Asturian-American Migration Forum

While the thousands of Asturians who emigrated to America over the last 150 years have not made this a well-known region, many of them have had famous offspring, ie.
Vicente Fox, President of Mexico
Eva Longoria, Texan actress
Martin Sheen, actor
Gloria Estefan, singer
Paco Ignacio Taibo, Mexican writer
Camilo Cienfuegos, Cuban revolutionary

Anybody else you can think of?
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Aunque los miles de asturianos que emigraron a América en los últimos 150 años no hicieron de ésta una región conocida, han sido muchos los que han tenido descendientes famosos , por ejemplo:
Vicente Fox, Presidente de México
Eva Longoria, actriz tejana
Martin Sheen, actor
Gloria Estefan, cantante
Paco Ignacio Taibo,escritor mexicano
Camilo Cienfuegos, revolucionario cubano

¿Se os ocurre alguien más?

Claro que hay mas!

Alonso Lopez de Restrepo nacido en 1620 en San Esteban de Pianton, Castropol (Asturias) Fue Alferez Real y fundador de Medellin (Colombia). De Ancestros Judios, descienden de el directamente 2 presidentes de Colombia, el tercer hombre de la independencia de la Gran Colombia, el abogado que abolio la esclavitud alli y muchos otros personajes de intachable moral y prestigio de este Pais.
De ellos tengo mucha informacion y sus genealogias completas!
Gracias por este magnifico sitio.

JULIUS GARCIA ALONSO

Member of the United States Soccer Hall of Fame in Oneonta, New York

Born in Asturias September 8, 1905
Died Brooklyn, New York January 24, 1988

Barbara Alonso Novellino

Barbara, I believe we already had something about Julius somewhere in the forum. Why don't you just start a whole new post under this section (Hall of Fame) just for him?

Sergio: Anda, no sabía que López de Restrepo había fundado Medellín y abolido la esclavitud en Colombia! Seguro que los de Castropol lo sabrán, pero el resto de los asturianos seguramente que no. ¿Has estado alguna vez en Restrepo, o en Asturias?

Hey, I didn't know López de Restrepo had founded Medellín and abolished slavery in Colombia! ! I'm sure the people of Castropol know all about it, but the rest of us Asturians probably don't. Have you ever been to Restrepo or to Asturias in general?

Terechu,

I wrote this when I first joined the forum in 2003. I am not sure who saw it...but I am repeating it for those who might be interested. To me and all those who knew him...he was a very Famous Man from Asturias....


For those of you who might be interested in the Early Days of Julius Garcia Alonso...Born in Asturias September 8, 1905...Member of the Soccer Hall of Fame...


I will be very happy to give you our family history as much as I know. Many years ago my Dad started to write an autobiography about his life in West Virginia and how he his parents and his brothers and sisters arrived here from Luanco, but unfortunately he never finished it it goes to about the 1920's. My Dad was born in 1905 to Jose and Dionisia Garcia. His siblings were, Marcellino, Jose, Hyneo, Luz, Tomasa, Julio (my father) and Raymond. I think there was another boy who died in West Virginia when he was very young.

This story deals mostly with my Dad and his friends and how he survived in the early days. Not only did his mother have these children but she also took in boarders which was supposed to be something Spaniards did. In looking this story over I'll select the parts that I think would be of interest to you and that tells some of our history.

EARLY DAYS...

"I arrived in New York with my mother and two brothers, Joe and Hyneo, on June 8, 1906. (I guess that his father came before with the other children) I was a baby of 9 months. Not until the Monongahela Traction Co. decided to build a streetcar line from Clarksburg, West Virginia to Bridgeport, W. Va., through Grasselli, now Anmoore, W. Va., had I thought of being in the USA. That is far back as I am able to remember. What stands out in my mind very clearly at that time was the leveling of the trackbed by at least 100 mules with twice that many men. The town of Grasselli was named after a Mr. Grasselli, the founder of the Grasselli Chemical Co. They had a very large Zinc Works operated by Spaniards. My father, who had followed the Zinc game in Spain, helped build the plant and later worked as a foreman on the furnaces. About 95% of the workers in the plant were Spanish. I have seen the town of Grasselli transformed from a small farm town to a town whose being was like a town in Asturias (thats where our family are from) At one time, if a stranger got off the streetcar and asked for directions to Wolfe's store, he would be in a fix if he did not speak Spanish." (The Spaniards came from Spain to work these Zinc Works which are called Smelters. Later on, I don't know exactly when but they opened one up in Moundsville and thats where your Great Grandfather and Great Grandmother Tomasa went to settle. In those days they built a number of homes for the workers to live in and charged them very little.

"At home we were five brothers. When I grew up, this provided very little attention for me. Particularly since my mother practiced an Asturian custom and we had two uncles board with us. This made me wander away from home."

