Dear Alicia and Emilie:
Thank you so very much for sharing your experiences and insights 
regarding cultural identity.
Your remininiscences remind me of one of the first "rules" of 
genealogy - to always start with what you know best, yourself. For 
myself, it is advice I have NOT followed, though I am always quick to 
remind others. Perhaps one day ;)
I grew up in the 40's & 50's in southern California. Although I am 
sure I heard a lot of Spanish at home before starting school, and 
probably spoke with those family members who spoke no English, once I 
started school, English was all I spoke, and English was all my 
parents spoke to me, probably recalling punishments, etc, for 
speaking Spanish in school when they were growing up. So I am not 
bilingual, and I married a gringo (Anglo mongrel, with possibly some 
Cherokee). We have 5  children - three with a Spanish middle name, 
and two with first names, Laura and Elena. (The other middle names 
are Maria Silveria, Joaquin, and

Well said Ed, I had heard that before... maybe part of my problem is 
a feeling of unwarrented guilt, I'm not even sure of what!  All my 
ancestors ever asked of us was not to sully the name Castanon, no 
more no less.. not a word about where we came from but more about 
where we are going.. thank you for your well thought out input.
Linda in Everett

--- In ranchos@yahoogroups.com, "Edward Serros"  wrote:
>
> --- In ranchos@yahoogroups.com, "Erlinda Castanon-Long"
>  wrote:
> >
> > I want to thank everyone for the input on double surnames...Many 
of
> us did not marry Hispanic but would have kept our 
> > maiden name regardless. Just like someone said, it's a matter of 
> > family pride..
> > 
> > One more question.. which is 'politically' correct to designate 
our 
> > nationality of origin if we or our ancestors were from Mexico... 
> > Hispanic, Latino, Mexican-American or American-Mexican?  I find 
I 
> > really upset some people when I call myself

--- In ranchos@yahoogroups.com, "Erlinda Castanon-Long"
 wrote:
>
> I want to thank everyone for the input on double surnames...Many of
us did not marry Hispanic but would have kept our 
> maiden name regardless. Just like someone said, it's a matter of 
> family pride..
> 
> One more question.. which is 'politically' correct to designate our 
> nationality of origin if we or our ancestors were from Mexico... 
> Hispanic, Latino, Mexican-American or American-Mexican?  I find I 
> really upset some people when I call myself Hispanic. I'm told that 
> excludes my Indio blood... People ask me what my nationality is 
> because I'm just brown enough to not be Anglo but have light green 
> eyes, my sister get's the same thing and she has blue eyes and 
> freckles. I still laugh when told I don't look like a Mexican... what 
> does a Mexican look like!!!!
> 
> Linda in Everett

Linda,

I have debated for a number of days responding to this and I wish to
offend no one. In

--- In ranchos@yahoogroups.com, "Susana Leniski"  wrote:
>
> I was looking at the census data of Dr. Platt. (the links is in
Ranchos). Some of the films that he talks about  for zacatecas and
Jalisco are as follows:
> 
>  Has anyone seen any of these films? What  type of information do
you find in them?
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Susana Leniski
> 

Susana,

I have looked at a few of these. All of the ones I saw were not
indexed so you have to have the patience of a saint (so what is new in
genealgoy research) to find useful information. I did not find any of
my relatives but my time was limited given my sometimes very impatient
personality. What is useful is that you can see who was living with
whom, e.g. family nucleus, which included other relatives or whomever
with different surnames. Ages were also given but no data on parents,
grandparents, origins. Some of the towns were listed by street names
with residents of such.

As with most census records the government is simply