Autobiography - The Galindo Group

Ram Galindo THE MAKING OF AN AMERICAN Page 201
Gonzalo’s place as regent of Sobrarbe-Ribagorza. With two kingdoms thus consolidated
and after failing to overtake Garcia’s Navarre (his brother’s) in the west, and being
stopped in the south and southwest by his brother Ferdinand of Castile helped by his
Moorish allies, Ramiro sought to expand into the Mediterranean Sea by trade and naval
power. However, he did not escape land conflict with the Moors or other Christians, thus
preparing the grounds for the beginning of the Reconquista.
It was amazing for me to discover that four generations after Endregoto Galindo, her
great-grandson, Ramiro I, King of Aragon (1015-1064), my namesake, was the first
sovereign after the Muslim invasion of Spain to aggregate enough power to claim and
retain the title of King of Aragon, independent from Navarre-Pamplona, and to found it
officially in 1048 with its capital at Jaca. Despite opposition from his royal brothers and
because of his support of the Cluniac monastery in his area, the Holy See decided that
it was convenient to confirm Ramiro I as the first King of Aragon and did so.
Where did this area get its name? According to legend, Hercules, leading a Greek
expedition, crossed the Mediterranean at its mouth giving his name to the rock pillars
that we now call Gibraltar. After marching through most of the Iberian Peninsula, one
day he camped on the banks of a river on the southern slopes of the Pyrenees. This
land was already occupied by older tribes of Iberians and Celts, whom he knew as
Celtiberians. Hercules and his army had conquered most of what is now Spain and
allegedly built the traces of Greek civilization still found today. He chose the banks of
this river to camp and celebrate his great triumphs. There he set up altars to sacrifice to
his gods. In Greek these altars were known as Aras. Because they were played almost
to the death, the games of celebration that followed were known as agons. The river
became known as Aragon and future references to the whole region adopted the same
name. This is the legendary origin of the name for the country where my namesake
Ramiro I became the first king.
Under his reign the kingdom began a three centuries long period of growth until it
became a Mediterranean power extending to the Balearic Islands, Sardinia, Corsica and
Sicily. Four and half centuries later, it became Europe’s superpower after its fusion with
its cousin from Castile and subsequent combination with the Netherlands’ Hapsburgs.
Now that, sadly, neither of my parents is around to answer my questions, I wonder if
they knew this story when they chose my name. I certainly did not know the rest of this
story when I chose Cid for the name of my son.
The Galindo gene worked itself into the House of Aragon through the descendents of
Ramiro I and into the house of Castile through the descendents of Ferdinand I. Just as I
mentioned that King Sancho III “The Great” of Navarre was a double great-grandson of
Galindo II Aznarez, an examination of the ancestor circles and genealogical charts of
the kings of Castile and Aragon show several infusions of the gene in the genomes of
the famous Queen Isabella of Castile and King Ferdinand the Catholic of Aragon.
Clearly neither of those two historic figures ever made their way across the ocean to
Autobiography.doc 201 of 239