Autobiography - The Galindo Group

Ram Galindo THE MAKING OF AN AMERICAN Page 207
soldiers fought in this battle. By mid-afternoon the Spaniards had changed the
momentum of the day in their favor.
As they approached the iron chain perimeter of the Moors’ headquarters, a young
Hidalgo (hijo de algo) near Alfonso was leading a group of Christians in an all-out
attack. Legend says that he rallied his companions with a call that sounded like, “varrios
– have no fear of the Moors,“ and literally threw himself bodily over the chain fences
protecting the Caliph. He was following his King’s standard-bearer. From this heroic act
he became known as O’barrio, and later the family name became Obarrio. At the peak
of the battle, the kings themselves wielded sledgehammers and axes to break the
chains that tied together the human posts protecting the Moslem leader. At this time the
Andalusian Moors retreated and the battle turned into a rout. Miramamolin took flight
and the Christians won a great victory.
Alfonso VIII wrote a description of the battle to Pope Innocent III. To give an idea of its
magnitude he stated that his troops had remained in the area for two days to clean up
the battlefield and that all the firewood they needed to cook and stay warm had come
from enemy arrows and spears used in the conflict, and that an equal amount was still
left. He sent the pope the tent of the Caliph and many trophies won that day. Centuries
later they were exhibited at St. Peter’s Church in Rome. The amount of booty and riches
captured was so great that two thousand pack animals were not enough to carry it all.
Because both sides were under orders not to take any prisoners, it is said that more
than 150,000 Moors were killed that day, against only 28,000 Spaniards.
Francisco Jose de Barrio was a Spanish Hidalgo from near Burgos, Bishopric of
Oviedo, in the kingdom of Castile. His own roots speak of his family in northern Castile
areas near the Bay of Biscay as early as 896. After 1212 his house was granted a coat
of arms and other titles and privileges of nobility. Obviously, his descendants carefully
protected and cultivated these distinctions from generation to generation both in Spain
and across the Atlantic in Panama and Argentina, and later in Bolivia. Extant limited
edition publications and other literature draw the line of descent to my mother’s
maternal great grandfather, the young Captain Faustino Guzman Obarrio.
Very noteworthy to me is that it appears that my gene pool from both, my Dad and
Mom’s sides, is well supplied with individuals who fought for their homeland, their
property, their beliefs and their causes in almost every generation I have been able to
investigate. It is no wonder that my siblings and I inherited the same tendencies and the
keen appreciation of what good government must be. Transmuted over a millennium,
we found that our sense of what is the best social compact coincides with what America
offers today. No wonder that I determined to write this book to add my grain of sand to
help preserve it.
The preceding history and anecdotes will help the reader understand the price,
tragedies and triumphs that my ancestors endured to allow me the privilege of
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