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Benjamin Read's Mother: Ignacia Cano; His Father: Descendant of Ben Franklin?
4/5/08
4/2/08
Saturday, April 5, 2008
10:09:00 PM EDT
[Frank P. Gonzales commented on my Blog of February 2, 2007 regarding Benjamin Maurice Read, translator of the Valdez biography of AJM. His specific point was that Ignacia Cano, Read’s mother, was not from a family with long roots in NM as I had mentioned, but that she was from Galicia, Spain. At age 13, she traveled with her parents to Mexico before coming to NM. Ignacia married Benjamin Franklin Read who came to NM in 1846 as a soldier during the US-Mexican war. Frank poses an interesting question of a possible connection between Ignacia’s husband and (U.S. Founding Father) Benjamin Franklin who later married Deborah Read. ]
Dear Frank:
Thank you very much for your message via my blog. How did you happen to come upon it? I imagine it was on a search for Benjamin Read. Besides the Feb. 2, 2007 entry, I refer you also to Read’s ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO published in 1912, if you can get it--try Amazon.com. In 1998, on the 150th anniversary of the conclusion of the US-Mexican War, I translated into English his 1910 book (a century after the struggle for Mexican Independence began) Synoptico de La Guerra Mexico Americana, but did not get it published. If you are interested, I might send it on. Benjamin Read is an important pioneer in dealing with history from the perspective of a New Mexican.
Where were you born, and where are you now living? I live in Temecula that is between L.A. and San Diego, closer to the latter.
I am sure that you are correct in stating that Ignacia was from Compostella, Galica, and not from long-time NM families. I stand corrected. In general, the New Mexican settlers of the nineteenth century all had deep roots going back to Spanish stock of the 15th or 16th century. If great-grandma Cano came with her folks to NM in the 19th century, they were relative "late comers."
Compostella is the heart of Galicia. Have you ever been there? Fascinating! Its motto, printed on beautiful tiles sprinkled on the walkways of the centuries-old town, is NE PLUS ULTRA -- Latin for "Nothing Beyond" (except, of course, DRAGONS!). This refers to the location of the place, synonymous with the great unknown, that was recognized as the literal edge of civilization until Columbus definitively showed otherwise.
Santiago Apostol is reputed to have evangelized all of Spain, and so is the country's main patron saint. By extension, he is also the patron saint of all HISPANIC AMERICA. He is greatly venerated as "Matamoros" in Compostella that became a Mecca of Christian pilgrims (on a par with Jerusalem and Rome as a place of pilgrimage). In the early middle ages--I imagine because it was at what was considered as "the end of the world," people came to the extreme, edge, or end for HEALING! Along the route, HOSPITALS dotted the trail from inland Europe of Germany, France, etc. This is also the origins of various hospital guilds and knight Hospitalers and Templars.
There is another intriguing dimension of Compostella that is clear to me: the CONCHAS. The sea-shell motif--looking like advertisements for Shell Oil (Santiago, ¡favor de perdonarme!)--are thoroughly imprinted on the architecture of the missions of California and somewhat of Texas. We also see that Compostella motif--in a stylized "fan" shape-- on almost every piece of New Mexican furniture and much silver jewelry. Most NMicans do not know that the symbol is not a form of the sun, but a SEA SHELL!
I have written a much fuller biography of Benjamin Read and his brother Larkin who have close connections to Padre Martinez. B. M. Read’s younger brother, Larkin, married into the Martinez family. If you ask me for it, and I find it, I'll send you a copy of that biography. Benjamin M., with his brother Larkin, did most of the translation into English of the Santiago Valdez 1877 biography of Padre Martinez. I expect UNM Press in the near future will publish an updated version of that English. I have something to do with that.
Am sending copies of this note to Vicente Martinez who has a direct connection to Padre Martinez (and I believe to the Reads), and to Paul Espinosa who is producing a film documentary on Padre Martinez. I will also include it in the blog.
I wish to STRONGLY ENCOURAGE you to follow your intuitions on the connection between Benjamin Franklin (kite-key-lightning man who married his first love--by common law--DEBORAH Read) and Benjamin FRANKLIN Read, father of Benjamin MAURICE Read.
If you have not done so, for more than a mention of Deborah Read, check out
http://www.ushistory.org/franklin/info/index.htm
and more pertinently
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin#Deborah_Read
You will find some good leads there. The Mormon Church has many good resources and persons to help check out ancestral lines. Ask around, and you'll get help on this. Padre Martinez and Benjamin Franklin hand mamny things in common, and I am sure that Padre Martinez knew of and admired Benjamin Franklin for many reasons. Franklin died on April 17, 1790--twenty months before Padre Martinez was born.
Peace!
Fr. Juan Romero
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10:09:00 PM EDT
Benjamin Read's Mother: Ignacia Cano; His Father: Descendant of Ben Franklin?
