.
>
> While standing-by in Angola in 2002 for an offshore rig move, I spent
> one Sunday afternoon visiting a slave museum near Luanda. It was
> located in a small building on a remote beach where the slave traders
> from Europe came to pick up their infamous cargo. The slaves,
> captured by the stronger African tribes, were sold on site to the
> highest bidder. The ships stayed at anchor while the natives
> transported their prisoners in dugout canoes from that building (now
> a museum) to the moored ships less than a mile away. Quite cruel and
> inhuman behavior, but that's the way it was in those days. Most of
> the slaves were taken to the sugarcane fields, mines and coffee
> plantations of Brazil (like Angola, Brazil was a Portuguese colony)
> but many ended up in the cotton fields of the southern United States,
> Mexico, the Caribbean and Central America. A few years before I had
> visited a similar slave staging area in the city of Dakar, Senegal.
> Most of the slaves sold in Dakar were from Gam
> bia and Senegal, and ended up in the United States.
>
> I believe the people in the records in question were either African
> slaves from Angola, or their descendants. I may be able to verify
> this by reading some of those records. Can you email me a scan?
>
> Bill Figueroa

Lupe,

I just checked the Ancestry website and found the information about your great-grandfather. The index clearly says Angola. I didn't try to go any further into the website because I'm not a member of Ancestry and do not want to get a membership at this time. Most of my research has been transcribing church and civil records from Aguascalientes, Jalisco, Zacatecas and Nayarit, and exchanging info. with other researchers.

Now that I know your source for your great-grandfather's border crossing and date of birth, I have changed my opinion on the subject. A border crossing in 1921 and dob of 1878 probably has nothing to do with the people that arrived from Angola in the 16th and 17th century. Since I didn't read your first message, I didn't know that you were talking about recent history. You're absolutely right questioning the veracity of that information. It could be a blunder made by the person who transcribed the original records. To find out for sure try to find the original records used by Ancestry.com. Maybe they can help if you are a member.

Regards,
Bill Figueroa

Hola Felipe,

Estoy seguro que el vínculo al que te refieres es real, porque he encontrado referencias en los registros de Aguascalientes que indican que muchos hacendados tenían esclavos originarios de Angola. Sin embargo, esto no tiene nada que ver con el caso del Sr. Cruz Bustamante. El hecho que alguien escribió en su record "Aguascalientes, Angola" es probablemente un error cometido por la persona que hizo el índice que de Ancestry.com. Yo supuse que Lupe se refería a tiempos más antiguos porque no había leído sus correos anteriores.

Bueno, ya que tocamos el tema de los esclavos en México, debo decirte que creo que muchos eran originarios de Angola. He visto en algunos registros que a esclavas negras no bautizadas se les daba como apellido el nombre de su país de origen. Así por ejemplo he encontrado algunas con nombres como María de Angola, Juana Angola, etc. Lo mismo pasaba con los indios. He encontrado a una María Chichimeca, etc. Es probable que así se haya originado el apellido Angola que mencionas en tu correo.

Como sabrás, los Portugueses llevaron grandes cantidades de esclavos a Brazil. Era un negocio que extendieron al resto de Iberoamérica, incluyendo la Nueva España. Otra razón puede ser que haya sido el idioma, ya que el portugués es muy parecido al castellano. El portugués suena como un español muy antiguo. Nunca he tenido dificultad comunicándome con Portugueses y Angolanos en su propio idioma, ellos hablándome a mi en portugués y yo contestándoles en castellano. Es mejor así que mezclar los dos idiomas en lo que se conoce conoce como "portuñol" (mitad portugués y mitad español.

Volviendo al tema, es un hecho que la mayoría de hacendados tuvieron esclavos en los siglos XVI y XVII. Mis propios antepasados tuvieron esclavos negros, no solo en México sino en Centroamérica. Por ejemplo, el registro de Defunciones de Aguascalientes dice que "En doce días del dicho mes y año [12 Sep 1634] enterré a un mulato de la estancia de San Bartolomé. Díjosele una misa". La hacienda de San Bartolo era propiedad de Luis Tiscareño de Molina y Lorenza Ruiz de Esparza. Más adelante hay otra partida de defunción que dice textualmente "En tres dias del mes de henero de el año de 1636 enterre a una negra esclava que truxieron de la estancia de lope ruis de esparsa dixosele una missa". La estancia de Lope Ruiz de Esparza era conocida como Morcenique, or Morciñique, por quedar en las márgenes de dicho río. Datos similares aparecen en casi todos los registros parroquiales y en los padrones de Aguascalientes, empezando con el de 1648. Claro que hablamos de 100 años después de la conquista, ya que los primeros esclavos africanos llegaron con Hernán Cortés. Ya por 1636 se habían multiplicado y mezclado con la población indígena y española, dando lugar a muchas castas. Esto es más notorio en el Estado de Veracruz, donde quedaron muchos de los descendientes de los primeros esclavos que vinieron a laborar en la zafra de la caña de azúcar y en la siembra de otras cosechas que se dan allí por la fertilidad de sus tierras.

Bueno Felipe, es todo por hoy. A ver que opinan los demás del grupo.

Saludos,
Bill Figueroa