Dear Ranchos members,
Sorry it's taken so long to write and share my experiences with all of you regarding the 3er Conferencia Bi-Niacional Genealogica de Coahuila.
It was an amazing event, much more than I expected. First of all Maria Cortez and I met up with 3 members of Nuestros Ranchos, Mickey Garcia, Josie Treviño and Wellester Alvarado. That was number one on my list, not only because they are Ranchos members and I felt as if I'd already known them but because they were so kind and gracious, taking us under their wing, introducing us to almost everyone as they knew almost everyone.
Josie, Mickey and Wellester..........muchas gracias!!
Because of Josie and Mickey's connections we were able to visit with the Director of the Archivo General del Estado de Coahuila, Miguel Angel Muñoz, Borrego on Friday afternoon at the Archivo General. What warm and gracious people.
We also had the opportunity to meet Benicio Samuel of the group, Genealogia del Norte de Mexico.
The speakers were all impressive but being from Zacatecas I was especially interested in Dr Jose Enciso Contreras' presentation, and I was not disappointed.
Two of the presenters were from Dallas Tx, the Cuellar brothers gave their presentation dealing primarily with family research how to do it and the dedication and perseverance it takes for anyone who undertakes this daunting, lifelong journey.
Maestra Marta Duron's presentation was focused on the families originating from Los Altos de Jalisco and her studies and theories as to why so many families from Los Altos inter-married with each other. She used Jalostitlan as her primary area of focus radiating from there to other towns and cities of Los Altos.
All in all it was an uplifting, eye-opening and inspiring conference. Maria and I came away with many new ideas which we hope to bring to our Northern California Group. We have invited Josie and Mickey to come to Northern California to do a presentation for our group and we hope they will accept our invitation.
We were even bolder in that we had dinner with Dr Jose Enciso Contreras and his wife and extended an invitation to them as well and he indicated he would be willing to come and to speak to our group. The Cuellar brothers from Dallas Texas also said they would be willing to come. All in all it was a wonderful experience.
In the future I can see one of our group leaders, either Joseph Puentes, Arturo Ramos or Jonathan Walker or someone else from Nuestros Ranchos at this convention as a speaker and representative of this ever-growing group. I hope I didn't put foot in mouth by suggesting this but I think all we can do is move forward, not backwards and this would be a big move forward.
Well I'd better get off my box, just thought I would share the highlights of our trip...everything was a highlight, there were no low lights. :)
Saludos a todos.
Alicia de San Jose, California
