VELA FINDS LONG LOST ANCESTOR IN MATA CHURCH VAULT

By Juan Montoya
U.S. Representative Filemon Vela Jr. remembers that as a young boy his father – the late Filemon Vela, an attorney and then a federal judge – took him to visit the crypt containing the remains of his grandfather's brother, Rogelio Sanchez Magallanes.

For many years, Vela tried to remember where the crypt of his ancestor was kept. Then, just this week, he finally found him. It wasn't at the main Nuestra Seña del Refugio, the Catholic Diocese Main Cathedral, where this year he began his effort to locate him. Instead, it was at another cathedral, the memory of which the many years that had passed had dimmed in his mind.

Matamoros has a long history that is inextricably liked to the Catholic Church. The first diocese had its seat in Cuidad Victoria. The the first bishop of Tamaulipas was Mons. Ignacio Montes de Oca appointed in 1870 and had been the personal chaplain to Emperor Maximilian. It wasn't until
1958 that the state was divided into two dioceses, Matamoros and Tampico. Steeped in history, the main cathedral has several written accounts – like newspapers, burials, marriages, confirmations, and government documents – of the Texas revolution.

"I've been on a three month quest, and finally found what I was looking for," Vela said.
"When I was a kid my parents would take us into Matamoros during the weekends and we would visit the crypt below in which lies my grandfather’s brother."

Vela's mother (the late Blanca Vela, the former mayor of Brownsville) was born in Harlingen but she was sent to elementary school in Matamoros, he recalled.
"Her uncle was the monsignor at the cathedral but must have had something to do with the school as well. I have great memories of visiting Matamoros as we were growing up."

"So I got curious," he said. "First, we checked the cathedral but there was no sign of him. I figured they had moved him. We checked other sources at the diocese of Matamoros and we still couldn’t find him. My parents had said that the crypt was in a basement."

Finally, after three months of searching, he got a vital clue.

"We got a tip that he was at Sagrado Corazon, and my deputy chief of staff sent her mother over this morning and we found him," he said Friday.
There, among other long gone personages that walked on this same land and lived on the US-Mexico border, was his long lost ancestor.

"I was happy to find out that after all those years he was still in his original sacred place," said Vela.

For the curious, or for those who want to pay respects to their own relatives who might be in the church's vault, it should be noted that access to the Sagrado Corazon basement is only open Tuesday through Sunday, not on Mondays.