Visiting Los Abuelitos - by Louisa Madrid

10/21/2009

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Antonio Franco

10/21/2009 05:03:38 am

What a wonderful rememberance you have given us. Your description brings to life what I never got asking my parents in trying to understand all this. They mentioned many of the same things you mention. But I could never really get a feel for it.

Your description made me feel that I understood it for the first time and makes me want to hear more of your stories.

Thank you for such a wonderful gift.

Louisa Franco Madrid link

10/24/2009 04:30:05 pm

Thank you Tony for your kind words.
I do have so many stories,but I would hate to monopolize the web site with my stories.
I am sure so many other people visiting this site have wonderful stories to tell.

Antonio Franco link

10/24/2009 04:33:18 pm

Among the many delightful insights Louisa Madrid brought to me with her account of visiting my grandparents in Terlingua was her description of El Zaguán. I did not know anything about it. In fact both of my paternal grandparents died before I was born so I never knew them either.

As I read about El Zaguán a couple of ideas came to my mind. First, I remembered reading when I was in school about ancient Roman architecture and learning about atriums. Reading about El Zaguán reminded me of that. An Atlanta architect, Portman, became famous by incorporating enclosed open areas in high rise hotels in the 1970's and 80's and called them atriums too. As all of you know, they are very common now. But the original idea of an atrium in a house always intrigued me so when I read Louisa's account of visitng Abuelitos I looked up both "El Zaguán" and "atrium" on the internet.

It turns out that a Zaguán is a feature of home architecture for homes in Andalucia Spain (southwestern corner of Spain). It seems that they started using this architectural feature with this name around the early 1500's. The origin of the word comes from Arabic as do many words in Spanish due to the Moors being in Spain for many years.

But long before the Moors were in Spain, the Roman Empire conquered and ruled Spain for a long time. Of course the Romans had atriums in their homes.

I don't know history, but it makes me wonder how deep the roots were for my grandfather to build a house with a Zaguán. It had to go back to Andalucia in some way or they would not have called it "El Zaguán." But the connection may be loose if it became fashionable to do this in other places.

That is a long wordy statement of the first idea that came to my mind reading about El Zaguán.

The second thought or question I had was about our Franco family origins in Spain. When I was young I heard from various family members that the Francos came from Spain to southern Mexico in 1802 and then made their way north. But that is all they said. No one claimed to know when and how they made their way north. Additionally I found no one who had any idea where in Spain they came from. I made feeble attempts to find out but never could. On my trips to Italy, Italians claimed Franco was an Italian name. But I noticed Italians use Franco as a first or given name not as a surname.

The dictator of Spain Francisco Franco seems to have been from the northwestern area of Spain, probably Galicia, but I never found anything to know if the Franco name was rooted there or not. He was born in El Ferrol which is in Galicia. But Wikipedia says the Francos moved there from Andalucia.

Now reading about the El Zaguán being from Andaluzia in the south eastern tip of Spain, makes me wonder if the family came from there.

These are idle thoughts since I am not a historian and have no facts. But these are two of the many thoughts that Louisa's account of visiting her grandparents brought to my mind. I was delighted to read it and may bore you with some of my other thoughts later. But I should leave room for others to comment.

Grace García

10/21/2019 09:22:05 am

I enjoyed reading your comment. It’s great to know about our past. Thank you! My family is also from Terlingua and Alpine💕

Valtina

11/18/2009 03:38:04 am

Thanks Tony for all have done. I remember some, when we went to visit my grandparents. I would sit on my grandfather's lap, and play with his mustache. My grandmother was so beautiful,i was name after her. All are good memories.

Tony Franco

11/20/2009 01:20:45 pm

Tina, you are so lucky to have our grandmother's name. And thanks for posting to the Recuerdo. It is little details, like playing with Antonio's mustache, that brings it to life for those of us who never experienced any of it.

Your contribution is appreciated. Maybe your contribution will encourage others to post other thoughts too.
Thank you!

Jovita Quezada link

10/2/2014 02:28:35 pm

To Louisa Madrid, There's is a photo of Benigno Franco at the Kokernot Ranch. If possible I would like to know what year it was taken? According to my great-grandfather Miquel Coronado arm service registration card, he worked at Kokernot Ranch and lived at Alpine, tx. I'm trying to find information on Miquel and his wife Refugia Barraza who both die of illness soon after their last son was born on 1924 at Alpine. Again,what year was the photo taken? Thank you.

Alicia Chavarria Williams link

3/17/2020 08:45:26 pm

What an amazing story

Visiting Los Abuelitos - by Louisa Madrid

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