A lifetime ago I had returned from attending a Midwestern university and had collected some old newspapers I had found strewn about in the basement of one of the old houses where I lodged as a student.
One was The first copy of The Woman's Journal, a collaboration of articles by women suffragettes Lucy Stone, Julia Ward Howe and H.R. Blackwell and daughter Alice Stone Blackwell, among others. That copy was published in 1870.
I had collected other old newspapers dating back to the 1800s that featured serial stories by the likes of Jules Verne and other notable authors.
I did not want to keep all these treasures to myself and contacted Yolanda Gonzalez, then curator of the John J. Hunter Room at Texas Southmost College.
Gonzalez quickly recognized the historical and research value of the newspapers and we struck a deal. She would copy, then laminate the Woman's Journal for me so I could pass on the laminated copy to my three girls, and she could keep the copy and the original newspapers with the serial novels by Verne and the other authors.
As far as I know, they are still in the Hunter Room collection.
Later, while doing research on Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada, the president of Mexico who succeeded Benito Juarez, I came across a book on the shelves of the then-Arnulfo Oliveira Library which had been published in Brownsville in the late 1800s.
Much later we learned that the book may have been a fictionalized account of his presidency by a local writer, but the fact that the historical book (fake as it may have been) was on the shelves, surprised me as much as it surprised Yolanda. She promptly placed it in the Hunter collection.
Years later, after Ms. Gonzalez had unfortunately passed away, I came upon a copy of Jose Luz Saenz' dairy of a World War I Mexican-American veteran. I found the book in a pile of tomes in an alley behind the house that had belonged to Ricardo Molina, a Chicano activist who was a surveyor and at one time also was the engineer for the City of Brownsville. His family probably got tired of having the boxes of his books mildewing in the garage and heaved them in the alley by the trash.
I thought might be of interest to local readers and researchers. This was the first time I had ever heard of a published diary of a Mexican-American veteran from that war. Just like before, I went to the Hunter room and met Javier Garcia, a UTB-TSC staffer who wrote about historical buildings and local history. I showed him the book and he was ecstatic. So we made a deal. He kept the original and I received a bound Photostat copy of it and he threw in a disc copy to sweeten the deal.
Just a few months later Javier told me that several students had already used the book to make research papers for their classes. It was written in Spanish.
Much later I learned through friends that a translation of the book had been made and that students limited in Spanish could now read the contents in English. But there is something unique in reading Spanish as it was written back then that a translation doesn't quite convey.
We have now been told that the Hunter Room Collection – the extensive archive of documents and maps detailing important events in South Texas history – may have a new home.
A story in the local newspaper says that the Brownsville Historical Association was granted guardianship of the collection by TSC.
It is planned that the collection would be included with other valuable archives at Market Square inside the future South Texas Center for Historical and Genealogical Research, including the Chamber of Commerce Archives, the Cameron County Land Deed Record and the A.A. Champion Collection.
The paper says that Patrick Gonzales, associate vice president for marketing and communications, said the University of Texas RGV is currently working with TSC to ensure that access to the collection will be available in the best way possible.
“It’s early enough that nothing has been decided, but discussions are underway between our university librarian, Paul Sharpe, and Mike Shannon, TSC vice president of Student Services,” Gonzales said.
As a promoter of making every available resource accessible to local students and history buffs, I hope that when that decision is reached it won't be one that will limit the access to that trove of data to the hours of operation of the BHA.
And I sincerely hope that TSC will insist that its students be allowed permanent access to the collection whether the BHA or the UTRGV want to or not.
Come to think of it, maybe naming some sort of room at the new digs after Yolanda might not be such a bad idea.
One was The first copy of The Woman's Journal, a collaboration of articles by women suffragettes Lucy Stone, Julia Ward Howe and H.R. Blackwell and daughter Alice Stone Blackwell, among others. That copy was published in 1870.
I had collected other old newspapers dating back to the 1800s that featured serial stories by the likes of Jules Verne and other notable authors.
I did not want to keep all these treasures to myself and contacted Yolanda Gonzalez, then curator of the John J. Hunter Room at Texas Southmost College.Gonzalez quickly recognized the historical and research value of the newspapers and we struck a deal. She would copy, then laminate the Woman's Journal for me so I could pass on the laminated copy to my three girls, and she could keep the copy and the original newspapers with the serial novels by Verne and the other authors.
As far as I know, they are still in the Hunter Room collection.
Later, while doing research on Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada, the president of Mexico who succeeded Benito Juarez, I came across a book on the shelves of the then-Arnulfo Oliveira Library which had been published in Brownsville in the late 1800s.
Much later we learned that the book may have been a fictionalized account of his presidency by a local writer, but the fact that the historical book (fake as it may have been) was on the shelves, surprised me as much as it surprised Yolanda. She promptly placed it in the Hunter collection.
