desde Hollywood: Vicky Gonzalez Irueta
Posted: Thu May 04, 2006 11:32 pm
Por favor perdongan mi español que nunca aprendi a escribir en la escuela, pero trato lo mejor que puedo por lo tanto.
Toda mi familia cercana se mudo de España para Cuba desde el siglo XIX mas o menos. Algunos vivian en Islas Canarias, otros en Vizcaya (Bizcaia), otros en Asturias, y de otros lugares mas posiblamente. Cuando empezaron los problemas en Cuba alrededor de los 1950s, mi familia extendida empezo a irse, una familia a la vez. Primero se fueron unos tios y mi padre, despues mi madre y yo, entonces mis abuelos, otros tios, primos, etc.
Pero, desgraciadamente, hemos acabados todos regados por los EE.UU. a tal extremo que nuestra joventud no se conoce unos a otros, y hasta yo perdi contacto con ellos o en muchos casos, nunca me presentaron mis padres, como las distancias son tan largas aqui en este pais. De mi punto de vista, estamos al punto de perder nuestras raices con la proxima generacion si no tomamos interes en nuestra raices y escribimos todo.
Yo tengo de hace años atras, un "arbol" genealogico bastante largo hecho en la computadora y midiendo unos 10 pies o mas, con mas de 300 personas y llendo para atras hasta el siglo XVIII ( 18 ) del lado de mis raices vizcainas. Estas raices vizcainas son mas facil de encontrar sobre el Internet porque los apellidos vizcainos frequentemente son muchos mas extraños que los castellanos.
Mi abuelo paternal, Manolo Gonzalez Diaz, nacio en Asturias, exactamente en donde no se, pero mi mama menciona Giron/Xixon y un lugar, parece que en el campo, llamado "La Marquesa." Mis padres y mis abuelos paternales fueron a España en el 1958 de vacaciones y tiraron un monton de fotos, algunas de las cuales son de este lugar en Asturias, y tienen escrito por atras "Giron" y "La Marquesa" con la fecha. Son fotos de la familia, en el campo; de la unica hermana de mi abuelo Manolo, de otros parientes por allá, y tal vez amistades.
Abuelo Manolo tenia 5 hermanos y una hermana: Francisco, Ramona, Alejandro, Celestino, Jose, y Antonio. Manolo se fue a Cuba solo a la edad de 12 a 15 años mas o menos, dependiendo en la memoria de mi mama, y se encontro con dos hermanos mayores en Cienfuegos, que los pusieron a hacer sastreria y a repartir ropa. Fueron bastante abusivo con su hermanito, pero asi Manolo aprendio a defenderse desde chiquito y le sirvio despues cuando se safo de ellos, empezo a trabajar por Crusellas y Cia., el distribuidor de Colgate Palmolive, y lo hicieron gerente y/o vice presidente.
Teniamos plata por lo tanto que abuelo Manolo habia luchado en su vida, desde su niñes. Cuando nosotros nos empezamos a ir de Cuba, despues de que Fidel se agarro del poder, viviamos en una casona en El Prado de Cienfuegos, teniamos una finca con vacas, caballos, etc., terreno en la Habana, un negocio cerca de la casa, y vivamos bastante bien sin haberle robado dinero a nadie o vivir a costilla de otros. Pero todo eso se acabo; llegamos a los EE.UU como decimos nosotros, "con una mano alante y otra atras."
De los hermanos de Manolo que tubieron hijos, se que algunos, puede ser que nada mas que uno de ellos, o puede ser dos, se mudaron para Nuevo Orlean. Pero endonde esta esa rama de la familia ahora, especialmente despues de la tormenta Katrina, yo no se. Lo unico que se de ellos son los nombres de los viejos y tal vez de sus padres, no de los "niños" que seguro que son de mi edad, ni de los niños de esos "niños" (lo digo chistosamente porque en realidad ya son adultos.)
La hermana de Manolo es la unica que se que se quedo en Asturias aun despues de que habian venido para los EE.UU. todo el resto de nosotros, aunque acabo del tiempo se perdio contacto con ella y ella murio hace tiempo ya seguramente. Manolo habia comprado todo el terreno que le pertenecia a sus hermanos y se lo regalo a su hermana, de acuerdo con el cuento que hace mi mama. Pero quien sabe si alguien de la familia todavia vive en ese terreno.
