Los Portales Newsletter

July 1, 2010

Dear Members,

One more time we have done a great job of putting together our 19th annual First Thanksgiving Conference. A special thank you to all volunteers and members for their participation. It became obvious that simultaneous translation of the confer-ence will be required to fully accommodate our attendees. We will be submitting our report to Texas Humanities about conference outcome as well as our proposal for next year’s event.

The number of tourists in San Elizario is growing which makes it increasingly apparent that we need to get more members to volunteer at Los Portales Museum. During our summer months our active members take vacations, please make every effort to get involved hosting our visitors.

We are actively improving our building and our activities. A special Thanks to Robert Rivera and Manny Lucero from the El Paso County, who sent us their workers. They will soon complete plastering the exterior and interior of the museum. The mu-seum’s roof has been patched, hopefully we saved money to get additional funding for a new roof next year.

Tasks that the San Elizario Genealogy & Historical Society is working on:

1. In the process of upgrading our camera system to include surveillance at the placita.

2. We will be printing some additional tourist information (50,000) flyers which will be distributed within a 300 mile radius.

3. We are preparing our 2010/2011 funding proposal to continue operat-ing our facility and our events.

4. The SEGHS will be assuming more responsibilities for the Placita dur-ing our upcoming year.

5. Everybody be aware that we will be adopting amendments to the By-laws at our October meeting, 2010. The amendments were recommended by a spe-cial committee led by Honorable Patricia Macias. See page 7 / amendments

In closing, I would like to say that we continuously receive compliments about our Museum by our visiting tourists. Let us take pride in our accomplishment.

Miguel A. Teran, SEGHS President

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Veteran’s Talk

On Sunday, June 27 the Veterans will have a booth for the Arts & Crafts Market at the Veterans Me-morial Placita

New Veteran’s museum site ten-tative will open by November 6, 2010. A sub-committee on Museum Affairs is being formed to start the planning, conduct inventories of veterans pictures, scan photos, pre-pare the new site, and proceed with the transfer to the new site at 1501 –B Main Street in San Elizario’s his-toric district.

The Veterans will be selling sodas and water at each of the Art Galler-ies. Becky Munoz will be in charge of that project

On Sunday, July 4th our Queen Laura Rosales will ride in a converti-ble vehicle during the Del Norte Lion eastside Parade. By Ray Borrego

Visitors at Los Portales Museum

Mr. & Mrs. Ismael Pacheco of Socorro, Texas made tour arrangements with Lillian Trujillo, volunteer tour guide for the San Elizario historic district. The group of ten peo-ple, consisted of people from Puerto Rico & Florida, dear friends of the Pacheco’s, who were staying in their house while visiting El Paso.

Los Portales Museum has seen a lot of Lady Bowlers from all over the U.S. come to our facilities. They are delighted with our little placita, the chapel, the museum, the historic area, the history of the San

Elizario.

Lillian Trujillo speaking to the group of people

from Puerto Rico & Florida, in front of San

Elizario Chapel. Lillian volunteers in different

functions.

By Eloisa Levario

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A Military Experience

With the invasion of Columbus, New Mexico March 9, 1916, by Pancho Villa and some of his “Dorados,” precautions were taken by border towns to prevent similar incur-sions on American soil, by Mexican troops. In the town of San Elizario, Texas American troops were brought in from Ft. Bliss. The Cavalry soldiers were located in a clearing where Glorietta road crosses over the acequia near the old jail.

Their camp grounds consisted of tents and corrals for horses. A watch tower was built as a look out point and sentries would take turns on look-out duty.

People talked about the tower’s height protruding way above the cottonwood trees and the little sentry on top looking here and there with his field glasses. The Sentry could see for miles from his vantage point, but he could be seen from a distance, also.

