Oral History Welcome in nuestrosranchos.org

I'd like to share some oral history that relates to the Cristero Revolution.

My great-grandfather Heladio Robledo Montante was born in San Luis Potosi
in 1880. The Robledo side seems to be from San Luis Potosi for a number of
generations, but more on that later. The Montante family moved back and
forth between there and Mexico City. According to my grandfather they were
newspaper and magazine publishers and operated jewelry stores. He told a
story that when he was five years old ( 1908) his father took him to stay at
his grandfathers hacienda. I don't know which family. He said it took three
days to travel around it on horseback and there were native villages up in
the mountains on it.

My grandfather had light skin and blond hair as a child, his mother
being Scottish-English, but raised in Mexico, where her father worked for
the Mexican National Railroad. While traveling through a remote part of the
mountains, their party was passed by group of native people his grandfather
didn't recognize. Later when they made camp, an even larger group arrived.
Although they had local natives with them, nobody spoke the languague of
this people. They were friendly but insistant on taking my grandfather with
them to their village.
His grandfather feeling he had little choice, let him go with one of his
guides. He remembers traveling for another day, coming to a much larger
village than he had seen before, given a place to sleep, fed, and having
people come to see him and that they would all touch his hair. The next day
they took him back to his grandfather's camp.

Anyone knowledgable about the indigenous people in this area?

He never went back to this area again. We don't know what happened during
the 1909-1913
revolutions, but during the Cristero revolutions things went bad. Heladio
Robledo Montante had been sent to school in the US and was just taking over
the family businesses from his father when they were forced to flee the
country. The family story is the he during street fighting in Mexico City,
he went to one of their jewelry stores, took everything he could carry in a
suitcase and ran for his life. He came to San Antonio, Texas in 1926 and
found work as
a Pullman conductor. From then until he retired in the late 1940s he worked
the Texas to Mexico City line. He then moved to Coyoacan and died there in
1958.

My grandfather said his family said they were originaly from the town of
Villavicsiosa in Asturias, Spain, but never said which family. A few years
ago, I had a Y-DNA test done expecting to find out if the paternal Robledo
line was originally Spanish, Native American,
Jewish, or Arabic in origin. But, instead the results were for Haplogroup O,
which is South
Asian, being most common in southern China, Japan, the Philipines and
Melanesia.

The Philipines are the most likley, as the Manila Galleon trade route ran
from about 1520 to 1821. I have tried working the line in San Luis Potosi
back, but run out at a Jose Maria Robledo born c 1820. His wife was Dolores
Colunga born around 1828. I have placed a Colunga relative in Ojuelos,
Jalisco. I'm trying to find others researching here and if anyone has found
church records mentioning a Filipino origin.

Knowing the Spanish Colonial obsession with racial matters, it's hard to
imagine how someone of Asian origin could end up as Don Jose Maria Robledo,
espanoles, property and business owner.

The DNA experts have determined that no Native population carries this
Haplogroup and that it is unknown in European populations.

Eric Robledo Edgar

On Wed, Oct 1, 2008 at 11:13 PM, José Luis Macías Lebrón <
borinquen_boy@hotmail.com> wrote:

> Esperanza,
>
> I lived in San Luis Potosí for about 13 years. There, I went to High School
> and graduated from the university. One of my classes was "Historia de
> México." My final project consisted of documenting the cultural aspect of
> the several colonial constructions in the City. I went to various Churches
> documenting paintings, sculptures and construction styles of several
> buildings. One of the more interesting churches I found was la Iglesia de
> San Francisco en la Plaza Aranzazú. Inside the church there is a gate which
> is usually locked that leads somewhere downstairs. On one rare opportunity I
> found that this gate was unlocked and coincidently I was gathering info for
> my final project so I decided take a quick peek down those stairs. Needless
> to say that I was terrified while walking down those dark stairs and almost
> lost control of my bowels, I found some interesting things down there. To
> make a long story short, the stairs led to a crypt. What caught my attention
> was that there were some openings on the wall that were sealed with several
> bars, like those found in a jail. Length of these openings are unknown (the
> dimensions are such that one could comfortably fit and walk in through them
> - perhaps somewhat crouched). It was too dark to see if they were long
> enough to be considered tunnels. This is as far as I go with FACTS.
>
> Of course asking here and there led to informal accounts or legends of
> these "Openings" being used as escape tunnels for "Cristeros" who were
> politically pursued. Legend has it that all principal Temples are
> interconnected via these tunnels. I have not seen any proof of this nor do I
> expect the clergy to advertise something like this, if in fact it was true.
> Why all the mystery? Well based on the History of México, the catholic
> church had great influence in the state and historically the church has been
> involved in the shaping of the country (Remember the legacy of el Cura
> Hidalgo, or remember where we found several historical records of our
> family?). The Mexican government recognized this great influence as a threat
> and promulgated the Separation of the Church and State. Some measures taken
> by the Government were so radical and unjust that it was perceived that such
> measures reflected an anticlerical Constitution. This lead to blood shed and
> a war between Church and the State fought by "Los Cristeros" and the
> Mexican government.
>
> That said, it is evident that church and government have had a historical
> grudge on each other. Each side have their reasons. If I were in a pickle
> liek the Catholic Chuch, would it make sense to advertise my escape route?
> Maybe not!
>
> Luis
>
>
>
>
> > From: Latina1955@aol.com> Date: Wed, 1 Oct 2008 22:58:13 -0400> To:
> research@nuestrosranchos.org> Subject: Re: [Nuestros Ranchos] Oral History
> Welcome in nuestrosranchos.org> > This past weekend, I spent a glorious
> encounter with relatives...relatives > that I have not had the pleasure of
> asking questions before.> > Realizing that my discovery is not directly
> related to the "ranchos" group > of interest... I hesitated in sharing...> >
> But seeing how "ranchos" is the theme...have you ever heard of underground >
> passages linked from one area (usually churches) to another.?> > I had heard
> this to be true, especially as relates to the Indian raids and > Pancho
> Villa's visits...but now, there were more than one person(s) that >
> authenticated these stories...at least to having seen or walked in these
> tunnels.> > Esperanza from chicagoland area > > > > > > > >
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