Autobiography - The Galindo Group

Recommendations

Info

Ram Galindo THE MAKING OF AN AMERICAN Page 204 king, forcing him into exile. Dispossessed of land and demoted, El Cid still had great numbers of adherents and many vassals himself, and when he departed the town of Burgos, a very powerful army left with him. However, he always remained loyal to Alfonso and never confronted him directly, despite the fact that the king thrice punished him. To avoid conflict with Alfonso, who wanted to focus on the west and south, El Cid returned to the eastern territories of Aragon and Barcelona, where his talents and army might be of some use to either Spanish or Moorish kings. In 1081, El Cid arrived at Barcelona, which was by then the power center of the recently united counties of Cerdagne, Urgel, and all the Catalan lands to the north, in the French Pyrenees. The recently deceased Count of Barcelona had just divided his possessions between his twin sons, neither of whom thought enough of El Cid’s offer to take him seriously. Rebuffed, El Cid entered in the service of his old friend the Moorish King of Zaragoza, whom he had helped against Ramiro I’s attack some seventeen years before. However, shortly after El Cid arrived, Moctadir died. Through his will, he also split his kingdom between his two sons. Unfortunately, they soon went to war against each other. The oldest son, Mutamir, had received Zaragoza and retained his relationship with El Cid. The younger son entered in an alliance with other Christian princes from Spain and even France, but El Cid promptly defeated the alliance. The Moors were so impressed by him that they gave him the Arabic name Sidi (Lord), by which history has known him ever since. One of the prisoners El Cid took during these battles was Berenguer Ramon, Count of Barcelona, later to be in his in-law family. Until 1092 El Cid’s army was the determinant factor in the balance of power in northeastern Spain. He won every battle in which he was engaged, sometimes against impossible odds, but not once went against Alfonso, his sworn sovereign, or attempted to retain his possessions after he had conquered them. His theater of operations was the eastern region of northern Spain. His strategy was not to allow any western kingdom, Christian or Moslem, to interfere with the affairs of this region. To accomplish this he made alliances with both Moors and Christians, and he even helped create a chasm of differences between the Spanish Moors, known as Moriscos, and the new Almoravid (Berber) invaders. As a result of the need to form stronger fronts to fight the new threat, his most permanent allies among the Christian kings became first the son and later the grandson of Ramiro I, against whom he would have waged his first battle had the king not been assassinated just before it was to take place. Among the Moslem kings his outstanding ally was Mostain, king of Zaragoza, and grandson of the first direct beneficiary of his military talents, Moctamir, Ferdinand I’s ally. Through more than thirty years of free-booting military life, El Cid managed to remain loyal to the king who three times rejected him while at the same time maintain a key strategic alliance with the kings of Aragon, the enemies of his Castilian sovereign. He was the only Christian commander able to defeat the fearsome, almost invincible Berbers, and the only one to develop a strategy of warfare. He died July 1099 at age 56 Autobiography.doc 204 of 239
Ram Galindo THE MAKING OF AN AMERICAN Page 205 in Valencia. His widow Ximane reigned there for another three years but was not able to keep the town even though Alfonso VI came to her rescue. The Spanish noblemen’s attention was by now directed to the Holy Land Crusades and not enough resources were left available to hold the town. Thus, Valencia was totally evacuated, including the Cid’s remains, and burned down by the departing Christians in May 1102, exactly 900 years ago as I write this book. El Cid’s son, Diego Rodriguez Vivar, was killed in 1097 when he headed a relief force to help Alfonso VI defend Toledo. El Cid’s youngest daughter, Maria Vivar, married the nephew of Berenguer Ramon, whom her father had defeated and