who am i?

i am a native of east los angeles, california, where my grandparents settled from parral, chihuahua, mexico, around 1920 via el paso. my maternal grandfather, marcos torribio de la loza, and his family, are indigenous to what is now the southwestern united states and northern mexico. his grandmother, guadalupe garcia pinon, is buried in mission san gabriel. my great-great grandmother and her son were the caretakers of the cemetery in the early part of this century. she was a tarahumara indian. This is her headstone at mission san gabriel. her daughter was jesusita garcia de la loza. jesusita was a name that was outlawed by the roman catholic church, and to my knowledge, still is. it was quite common for native american people to honor their catholic beliefs by naming their daughters after jesus christ. this was heresy in the catholic church for obvious reason, and in some of the readings i have encountered, some indians did this to spite the oppressive church. her headstone in evergreen cemetery, los angeles, is pictured at the bottom right. my grandmother was maria de los angeles soto zapien. her family were supposedly from bilbao, spain, and she had the fair complexion and green eyes to show it. my grandmother was never very consistent about retelling the events of her life, and some have turned out to be true, and many are still disputed by my family members. my father was born and raised in arecibo, puerto rico, to jíbaro slaves of the sugar cane fields. they were also indigenous to puerto rico, according to US census records. my father was the youngest of at least 16 brothers and sisters. he and his mother moved to new york around the end of world war II, and then he moved out to california. i have no known living relatives in puerto rico. i have a handful of cousins that i have never known that still live in new york. i am very proud of my latino heritage, and i encourage others to seek out theirs.