Tía Yolanda shared this photo. Its of Rosa Canales and her cousins at Rincon Cadena in Nuevo León, MX. It was posted by Joe Canales of Premont(?). The Cadenas and Canales are related. ------------ TEJANO HISTORY The Cadenas of Falfurrias and Premont, Texas A. Lopez-Cadena, Miami Beach, FL 1-26-15© Falfurrias, the county seat of Brooks County, is on Rt. 281. Its sixty miles SW of Corpus Christi and ninety miles southeast from Laredo. Founded by Edward C. Lasater, a rancher, and land developer, his cattle ranch was in northern Starr County in 1895. The county was later reconfigured and named Brooks County. Falfurrias became the site of his headquarters. To encourage settlement of the area, Lasater encouraged the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway to extend a line to his ranch in 1904. My grandmother Maria Gonzalez Cadena lived at 315 W. Adams circa 1911, and said she could see main street, then just a horse trail, from her kitchen window. A branch of the Cadenas arrived in 1800 when the land (Premont, Texas) was part of New Spain. My maternal grandparents crossed into S. Texas in 1911 during the Mexican revolution. My maternal grandad Rosendo Cadena, his wife and mother-in-law Dolores (Mama Lola) Peña Gonzales fled Agualeguas, Nuevo León by wagon. I imagined it was similar to the one pictured above, but I really dont know. Pancho Villas men had stormed into their home on horseback and pointed a gun at my grandmothers pregnant belly (Rosendo Cadena Jr.). She stood up to them and asked why they dared enter her honorable home, as they were true patriots (or something like that). They ordered my grandad harvest his corn crop and take it to the rebels across the hills. On nightfall, my grandad and his brother Polonio drove their wagon across a hill during a battle. (Major revolutionary battles were fought in Nuevo León.) If they had refused, they would have been killed, and if caught by the Federales, they would have been shot for aiding the rebels. My grandmothers twin Juan Gonzales died. I asked how, but her eyes watered and she shook her head. Enroute to Texas, great grandmother Mama Lola saw her first steam train. Frightened, she screeched, and jumped off the wagon and ran fearing the train would follow! (It must have been something similar to seeing a UFO.) They fled because they no longer felt safe in there own country. Under different circumstances, they would have preferred to stay, grandmother said. I asked if it was nicer there than in Texas, and she said yes. I was there a while back. The Perez-Cadena townhouse is in Agualeguas, and our ancestral cemetery is on the outskirts of town, presumably on land that once belonged to family. Abuela was right, its very, very nice, but please dont go there now, its very dangerous, as drug gangs control the area. How Falfurrias Got Its Name There are various theories as to how Falfurrias was named. This one seems likely. Filfarrias, is Mexican slang for a filthy, untidy person. It was long associated with an old shepherd in the region who claimed his ancestors were aristocrats. People called him [d]on Filfarrias. The area came to be known as La Mota de don Filfarrias (or the grove of don Filfarrias) and eventually La Mota de don Falfurrias, or just Falfurrias. Postscript: Although my dear grandparents loved Mexico, and felt they were true patriots, they stayed in Texas. Ive since learned that our family left because they were DEEMED not on the right side of the revolution. Unsure about subsequent land redistribution(s), I dont believe the revolution was completely successful in that respect.
Posted on: Mon, 26 Jan 2015 22:01:10 +0000
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