"The zinc works had plenty of men. At one time they had men come to work for weeks at a time to train without any compensation, you see, those who had come directly from Spain to the plant. Their passage was paid for by a relative, and not knowing the language meant that moving elsewhere was out of the question for them. When war demanded more zinc, the company built a plant in Zeisling, W. Va. and another in Terre Haut, Indiana. Most of the men were taken from Grasselli to operate these plants. All but three foreman were Spanish. The non-Spaniards that worked on the furnaces had to learn Spanish to get along as that was the official language of the furnace men. My father always wanted his kin to work with him and with them he was most exacting. They had to do more and better work than the other men as the old man wanted the world to know that he played no favorites. One day, my brother-in-law wanted to transfer to day work. The old man got so made he threw his lunch pail at the furnace. After that my brother-in-law stayed.

I started as a tubero boy when I was 12 years old. The schools at that time were not very strict about these things. I started with my father. This meant that I was helped by the rest of the furance men. Of course all the boys were helped by the men of their furnace. In the zinc game, when a man was played out, usually in the summer months, his work was done by the other members of the furnace gagn. The work was on open furnaces. If you were not able to perspire freely and quickly you had to leave work as you could not stand the heat. On the furnaces we had right and left chargers depending on what side they worked. The left chargers had their left cheek red from being in front of the heat. It was so that when you were looked over for a job they could tell by your face what side of the furnaces you worked.

In the early days of Grasselli, everyone went to town, at least on pay day, many to deposit money in the banks or to send money home to Spain. No matter when they went or what for, they stopped at Frank Duffy;s Saloon. Duffy was a power in Clarksburg politics. One day, in a search the police found a revolver on my uncle. This was considered an offense no one could get away from without a prison sentence. As my uncle was a great friend of Duffy's so he was let go with a light fine. In Duffy's is where my sister had her wedding reception. The men had many good drinks and I had all the soda pop I could drink. At my sister Lucy's wedding we had a regular Picnic in Grasselli. That was the time it was considered a big thing for fundidores to do things in a big way and to hell with the costs. But when my sister Tomasa got married, the old man had visions of a farm in Spain for which he was saving money, so Tomasa had her reception at Duffy's saloon."

My father ended these pages with the following comment:

"For many years I have wanted to record the history of the Asturianos in the United States. They are a people that came from the Province of Asturias in Spain and settled mostly in those states having zinc smelter plants. They came here in the early part of the 20th century. Pedro Menendez, the founder of St. Augustine Floirida came from Aviles a seaport of Asturias 60 years before the Mayflowere landed at Plymouth Rock. My father came from Lunaco, another small seaport, not many miles from Aviles. I had many happy days there going to the Instituto del Santisimo Socorro, from 1919 to 1921."

Sometime before that my Grandparents went back to Spain and bought that farm that they thought about while in the USA and they never returned. The only son that stayed in Spain was Raymond who was slightly retarded and he stayed on the farm with them until they died and then years later he did. My parents lived until they were well up in their 90's. My Dad was able to visit them in 1949 and then again in 1972 for the last time. The house is still there and is tended by some relatives (I think) whos family or whoever took care of Grandmother and Grandfather and then Raymond until they died.

It is my understanding and my memory that the name Figales was given to us because there was a fig tree on my Grandfathers farm and that is how we got that name. Our family was known for their hot temper and that was always attributed to the Figales temper.

As my father explains it...he didn't want a future in the Smelter so sometime in the later 1920 he went to Bliss Electrical School in Tacoma Park, Washington DC and got a degree in Electrical Engineering. After graduation he was offered a job with Consolidated Edison Co. of New York and moved there. My mother lived on the farm in Moundsville a block away from Tomasa and Jose...My Mom was best friends with Pilar...Tomasa was looking for a match for her brother Hyneo and the time, but my mother had no interest in him and commented that the brother from New York seemed like a nice guy. Well my Mom and Dad had a very short courtship and married in 1934 and moved to Brooklyn New York where they lived until my Dad died in 1988.


I forgot. All his brothers last name was Garcia...my father took the old Spanish custom and used his mother's maiden name Alonso...he was knows as Julio Garcia Alonso

WORLD WAR II

My Dad still was working for Consolidated Edison Company, in fact he retired from there after 42 years. During the war he was asked to go to work for The Aluminum Company of America as a wartime worker on leave from Con Edison which he did for about 18 months. Then he was approached to go to Oak Ridge Tennesse and work on the Manhattan Project. He was in charge of all the electricity in the plant and worked there for 18 months. Of course, no one, not even he, knew what he was working on and as it turned out it was the Atomic Bomb. After the end of the war he returned home and to Con Edison. He had a really important job there and he received a citation from the Secretary of War. After the war they wanted him to stay there and they would send for us, but he refused. My Dad always was in love with New York...