Years later, after Ms. Gonzalez had unfortunately passed away, I came upon a copy of Jose Luz Saenz' dairy of a World War I Mexican-American veteran. I found the book in a pile of tomes in an alley behind the house that had belonged to Ricardo Molina, a Chicano activist who was a surveyor and at one time also was the engineer for the City of Brownsville. His family probably got tired of having the boxes of his books mildewing in the garage and heaved them in the alley by the trash.
I thought might be of interest to local readers and researchers. This was the first time I had ever heard of a published diary of a Mexican-American veteran from that war. Just like before, I went to the Hunter room and met Javier Garcia, a UTB-TSC staffer who wrote about historical buildings and local history. I showed him the book and he was ecstatic. So we made a deal. He kept the original and I received a bound Photostat copy of it and he threw in a disc copy to sweeten the deal.
Just a few months later Javier told me that several students had already used the book to make research papers for their classes. It was written in Spanish.
Much later I learned through friends that a translation of the book had been made and that students limited in Spanish could now read the contents in English. But there is something unique in reading Spanish as it was written back then that a translation doesn't quite convey.
We have now been told that the Hunter Room Collection – the extensive archive of documents and maps detailing important events in South Texas history – may have a new home.
A story in the local newspaper says that the Brownsville Historical Association was granted guardianship of the collection by TSC.
It is planned that the collection would be included with other valuable archives at Market Square inside the future South Texas Center for Historical and Genealogical Research, including the Chamber of Commerce Archives, the Cameron County Land Deed Record and the A.A. Champion Collection.
The paper says that Patrick Gonzales, associate vice president for marketing and communications, said the University of Texas RGV is currently working with TSC to ensure that access to the collection will be available in the best way possible.
“It’s early enough that nothing has been decided, but discussions are underway between our university librarian, Paul Sharpe, and Mike Shannon, TSC vice president of Student Services,” Gonzales said.
As a promoter of making every available resource accessible to local students and history buffs, I hope that when that decision is reached it won't be one that will limit the access to that trove of data to the hours of operation of the BHA.
And I sincerely hope that TSC will insist that its students be allowed permanent access to the collection whether the BHA or the UTRGV want to or not.
Come to think of it, maybe naming some sort of room at the new digs after Yolanda might not be such a bad idea.
11 comments:
Mr Montoya - there has been discussion about naming room after Mrs Gonzalez to house genealogical resources in Market Square Resource Center. :)
The Hunter Collectionn is special and we should protect and expand it. Yolanda helped me a great deal when I was doing research. The called it the "Rare Book Room" because it was rarely used without Yolanda's assistance. Now we have Eugene Fernandez....nowhere as capable as Yolanda. If this collection is moved to the Brownsville Hysterical Society....can it be protected? can it grow?
Yolanda Gonzalez was a unique treasure at TSC/UTB. Her many contributions to scholarship pertaining to Border history were unparalleled. RIP, Yolanda.
Lol, Rene Torres would throw a tantrum if it is not named after him.
He wants his name in some thing no matter what, maybe an alley in 14th street?
Excellent idea! That would be a great dedication to a woman that dedicated her life to the city/ college library as well as the community. I had the privilege of working with this amazing woman. People from all over the world would come to see her or call her advice.
Ruben Obell tiene chile de nino.
On second thought... after reading these comments, I protest all this talk of erasing John Hunter's name from the collection. It was he who donated much of his historical resources which made up the collection from the beginning. All this praise on Yolanda is not unfounded but what did she donate? She was just doing her pinche' job ese. The only reason y'all don't suggest we rename Brownsville "Cortinaville" is because you want to keep it Brown. I am only kidding so no need to get all riled up fucknuts
Bury the fuckin' past already! Nobody but Old Fuck Bloggers care about the fucking past! Shit, we're here today. Work for tomorrow, Juan! All History is gossip...
The Hunter collection has always been protected, even after the partnership came undone. It is still being used by the community, outside researchers, and by both the TSC/UTRGV students, staff, faculty. The loss is now for the Students of both institutions as that collection will be moved into market square. Instead of moving the collection to Market Square, BHA should've gone into an agreement with both TSC and UTRGV regarding collaboration between the three bodies in regards to these Special Collections and Archives and create a pool of information in the cloud, such as finding aids, book catalogs, etc., all three bodies would gain much valuable information.
Rene Torres es un pobre pendejo pretenciosos. Habrase visto a un pendejo mendingando apoyo para poder nombrar algo honrandolo a el mismo. Su legado es el otro, un poco mas pendejo de Arturo Rendon, el de la red en la cabeza. Dios los cria y ellos se juntan.
May 3, 2016 at 1:46pm, If and when you move anything to the B Hysterical Society then everything goes to pot?? Just my opinion!
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