TEJANOS 2010 tejanos2010@gmail.

com Telling our Story

Mimi, and all: At the recommendation of Dr. Lino Garcia, Jr., UTPA, The Kerrville, Texas DRT Chapter invited Cordy and me to visit with them to learn about the rich history of our Spanish Mexican ancestors, founders of this great place we call Texas. Specifically, they wished to learn more about the Tejano Monument (who are the Tejanos and where did they come from). As such, our presentation focused on the monument. Afterwards, a number of members expressed an interest in visiting the monument as a Chapter field trip. Below is an excerpt of the Chapter Presidents comments: Dear Mr. Lopez, I just wanted to take a minute to thank you and your lovely wife again for coming to Kerrville this morning. I have had nothing but positive comments about your presentation. Sometimes we tend to forget about those who came before us. You have a remarkable heritage and I am pleased to see that you and others are working towards putting that out in front of all of us. Thanks again and hope you can visit with us again soon. GayNell Wells, Kerrville DRT Chapter President The Kerrville DRT Chapter is one of several DRT/SRT/DAR groups that we have presented to and their response is very positive; typical and similar to the other non-Hispanic audiences. Although I will frankly admit that sometimes I am disappointed on the difficulty we seem to have in telling our story, encouraging words such as these are what keep us sharing our wonderful history. Not only do they learn details of pre-1836 Texas history, but they also find out that all of us are in the same business. That is, to preserve the seamless history of our great state of Texas from the arrival of the Spanish in 1519 to the present. With all due respect to our sister Hispanic groups, the general public in the U.S. has much to learn about Mexican-descent Hispanics. It is the largest segment of U.S. Hispanics (over 30 million, and 60% of the entire Hispanic group). What is more distinctive is the fact that about half of the 30 million are not immigrants to the U.S. at all. The reason is that we trace our family roots to the Southwest inhabitants prior to 1848. Thanks for listening. Saludos, Jos Antonio Joe Lpez www.TejanosUnidos.org

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