Del resto de la familia, los Guerras por parte de mi madre viñeron de Islas Canarias supuestamente, los de mi abuela por parte de padre, Alvarez, no se de donde eran, y ni queda nadie yo creo que pudiera decir, y los Iruetas, que se conocian en aquel entonces como los Ydoetas o Yduetas viñeron de Markina, Markina-Xemein, y Bilobar en Vizcaya (Bizcaia.)
Uno de los problemas que yo veo en el buscar mis raices asturianas es que comparado a los vizcainos, con su programa "Badator," los asturianus todavia no tienen nada parecido que se pueda usar sobre el Internet. En vez de eso, aparentemente, por lo poco que he leido aqui sobre los ultimos dos dias en este foro, tuviera yo que pedir archivo por archivo, uno a la vez, de la dioceses particulares y ayuntamientos, lo cual me demoraria una barbaridad. Igualamente, cualquieres archivos de Cuba que pudiera revisar para buscar datos sobre mi familia son inaccesible para mi, siendo que Fidel no ayuda para nada y la pobresa en Cuba no permite que la gente se pongan a entrar datos en un sistema de computadora el dia entero, seguramente.
Bueno, pues ya he hablado bastante, los dejo con este periodico que he escrito, si alguien tiene una pregunta para mi, no tengan pena, y un fuerte abrazo para todos!
Vicky Gonzalez Irueta
------------------------------------------------
Please pardon my Spanish, as I never learned how to write in Spanish in school, though I try the best I can given the circumstances.
My entire family moved from Spain to Cuba in the 19th century, more or less. Some of them lived in Canary Islands, some in Biscay, others in Asturias, and still others possibly in other parts of Spain. When problems started occurring in Cuba around the 1950s, my extended family started leaving, one family or sub-family at a time. First a couple of uncles and aunts left, then my father, then my mother and I, then my paternal grandparents, then other aunts, uncles, and cousins, etc.
But, unfortunately, we've all wound up scattered throughout the United States to the extent that our youth doesn't know each other (at least not like we did back in Cuba and Spain) and even I have lost contact with much of my family and in the case of some family members, I was never introduced to them in the first place, given that the distances over here are so much greater. We are at the brink of losing our roots within the next generation if we don't take an interest in our roots and write down everything.
I have, going back several years, a rather large family tree, measuring 10 feet or more when printed out, with over 300 names, and going back to the 18th century on the Basque side of my family. My Basque roots are, surprisingly, despite the rather odd, long names, turning out to be much easier to research because they *are* odd, long names which are uncommon compared to our Castilian surnames.
My paternal grandfather, Manolo Gonzalez Diaz, was born in Asturias, exactly where, I don't know, but my mother mentions Giron/Xixon (pronounced Shishon in English) and a place, apparently in the countryside, called "La Marquesa." (Marquesa is Spanish for "marquise," the female version of "marquis," having the same origins as the word "march," as in "to march down the street.") My parents and paternal grandparents went on vacation to Spain in 1958 and shot a bunch of photos, some of which are of this place in Asturias, and on the back of them they have the words "Giron" and "La Marquesa" written, along with the date. They're photos of the family, in a rural setting, with my grandfather Manolo's only sister, other family members perhaps, as well as friends.
Grandfather Manolo had five brothers and one sister: Francisco, Ramona, Alejandro, Celestino, Jose, and Antonio. Manolo went to Cuba by himself according to my mom's account, at around the age of 12 to 15 years old, more or less, depending on my mom's memory, and there, grandpa found two older brothers, who put him to work as a tailor and delivering clothes until late at night. His two brothers were rather abusive back then, taking advantage of this little boy, my grandfather, but that served him later on in life to become more and more successful on his own when he went to work for Crusellas and Co., a distributor of Colgate Palmolive, and he progressed to manager or possibly even vice president of the company.
We were somewhat wealthy, though not exceedingly so, because of all the work my grandfather Manolo had put in since childhood. By the time we start leaving Cuba, after Fidel had taken over, we were living in what might be considered a mansion over here, a 4500+ square foot house on the first floor alone, the second story of which was rented out, the house was on a very popular street named "El Prado" in Cienfuegos, a lovely town, we had a ranch with horses and cows, etc., land in Havana, a cowboy outfitting store a few doors down from our house, and we lived rather well without having been part of any of the corruption which marked Cuba for takeover by extremists from the other side. But all that we had we had to leave behind, and come to this country, the U.S., with, as we say, "one hand in front and the other behind" (meaning, nothing but our hands to cover our private parts!)