[Frank P. Gonzales commented on my Blog of February 2, 2007 regarding Benjamin Maurice Read, translator of the Valdez biography of AJM. His specific point was that Ignacia Cano, Read’s mother, was not from a family with long roots in NM as I had mentioned, but that she was from Galicia, Spain. At age 13, she traveled with her parents to Mexico before coming to NM. Ignacia married Benjamin Franklin Read who came to NM in 1846 as a soldier during the US-Mexican war. Frank poses an interesting question of a possible connection between Ignacia’s husband and (U.S. Founding Father) Benjamin Franklin who later married Deborah Read. ]
Dear Frank:
Thank you very much for your message via my blog. How did you happen to come upon it? I imagine it was on a search for Benjamin Read. Besides the Feb. 2, 2007 entry, I refer you also to Read’s ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO published in 1912, if you can get it--try Amazon.com. In 1998, on the 150th anniversary of the conclusion of the US-Mexican War, I translated into English his 1910 book (a century after the struggle for Mexican Independence began) Synoptico de La Guerra Mexico Americana, but did not get it published. If you are interested, I might send it on. Benjamin Read is an important pioneer in dealing with history from the perspective of a New Mexican.
Where were you born, and where are you now living? I live in Temecula that is between L.A. and San Diego, closer to the latter.
I am sure that you are correct in stating that Ignacia was from Compostella, Galica, and not from long-time NM families. I stand corrected. In general, the New Mexican settlers of the nineteenth century all had deep roots going back to Spanish stock of the 15th or 16th century. If great-grandma Cano came with her folks to NM in the 19th century, they were relative "late comers."
Compostella is the heart of Galicia. Have you ever been there? Fascinating! Its motto, printed on beautiful tiles sprinkled on the walkways of the centuries-old town, is NE PLUS ULTRA -- Latin for "Nothing Beyond" (except, of course, DRAGONS!). This refers to the location of the place, synonymous with the great unknown, that was recognized as the literal edge of civilization until Columbus definitively showed otherwise.
Santiago Apostol is reputed to have evangelized all of Spain, and so is the country's main patron saint. By extension, he is also the patron saint of all HISPANIC AMERICA. He is greatly venerated as "Matamoros" in Compostella that became a Mecca of Christian pilgrims (on a par with Jerusalem and Rome as a place of pilgrimage). In the early middle ages--I imagine because it was at what was considered as "the end of the world," people came to the extreme, edge, or end for HEALING! Along the route, HOSPITALS dotted the trail from inland Europe of Germany, France, etc. This is also the origins of various hospital guilds and knight Hospitalers and Templars.
There is another intriguing dimension of Compostella that is clear to me: the CONCHAS. The sea-shell motif--looking like advertisements for Shell Oil (Santiago, ¡favor de perdonarme!)--are thoroughly imprinted on the architecture of the missions of California and somewhat of Texas. We also see that Compostella motif--in a stylized "fan" shape-- on almost every piece of New Mexican furniture and much silver jewelry. Most NMicans do not know that the symbol is not a form of the sun, but a SEA SHELL!
I have written a much fuller biography of Benjamin Read and his brother Larkin who have close connections to Padre Martinez. B. M. Read’s younger brother, Larkin, married into the Martinez family. If you ask me for it, and I find it, I'll send you a copy of that biography. Benjamin M., with his brother Larkin, did most of the translation into English of the Santiago Valdez 1877 biography of Padre Martinez. I expect UNM Press in the near future will publish an updated version of that English. I have something to do with that.
Am sending copies of this note to Vicente Martinez who has a direct connection to Padre Martinez (and I believe to the Reads), and to Paul Espinosa who is producing a film documentary on Padre Martinez. I will also include it in the blog.
I wish to STRONGLY ENCOURAGE you to follow your intuitions on the connection between Benjamin Franklin (kite-key-lightning man who married his first love--by common law--DEBORAH Read) and Benjamin FRANKLIN Read, father of Benjamin MAURICE Read.
If you have not done so, for more than a mention of Deborah Read, check out
http://www.ushistory.org/franklin/info/index.htm
and more pertinently
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin#Deborah_Read
You will find some good leads there. The Mormon Church has many good resources and persons to help check out ancestral lines. Ask around, and you'll get help on this. Padre Martinez and Benjamin Franklin hand mamny things in common, and I am sure that Padre Martinez knew of and admired Benjamin Franklin for many reasons. Franklin died on April 17, 1790--twenty months before Padre Martinez was born.
Peace!
Fr. Juan Romero
Written by juanrvi Blog about this entry |
Add to del.icio.us | digg this
6/26/08 2:36 PM
in my opinion, it is an essential secondary source on 19th century/occupation-era new mexico, though plagued by occasional factual errors. his use of hispanic documents and informants gives a much more complete perspective on that dynamic time than the works of his contemparies.
almost all of the other classic secondary histories of new mexico were done by lawyers and politicians, most of whom love nm too, but seldom (in some cases, never) wrote any truth that might impeach the law suites that enriched them and tore the land from the people.