Autobiography - The Galindo Group

Ram Galindo THE MAKING OF AN AMERICAN Page 182
lives and, to the best of their ability, a sketch of their family’s tree, including their latest
descendants. My purpose was to obtain a long strand of information on each of them so
that a future researcher could find even more remote descendants. I wanted to give
their future generations, and mine, an inheritance of human connections the value of
which may be incalculable today. The response exceeded my expectations and I wound
up with biographical information on most of the people that I mention in this book.
I charged my own children to charge their own children and so on down the line with the
obligation to return to my house one hundred years later to retrieve this trove of
personal histories and look up the descendants of my friends. My hope is that this task
will be fun for them and may also result in valuable business contacts a century from
now. On December 29, 2000, we had the data gathering ceremony, deposited in a
weatherproof container to be buried in a concrete vault on the front grounds of La Casa
de Aranjuez, in Bryan, Texas.
I also wanted to communicate with my descendants and pass on to them what I
perceived to be of value in my family and the virtues on which I wanted to found the
Galindo stirpes in Texas. I think that the letter I wrote to them reflects what I consider
my contribution and my family’s contribution to America. The letter follows:
MESSAGE TO MY DESCENDANTS
FROM LA CASA DE ARANJUEZ, BRYAN TEXAS
DECEMBER 2000
I feel very fortunate to be in a position where there is a chance that
my efforts to communicate directly with you, though none of you yet
exist, may be successful. Events in life are uncertain, but life is very
certain. At some future time, more than 100 years from now, just as
surely I am here today, someone, hopefully one or more of my
intended recipients, will be, possibly also here, reading this message
to you all.
I don’t know how many, what sex, what name, or even what race you
will be. I know, however, that the directives in your genetic codes will
bear substantial resemblance to the directives that course through
my veins, and I hope that the best will prevail. They, in turn, came
from my own forebears, which are also yours, but more remote.
Thus, you are the current exponent of a long line of self-reliant,
courageous, honorable, compassionate, generous, loyal and
visionary people. You are all motivated by a strong desire to help
your children be better than you are, and the extent to which you see
this happening affects the underlying satisfaction which you feel in
your own lives.
Autobiography.doc 182 of 239