Of my grandfather Manolo's brothers who had children, I know that one, maybe two of them, went to live in New Orleans. But where that side of the family is now, especially after hurricane Katrina, who knows. What I do know of them is simply their names, the names of the old folks, that is, and the parents, but not their "kids," who are surely my age, nor their "kids'" kids, which I say in jest because they're really adults by now, like me.
Manolo's sister is the only one of the siblings who I know stayed in Asturias even after all the other siblings had presumably moved to the U.S., though over time, we lost contact with her and I'm sure she's since then long been deceased. Manolo had bought up all the land in Asturias which belonged to his brothers and had given it all to his sister Ramona, according to my mom's story, but who knows if any members of the family still live on that land.
As far as the rest of the family is concerned, the Guerras, (guerra means "war" in Spanish) from my mother's side of the family, came from Canary Islands supposedly. From my paternal grandmother's side, Alvarez, I have no idea where they came from, nor are there any elders left who would know. Finally, the Iruetas, from my maternal grandfather's side of the family, who were known back then as Ydoetas or Yduetas, came from Markina, Markina-Xemein, and Bilobar in Biscay (aka Vizcaya, aka Bizcaia.)
One of the problems I see in searching for my Asturian roots compared to my Basque roots, which was made relatively easy via this system they've created called "Badator," is that the Asturians don't yet appear to have such a computerized system in place which can be accessed over the Web. In place of an automated search, apparently, from what I've read in this forum over the course of the last two days, I'd have to ask for each file, record, etc. one at a time from the various Catholic dioceses and city halls. This is a chore I'm not looking forward to given the time-consuming nature of it. Additionally, any files from Cuba which might be of help were they online are inaccessible for me, given that Fidel has seen it fit to not help out in this area (amongst others, of course) nor does the economic climate in Cuba permit a hungry group of souls to whittle their hours away entering such data into a computer so one over here can peruse said files from the comfort of our homes.
Well, enough of my babbling, I've turned this "intro" into a newspaper. If you have any questions of me, ask away, don't be shy, I've got tons of data on this little gene-pool of humanity, and it's for the sharing. Hugs to all.
Vicky Gonzalez Irueta
Toda mi familia cercana se mudo de España para Cuba desde el siglo XIX mas o menos. Algunos vivian en Islas Canarias, otros en Vizcaya (Bizcaia), otros en Asturias, y de otros lugares mas posiblamente. Cuando empezaron los problemas en Cuba alrededor de los 1950s, mi familia extendida empezo a irse, una familia a la vez. Primero se fueron unos tios y mi padre, despues mi madre y yo, entonces mis abuelos, otros tios, primos, etc.
Pero, desgraciadamente, hemos acabados todos regados por los EE.UU. a tal extremo que nuestra joventud no se conoce unos a otros, y hasta yo perdi contacto con ellos o en muchos casos, nunca me presentaron mis padres, como las distancias son tan largas aqui en este pais. De mi punto de vista, estamos al punto de perder nuestras raices con la proxima generacion si no tomamos interes en nuestra raices y escribimos todo.
Yo tengo de hace años atras, un "arbol" genealogico bastante largo hecho en la computadora y midiendo unos 10 pies o mas, con mas de 300 personas y llendo para atras hasta el siglo XVIII ( 18 ) del lado de mis raices vizcainas. Estas raices vizcainas son mas facil de encontrar sobre el Internet porque los apellidos vizcainos frequentemente son muchos mas extraños que los castellanos.
Mi abuelo paternal, Manolo Gonzalez Diaz, nacio en Asturias, exactamente en donde no se, pero mi mama menciona Giron/Xixon y un lugar, parece que en el campo, llamado "La Marquesa." Mis padres y mis abuelos paternales fueron a España en el 1958 de vacaciones y tiraron un monton de fotos, algunas de las cuales son de este lugar en Asturias, y tienen escrito por atras "Giron" y "La Marquesa" con la fecha. Son fotos de la familia, en el campo; de la unica hermana de mi abuelo Manolo, de otros parientes por allá, y tal vez amistades.
