One Man's Musings

Luis Rafael  Brambila Contreras was born May 2, 1885 at exactly 5:30 in the morning in Ameca, Jalisco, Mexico. Luis' parents were Felipe N. Brambila and Florencia Contreras. Grandpa Brambila notes:  When Luis was baptized, his godparents were Rafael D. Elias y Ms. Ponciana de Anda viuda de Fonseca. Luis Rafael Brambila died in Mexico City on August 1, 1927 Luis Rafael is my mother's brother. Uncle Luis was 19 years old when my mother was born. Luis Rafael married Margarita Lara. . His children are Maria Luisa, Maria Guadalupe, Margarita, Gilberto, Carlos Manuel, Elena Esperanza and Enriqueta. Maria Luisa was  born October 9, 1910. Her maternal grandparents were Manuel Lara and Soledad Morales (my source is Alfredo Pena Perez-Plazola). Maria Luisa lived to a ripe age of ninety years. I don't know the vital statistics for Maria Luisa's siblings. Maria Luisa had four children: Antonio, Javier (aka el chato) Jorge and...

My grandfather Felipe n. Brambila wrote a note on June 2, 1925. He notes that according to the parochial records of Tenamaxtlan, there were 772 Spaniards and 1,763 Mexican residents in the year 1757. By the year 1855, the population had increased to 5,658. He does not mention the ethnicity of the population at this time. My mother told me once that grandpa enjoyed documenting information with regards to the town of Tenamaxtlan, where his father and grandfather lived for many years.

My grandfather was Juan Jose Araiza. He was married to Maximiana Fregoso Fernandez. She married Juan Jose Araiza in 1888 when she was 20 years old. Juan Jose was born circa 1850. He was baptized on June 26, 1851 in Talpa, Jalisco, Mexico. His parents were Jose Maria Salome Araiza and Francisca (aka Franca)  Reynoso Delgado. His maternal grandparents were Jose Antonio Bictor Reynoso Contreras and Maria Tomasa Delgado Aguilar. (My source is Erik Reynoso, professional genealogist.) The passing of my grandfather happened on October 5, 1906. He passed away in the town of Sebastian del Oeste, Jalisco, Mexico. He passed away of bronco-pneumonia, The death certificate states that he passed away without medical assistance. He was 55 years old.  My father was two years old when his father passed away.  My parents once told me that my widowed grandmother suffered greatly due to his passing. I have been told she was a chamber maid.  It must have been difficult to ...

Recently, I had the pleasure to meet a great story teller. Gabriel Brambila reminds me of my uncles in the Brambila side of my family. He is my first cousin twice removed. He had a story to tell about his grandmother Josefina Garcia. We knew through oral family tradition and genealogical research, that she became a widower at a young age. She was married to my uncle Gabriel Brambila in the early 1900s. Gabriel died in a horrible train accident in northern Mexico. Somehow, he relates, his grandmother Josefina migrated to the United States with her two children. She then remarried a grocer named Joseph P. Garcia (a.k.a.) J.P. Garcia. The grocery store was located in Laredo, Texas. My cousin relates with vivid recollection that his grandmother had a stoic appearance; not much of a talker. I remember, he reminisced, one could always find her behind the counter at the store, dressed in a crisp, heavily starched apron. Always cognizant of the patrons and their needs; perpetually recordin...

Antecedentes, explicaciones, aclaramientos, advertencies, y comentatios. Este es el t í tulo de una p á gina que encontr é en las notas de mi abuelo. Parece ser una advertencia a los lectores del futuro en referencia a la dificultad que el tuvo en obtener datos de la familia Brambila. Parece que el confia en la tradici ó n oral de sus antepasados. Pues leamos sus palabras: Segun relacion verbal que me hizo mi tio bisabuelo materno don. Jose Maria Brambila Rosales (a) el cuate, alla por el a ñ o de 1881, con la que me di ó Gregorio M. Medina, hoy tres de Enero de 1923, que vive en Tecolotl á n, el capit á n don Francisco de la Brambila y un soldado Diego Brambila, fueron unos de los Soldiers que en 1527 acompa ñ aron al primer Alcande de Colima Francisco Cortez de la Buenaventura, sobrino del Marques del Valle - don Hernan Cort é z, seg ú n relacionada de la historia del Licenciado (illegible) de la Mota Padilla, entre noventa soldiers escogidos a conquest las provi...

The Long Road to a Masters Degree I remember thinking how hard it would be to enroll in Graduate school. This occurs to me in late December, 2001, a month short of my fifty fifth birthday. I dreamed of securing a second career due to my upcoming retirement. My work schedule is hectic. I am a data entry clerk. I work third shift, ten hours a day, six days a week. I graduated from Northwood University with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration on May 11, 1996. Sometime in January, 2002, I decided to pursue my Master’s degree in Organizational Management.. Several of my supervisors, who were pursuing an advanced degree, recommended I enroll with the University of Phoenix on-line, since attending a brick and mortar school would be impossible with to my work schedule. No one told me the difficulty that I would encounter working full time and taking master’s degree courses simultaneously. The first obstacle that I encountered is self doubt. I realized that my aca...