Federico Apodaca used to tell the story of the time a trooper came to his house and gave him a good belt. Federico was nine years old at the time. He was helping his father fix the roof of the old adobe house. Every two or three years, fresh adobe clay had to be spread on the flat roof of the house to keep the rain from coming inside. “we could see the little soldier, about two miles away, on top of that tower.” Federico would say. “He was scanning the Perez’s Bosque by the Rio Grande with his field glasses.” Federico would add. He began to wonder if the soldier on the tower could see him. Federico showed the trooper a “finger” when his father was not looking. Federico would wave his arms over his head at the trooper, then he would show the finger again. “That little sentry got off the tower, got on his horse, and within 15 minutes he was shaking the dust out of my “pantalones” with his belt.” Federico would say.

“What was that all about?” His father asked Federico. “I don’t know, I guess he just has a problem with Mexicans;” was Federico’s reply. By Sam Sanchez

Sam Sanchez, artist, historian, veteran, volunteer,

not necessarily in that order. Sam is checking to

see if the Gift Store needs any more of his

church prints. Sam often spends his lunch hour at

the Museum and speaks to tourists about an era

of history of San Elizario.

He also writes historic articles to be included in

the SEGHS newsletter. By Eoisa Levario

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SEGHS Gift Shop

SAN ELIZARIO COOKBOOK

We are excited to announce that the San Elizario Cookbook is now available for pur-chase. Our members enthusiastically supported this project by their contributions of fa-vorite family recipes and the book is sure to be treasured by generations of those with ties to San Elizario as well as those who appreciate good cooking.

We want to thank all those who shared their recipes. We had a great response and we are confident that the book will be a winner at Los Portales bookstore. We thank the San Elizario High School print shop for printing of the book.

The San Elizario Cookbook is available by special order or at the bookstore. The cost is $12.00 plus tax and shipping. Order one for yourself and several for gifts for friends and family members. Be sure to place your order soon as we have limited number of copies available. Transito Macias

Membership

This year 2010, we are happy to report that we have registered new members to our organization. We welcome Anna Maria Jimenez Moon, from Irving, Texas, Irene Ruiz, from Piro, California, Brian Serrano from San Elizario, and Charles & Emma Navarro from El Paso.

Reminder: Don’t forget to renew your membership. Ruth Vasquez, Membership

Volunteers at Los Portales Museum are a great necessity.

I will begin this segment of the newsletter with a huge appreciation to all the mem-bers and non-members volunteers who address each chore or job as an opportunity to learn and experience the historic significance of Los Portales Museum. As the director of the museum, I am impressed by the enthusiasm and passion portrayed by our volun-teers. This is why I am addressing volunteerism in this newsletter.

One of the chores or jobs that a lot of our volunteers help out are, being a tourist hostess or host. Other volunteers like to garden while others enjoy keeping count of the volunteer hours which are essential to our reporting to the county. Membership renew-als and new member listings are part of the clerical work that is performed by member volunteers. Volunteers are called upon if an organization or school needs a tour around the San Elizario area or a speaker to speak about our historical significance. The treas-urer of the SEGHS is a volunteer and she keeps account of SEGHS expenditures. The Gift Store is another area that is handled through SEGHS volunteers. Water, sodas, gift items and books are ordered and inventoried. The secretary also is a volunteer and she keeps the minutes of the SEGHS meetings and records all pertinent information for the organization.

Los Portales Museum is growing in tourist numbers. One of the things we have to do is keep track of all visitors that come into the museum, where they are from, and if they are staying in hotels in El Paso.

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Again, this information is gaining importance as we approach a new funding year.

The SEGHS is administered by a Board of Directors, who are volunteers. The Board is spearheaded by the President and a Vice Presidents.

The delicious tamales & champurado that we eat and drink at Christmas time are prepared by volunteers. The special exhibits that are displayed for The Founder’s Luncheon or First Thanksgiving events are put together by member volunteers who passionately believe in keeping San Elizario history alive. We need volunteers in: the kitchen, preparing the tamales, making the red chile, preparing the hot chocolate for the kids and we need people to help decorate with Christmas decorations, prepping the luminarias bags, etc., etc.

I am hoping that I impressed upon you the importance of volunteering.