SOCCER

Now comes an important part of his life. He loved his family but boy did he love the game of Soccer. As a young boy in Grasselli he would play Soccer with his friends...they didn't have much of a soccer ball but thats when it must have gotten it in his blood. As the years went by he, as he always said, realized that he wasn't much of a player so he turned to referreing. He loved doing this and of course he made a few dollars to help...he was newly married and I was born. During this time he came in contact with the owner of the Brooklyn Hispano a team that was in the American Soccer League. It wasn't long before he was doing work for them and became an officer in the team, and then in the American Soccer League. I don't know the time this all took but it seemed like he was always in the American Soccer League and the Hispano. He was so very well respected for his knowledge of Soccer and its rules and regulations that he earned the name Mr. American Soccer League. In the 1950's the League decided to bring teams over from England and Scotland to try and make some money. They needed someone to tour with them as a Road Manager and my Dad was the one. For many years every year he would tour the country with the team that came over for 2 weeks. I remember Manchester United and the Celtics. He really enjoyed this he was seeing the country and watching his passion Soccer. His dream was always for the World Cup to be played in the USA. In fact, in 1988 6 months before he died he was interviewed in Oneonta (where the Soccer Hall of Fame is) and he stated his desire for the Cup to come here. And it did I think in 1992 and he didn't get to see his dream come true.

He always hoped that Soccer would become a big sport here but it never happened in his time. During the years he and some of his friends thought about a Soccer Hall of Fame and he worked very hard to establish it and it was in Oneonta New York. He was inducted in it in Alaska, I don't remember the year but it was some time ago. Also, during his Soccer years they would have a convention yearly in a different state and he and my mother attended all of them for years. He was a sought after expert in Soccer and loved every minute of it.

My Dad was a wonderful man as anyone who knew him would tell you. He was gentle, soft spoken who loved the New York Times, Classical Music and the news. He never went to College but he was smarter than most who had degrees. You could always go to him with a problem and he would never judge and would always give the best advice. He could talk to anyone about anything and when you talked to him he gave you his attention 110%. I wish you could have known him. He was a man who loved his family and of course his soccer. He watched the games on TV until practically the day he died. He died in 1988 after a brief illness and its still hard to think about. When he was alive he would always say that he wanted to be cremated and have his ashes thrown over Times Square...but of course we didn't do that. He is buried out here near me. I live 65 miles from where they lived I live on Long Island.

Barbara

Hi Babara,

That reminds me of my own family history far more than you can imagine. These were Men and Women (capitalization intentional) who went far beyond what most people would expect in terms of work ethic, dignity, comcern for family and human values. They lived their lives writ large, and set a standard that any of us would be proud to emulate. The men in the zinc factories (hard and dirty and dangerous work) and the women taking in boarders, working far harder than any of us should ever need to work.

In conrast, my own life as an academic has been very easy and rewarding, but I am well aware that - as the saying goes - I am standing in the shoulders of giants. At 63, I've had an easy life, but only because of the sacrifices of my parents and grandparents. Thanks for sharing your family story.

Barbara, thank you so very much for sharing your wonderful father's notes and memories. These words must be so precious to you. It is
a shame not to share them with "the world." Is there sufficient material
that you might be able to put together a small book complimented with
Asturian facts, observations etc.??
Incidentally, my own grandparents are from Asturias. My grandmother was an Alonso too, Florentina, from San Martin de Laspra, parish of San Miguel de Quilono. She and my grandfather, Rufino Vega from San Juan de Tamon in the area of LaFontatina, lived in Langaloth PA, and Missouri before that, then settled in Canton OH where Rufino Sr. worked in the TImken Co. steel mill until retirement. My father, Rufino Jr., followed him into the steel mills til retirement, Republic Steel also in Canton. (It is now closed down.) I remember my father saying how he did the work of older men who could not take the summer heat & the furnace.... the tradition continued.
Thanks so much! What would life be without memories!!
Betty Vega Fockler

Terechu: Estoy haciendo planes con mi familia para mediados del 2008. De los Restrepo tengo mucha informacion documentos de la fundacion de Medellin, Fotos antiquisimas y mucho amor por Asturias!
Que raro es que aunque esas raices son tan lejanas las anhelamos tanto!
Tenemos muchas cosas en comun:
Los paisajes
Las casas coloridas
La comida abundante (como la fabada)
El concepto de familia
Las raices y genealogias bien hidalgas...

Estoy adelantando un trabajo de la migracion de esos restrepo a EU. Yo vivo aqui hace seis anios y tengo conmigo todo el arsenal de informacion familiar que me traje de Medellin.
Pondre algunas fotos de mis ancestros en este lindo sitio.

Bendiciones!