taken prisoner twice. Her descendents went into French nobility. His oldest daughter, Christina Ximane Vivar, married Ramiro, the Prince of Navarre, who was a direct descendant of the Galindo line. Their son, now carrying also El Cid’s genes, became Garcia V King of Navarre in 1134. In him the Galindo and El Cid’s genes came together. Christina Ximane died soon after giving birth to her son. Garcia V became the grandfather of Sancho VII “The Strong” King of Navarre about whom we will hear more soon. Garcia’s V daughter, Blanche of Navarre, was the mother of King Alfonso VIII of Castile, the great hero of the Reconquista. Thus El Cid’s genes entered the pool for my family’s background through two royal houses, closing the real life ring between my name and my own son’s name. I wonder if my parents knew! If the root chain of my own family name from the Pyrenees to Cochabamba, to my knowledge, has a gaping hole within, another family gene is connected through a mostly un-interrupted chain all the way from the 13 th Century to me. Most historians would agree that the turning point of the Reconquista was the battle of Las Naves de Tolosa in mid-July 1212. It was the beginning of the end of the Moorish occupation of Spain. At this battle my predecessors carrying the Galindo gene came in contact with another gene in my lineage, this time from my mother’s side, the Obarrio bloodline. In her memoirs my mother wrote about the parents of her own mother, Rosa Guzman Terrazas Obarrio, who was orphaned at an early age. Her maternal aunt, who was married to Bolivia’s President Mariano Baptista, raised her. Given that she spent most of her formative years in his household, Mr. Baptista became her de-facto stepfather. My mother’s maternal great grandfather was a young Bolivian army captain. While on duty in the frontier post of Puerto Suarez on the eastern border with Brazil, he died at age 28 from a horseback accident. His name was Faustino Guzman Obarrio. His mother was Biviana Obarrio de Vergara y de Villate, in turn granddaughter of the Spanish Marquis de Vergara y Vellate, whose lineage connects with the battle of Las Naves de Tolosa. The amazing fact for me to discover is how this bloodline acquired Spanish nobility and how it connected with one of my paternal lines. I must pick up the Reconquista thread line about 110 years after the burning of Valencia. Now Alfonso VIII was King of Castile, Pedro II King of Aragon, and Sancho VII “The Strong” King of Navarre. Sancho VII’s brother-in-law was Richard “The Lion Autobiography.doc 205 of 239
Page 1 and 2:
Ram Galindo THE MAKING OF AN AMERIC
Page 3 and 4:
Page 5 and 6:
Page 7 and 8:
Page 9 and 10:
Page 11 and 12:
Page 13 and 14:
Page 15 and 16:
Page 17 and 18:
Page 19 and 20:
Page 21 and 22:
Page 23 and 24:
Page 25 and 26:
Page 27 and 28:
Page 29 and 30:
Page 31 and 32:
Page 33 and 34:
Page 35 and 36:
Page 37 and 38:
Page 39 and 40:
Page 41 and 42:
Page 43 and 44:
Page 45 and 46:
Page 47 and 48:
Page 49 and 50:
Page 51 and 52:
Page 53 and 54:
Page 55 and 56:
Page 57 and 58:
Page 59 and 60:
Page 61 and 62:
Page 63 and 64:
Page 65 and 66:
Page 67 and 68:
Page 69 and 70:
Page 71 and 72:
Page 73 and 74:
Page 75 and 76:
Page 77 and 78:
Page 79 and 80:
Page 81 and 82:
Page 83 and 84:
Page 85 and 86:
Page 87 and 88:
Page 89 and 90:
Page 91 and 92:
Page 93 and 94:
Page 95 and 96:
Page 97 and 98:
Page 99 and 100:
Page 101 and 102:
Page 103 and 104:
Page 105 and 106:
Page 107 and 108:
Page 109 and 110:
Page 111 and 112:
Page 113 and 114:
Page 115 and 116:
Page 117 and 118:
Page 119 and 120:
Page 121 and 122:
Page 123 and 124:
Page 125 and 126:
Page 127 and 128:
Page 129 and 130:
Page 131 and 132:
Page 133 and 134:
Page 135 and 136:
Page 137 and 138:
Page 139 and 140:
Page 141 and 142:
Page 143 and 144:
Page 145 and 146:
Page 147 and 148:
Page 149 and 150:
Page 151 and 152:
Page 153 and 154: Ram Galindo THE MAKING OF AN AMERIC
Page 203: Ram Galindo THE MAKING OF AN AMERIC
Page 241 and 242: Bernard Bailyn, THE IDEOLOGICAL ORI
Page 243 and 244: George Fuermann, HOUSTON LAND OF TH
Page 245: Council for Natural Cooperation in
show all

Autobiography - The Galindo Group

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?