Volunteers are the lifeblood of our Organization Eloisa Levario, Director

Ruth Vasquez and Tere Payan counting vol-

unteer hours and hosting visitors

Marta Garcia and Tere Payan working in the

Los Portales Garden

Lillian Trujillo on the right talking to tourists at

San Elizario Presidio church.

Aurora Bustos hosting a visitor from out of town

These four ladies, Marta, Tere, Aurora and Lillian are regular

volunteers at Los Portales Museum. Tere and Marta love to

garden, cook & sew. Aurora’s love is genealogy and taking

classes in Life Long Learning. Lillian is the resident tour guide,

special events photographer,, church fiesta volunteer, etc.

By Eloisa Levario

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Volunteers in Action

Mague Payan Saenz, SEGHS volunteer is explaining to

the visitors about the vigas on the ceiling of Los Por-

tales Museum.

Transito Macias at our June 6, 2010 SEGHS meeting at the

L.G.Alarcon School.

Miguel Teran , President of SEGHS at the Los Por-

tales office, catching up on his e-mails.

Not shown:

Olga Trujillo Hernandez, volunteer docent,

an active volunteer at Los Portales

Other volunteers include Teresita Perez

Teran, Mary Perez, Felix Hernandez,

George Sanchez, retired math teacher, genealogist, vet-

eran & SEGHS volunteer. George is instructing our visitor

on the sign in format.

Lupe Gonzalez, is our computer technical volunteer con-

sultant, for special projects. Lupe shares the spotlight

with her husband Ruben below.

Ruben Gonzalez, our in-house volunteer carpenter.

Erasmo Payan, Julie Hernandez, Ida Castel-

lano, Grace Sanchez, Esperanza Cedillos,

Pina Gonzalez, &Ramona Parra.

We will pay tribute to our deceased volun-

teers in our next newsletter.

By Eloisa Levario

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Prayers for the Ill

Our prayers go to Lillian Trujillo, Richard Sambrano, Margarita Ramirez, Lupe Gonzalez, Erasmo Payan.

Founder’s Day Luncheon will be held Sunday, September 26, 2010 . We encour-age everyone to make plans to attend. It’s a good time to visit with former classmates.

AMENDMENTS to the BYLAWS;

Section 2, Qualifications: Each person seeking nomination for the office of Board di-rector must posses the following qualifications: 1.Must have been a an active member of the SEGHS for at least one year 2. Must be a resident, former resident or a descendent of a resident of San Elizario

Article IV,

Section 1: The officers of the corporation shall be President, President Elect, Vice-President, Treasurer, and Secretary. President Elect: The President Elect shall per-form such duties as may from time to time be assigned by the President. In any circumstance where the President fails to or is prevented from discharging the du-ties of office those duties shall devolve upon the President Elect, who shall serve until the President resumes his or her duties, or until there is a meeting of the members of the Board of Directors and a successor is elected. The President Elect shall be the Presi-dent in the event of a vacancy in the office of the President.

Article VI Contract: Contracts entered into the ordinary course of business over $500.00 may only be considered after the submission of three bids shall be authorized by the Board of Directors before the contract is executed by the President.

Recommendations: A procedural manual to include all major events should be drafted and made available to future event chairs.

Event chairs may be appointed by the President (instead of changing by-laws to include more Vice-Presidents.)

Hotel Occupancy Tax Symposium was held on May 26, 2010 in El Paso. It was at-tended by Miguel Teran, President, and Eloisa Levario, Director of Los Portales Museum-sponsored by El Paso County

Los Portales Museum

Office Hours: Tuesday thru Saturday: 10 a.m—2 p.m.

Sunday: 12 noon—4 p.m.

Closed Mondays

Phone: 915 851 1682 Fax 915 851 0045

E-mail: sanelizario@sbcglobal.net

Web site: www.epcounty.com/sanelizariomuseum

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San Elizario Genealogy/Historical Society

P.O. Box 1090

San Elizario, Texas 79849