Abuelo Manolo tenia 5 hermanos y una hermana: Francisco, Ramona, Alejandro, Celestino, Jose, y Antonio. Manolo se fue a Cuba solo a la edad de 12 a 15 años mas o menos, dependiendo en la memoria de mi mama, y se encontro con dos hermanos mayores en Cienfuegos, que los pusieron a hacer sastreria y a repartir ropa. Fueron bastante abusivo con su hermanito, pero asi Manolo aprendio a defenderse desde chiquito y le sirvio despues cuando se safo de ellos, empezo a trabajar por Crusellas y Cia., el distribuidor de Colgate Palmolive, y lo hicieron gerente y/o vice presidente.
Teniamos plata por lo tanto que abuelo Manolo habia luchado en su vida, desde su niñes. Cuando nosotros nos empezamos a ir de Cuba, despues de que Fidel se agarro del poder, viviamos en una casona en El Prado de Cienfuegos, teniamos una finca con vacas, caballos, etc., terreno en la Habana, un negocio cerca de la casa, y vivamos bastante bien sin haberle robado dinero a nadie o vivir a costilla de otros. Pero todo eso se acabo; llegamos a los EE.UU como decimos nosotros, "con una mano alante y otra atras."
De los hermanos de Manolo que tubieron hijos, se que algunos, puede ser que nada mas que uno de ellos, o puede ser dos, se mudaron para Nuevo Orlean. Pero endonde esta esa rama de la familia ahora, especialmente despues de la tormenta Katrina, yo no se. Lo unico que se de ellos son los nombres de los viejos y tal vez de sus padres, no de los "niños" que seguro que son de mi edad, ni de los niños de esos "niños" (lo digo chistosamente porque en realidad ya son adultos.)
La hermana de Manolo es la unica que se que se quedo en Asturias aun despues de que habian venido para los EE.UU. todo el resto de nosotros, aunque acabo del tiempo se perdio contacto con ella y ella murio hace tiempo ya seguramente. Manolo habia comprado todo el terreno que le pertenecia a sus hermanos y se lo regalo a su hermana, de acuerdo con el cuento que hace mi mama. Pero quien sabe si alguien de la familia todavia vive en ese terreno.
Del resto de la familia, los Guerras por parte de mi madre viñeron de Islas Canarias supuestamente, los de mi abuela por parte de padre, Alvarez, no se de donde eran, y ni queda nadie yo creo que pudiera decir, y los Iruetas, que se conocian en aquel entonces como los Ydoetas o Yduetas viñeron de Markina, Markina-Xemein, y Bilobar en Vizcaya (Bizcaia.)
Uno de los problemas que yo veo en el buscar mis raices asturianas es que comparado a los vizcainos, con su programa "Badator," los asturianus todavia no tienen nada parecido que se pueda usar sobre el Internet. En vez de eso, aparentemente, por lo poco que he leido aqui sobre los ultimos dos dias en este foro, tuviera yo que pedir archivo por archivo, uno a la vez, de la dioceses particulares y ayuntamientos, lo cual me demoraria una barbaridad. Igualamente, cualquieres archivos de Cuba que pudiera revisar para buscar datos sobre mi familia son inaccesible para mi, siendo que Fidel no ayuda para nada y la pobresa en Cuba no permite que la gente se pongan a entrar datos en un sistema de computadora el dia entero, seguramente.
Bueno, pues ya he hablado bastante, los dejo con este periodico que he escrito, si alguien tiene una pregunta para mi, no tengan pena, y un fuerte abrazo para todos!
Vicky Gonzalez Irueta
------------------------------------------------
Please pardon my Spanish, as I never learned how to write in Spanish in school, though I try the best I can given the circumstances.
My entire family moved from Spain to Cuba in the 19th century, more or less. Some of them lived in Canary Islands, some in Biscay, others in Asturias, and still others possibly in other parts of Spain. When problems started occurring in Cuba around the 1950s, my extended family started leaving, one family or sub-family at a time. First a couple of uncles and aunts left, then my father, then my mother and I, then my paternal grandparents, then other aunts, uncles, and cousins, etc.
But, unfortunately, we've all wound up scattered throughout the United States to the extent that our youth doesn't know each other (at least not like we did back in Cuba and Spain) and even I have lost contact with much of my family and in the case of some family members, I was never introduced to them in the first place, given that the distances over here are so much greater. We are at the brink of losing our roots within the next generation if we don't take an interest in our roots and write down everything.
I have, going back several years, a rather large family tree, measuring 10 feet or more when printed out, with over 300 names, and going back to the 18th century on the Basque side of my family. My Basque roots are, surprisingly, despite the rather odd, long names, turning out to be much easier to research because they *are* odd, long names which are uncommon compared to our Castilian surnames.
My paternal grandfather, Manolo Gonzalez Diaz, was born in Asturias, exactly where, I don't know, but my mother mentions Giron/Xixon (pronounced Shishon in English) and a place, apparently in the countryside, called "La Marquesa." (Marquesa is Spanish for "marquise," the female version of "marquis," having the same origins as the word "march," as in "to march down the street.") My parents and paternal grandparents went on vacation to Spain in 1958 and shot a bunch of photos, some of which are of this place in Asturias, and on the back of them they have the words "Giron" and "La Marquesa" written, along with the date. They're photos of the family, in a rural setting, with my grandfather Manolo's only sister, other family members perhaps, as well as friends.
Grandfather Manolo had five brothers and one sister: Francisco, Ramona, Alejandro, Celestino, Jose, and Antonio. Manolo went to Cuba by himself according to my mom's account, at around the age of 12 to 15 years old, more or less, depending on my mom's memory, and there, grandpa found two older brothers, who put him to work as a tailor and delivering clothes until late at night. His two brothers were rather abusive back then, taking advantage of this little boy, my grandfather, but that served him later on in life to become more and more successful on his own when he went to work for Crusellas and Co., a distributor of Colgate Palmolive, and he progressed to manager or possibly even vice president of the company.
We were somewhat wealthy, though not exceedingly so, because of all the work my grandfather Manolo had put in since childhood. By the time we start leaving Cuba, after Fidel had taken over, we were living in what might be considered a mansion over here, a 4500+ square foot house on the first floor alone, the second story of which was rented out, the house was on a very popular street named "El Prado" in Cienfuegos, a lovely town, we had a ranch with horses and cows, etc., land in Havana, a cowboy outfitting store a few doors down from our house, and we lived rather well without having been part of any of the corruption which marked Cuba for takeover by extremists from the other side. But all that we had we had to leave behind, and come to this country, the U.S., with, as we say, "one hand in front and the other behind" (meaning, nothing but our hands to cover our private parts!)
Of my grandfather Manolo's brothers who had children, I know that one, maybe two of them, went to live in New Orleans. But where that side of the family is now, especially after hurricane Katrina, who knows. What I do know of them is simply their names, the names of the old folks, that is, and the parents, but not their "kids," who are surely my age, nor their "kids'" kids, which I say in jest because they're really adults by now, like me.
Manolo's sister is the only one of the siblings who I know stayed in Asturias even after all the other siblings had presumably moved to the U.S., though over time, we lost contact with her and I'm sure she's since then long been deceased. Manolo had bought up all the land in Asturias which belonged to his brothers and had given it all to his sister Ramona, according to my mom's story, but who knows if any members of the family still live on that land.
As far as the rest of the family is concerned, the Guerras, (guerra means "war" in Spanish) from my mother's side of the family, came from Canary Islands supposedly. From my paternal grandmother's side, Alvarez, I have no idea where they came from, nor are there any elders left who would know. Finally, the Iruetas, from my maternal grandfather's side of the family, who were known back then as Ydoetas or Yduetas, came from Markina, Markina-Xemein, and Bilobar in Biscay (aka Vizcaya, aka Bizcaia.)
One of the problems I see in searching for my Asturian roots compared to my Basque roots, which was made relatively easy via this system they've created called "Badator," is that the Asturians don't yet appear to have such a computerized system in place which can be accessed over the Web. In place of an automated search, apparently, from what I've read in this forum over the course of the last two days, I'd have to ask for each file, record, etc. one at a time from the various Catholic dioceses and city halls. This is a chore I'm not looking forward to given the time-consuming nature of it. Additionally, any files from Cuba which might be of help were they online are inaccessible for me, given that Fidel has seen it fit to not help out in this area (amongst others, of course) nor does the economic climate in Cuba permit a hungry group of souls to whittle their hours away entering such data into a computer so one over here can peruse said files from the comfort of our homes.
Well, enough of my babbling, I've turned this "intro" into a newspaper. If you have any questions of me, ask away, don't be shy, I've got tons of data on this little gene-pool of humanity, and it's for the sharing. Hugs to all.
Vicky Gonzalez Irueta
