THANKSGIVING FOR THE MONTOYA CLAN A MOST AMERICAN HOLIDAY

By Juan Montoya 

Each year, the various branches of my family gather at my sister's house in Bastrop for Thanksgiving.

Family comes from all over Texas including us from the Rio Grande Valley and the border, from the Dallas area, Austin, Houston, Corpus Christi, and smaller towns and cities. Others come from as far away as Michigan in the Great Lakes, South Dakota, and from Ontario, Canada.

We gather in Bastrop because it is centrally located and because my sister Maria is retired and initiated this family tradition more than two decades ago. At one time she lived in the country, but the Bastrop Complex fire, which was the most destructive wildfire in state history, ignited a 32,000-acre inferno on Sept. 4, 2011, and burned for 55 days. Her home was one of the many destroyed and she moved into the City of Bastrop.

Since then, we've gathered in her new home in Bastrop's historical district.

Over this Thanksgiving I was talking to a friend from Brownsville on the phone and he told me that he considered Thanksgiving the most American of holidays and - upon some reflection - I found myself agreeing. While some holidays celebrate our religious (Easter, Christmas) beliefs, others  more personal, if not whimsical, occasions (Valentine's Day, Halloween), or of a political nature (Presidents' Day, Cesar Chavez, Martin Luther King), Thanksgiving celebrates a thankful nation with families and friends gathering to give thanks to their own version of a Creator and embracing family unity.

Bastrop was founded by Stephen F. Austin and named after his friend Baron de Bastrop who obtained had permission to found a German colony earlier, in 1823, but failed. Austin founded a colony there in 1827 and the city was incorporated under the laws of the new Texas republic in 1837.

A city that started off as a German colony, founded upon Spanish and Mexican rule, and colonized by Texans has become a gathering site for us, an amalgam of cultures and languages that is uniquely American.

Take for example, some of the components of our clan. My late father was born in Austwell, Texas in 1927, and married my mother in Coahuila after his parents (my paternal grandparents) took the family to the La Laguna area to escape the crushing poverty of the Great Depression. He married my mother whose family hailed from Veracruz, Mexico, and they later moved to El Mante, Tamaulipas after the cotton harvests dwindled in Coahuila.

Returning to Texas, they settled in Brownsville and raised our family there. Those were the roots of our clan, which has since expanded to include people from all over the world. I married a Native

American from Michigan's Saginaw-Chippewa (Ojibway) Tribe, some of my sisters married husbands from Texas, South Carolina, Louisiana,  Ohio, and other states. That was our first generation.

The second wave, my nieces and nephews, were even more eclectic. One, Bobby, the son of my older sister Lydia, met his future wife Juli while serving in the Marines stationed in London as an embassy guard. He served in the Mogadishu, Somalia debacle (Black Hawk Down) and they tied the knot when he returned. She was from Scotland. His brother, Richard, met his future bride while he was in the U.S. Navy. She is an Afrikaner from South Africa.

(Ricky, as we call him, and his Afrikaner (now a U.S. citizen) mate Brenda raise abused foster kids of diverse races and  cultures and bring them along each November. These kids, black and white, join us for Thanksgiving each year.)

My offspring from my marriage to Faith, the Native American from Michigan, in turn married other natives, including the oldest daughter who married Nathan, a Chippewa from Ontario, Canada. My middle daughter Maia was with a Lakota Sioux from South Dakota. Iliana and my granddaughter Evelyn, from the Isabella Reservation in Mt. Pleasant, Mich. also drive down. They and their offspring make the journey to Bastrop each November to reaffirm the family bonds and acquaint their offspring with the offspring of their relations. 

My second mate, Mirna - since deceased - was a Salvadoran from whom Jose Enrique (Kike), Miguel Angel, and Marisol, the youngest, were born. Enrique now teaches in the McAllen ISD schools. He, in turn, has been a strong supporter of the student exchange program which has brought young people from France, Germany, and Thailand to our yearly gathering.

When we get there on the Wednesday before, they are treated to  pan dulce (empanadas and marranitos from la panaderia El Camino from Brownsville are the favorites), and sometimes pupusas along with other snacks. This year the supper treat was a pasta and shrimp plate with a salad by health-conscious Kike, my son.

On Thursday morning, it is menudo brought by my mother from Brownsville for the early risers. Traditional  turkey dinner and pumpkin and pecan pie is our Thanksgiving dinner. When we part ways on Friday, my mother's tamales fuel our departure.

When the clan gets together, there are people from North America, Europe, South Africa, Scotland, and Central America together with Native Americans and Mexicans celebrating the most American of holidays. And when we pray before our Thanksgiving meal, the "Americaness" of the gathering that provides the glue to our gathering becomes evident.

As we - some 50 or so of us form a circle holding hands - my mother, now a matriarch of 94, recites a prayer in Spanish. That is followed by Jim Womack, a bother-in-law and missionary, saying his in English. My Native American daughter Melissa's husband Nathan, the Chippewa from Ontario, follows in his native Ojibway. We pray for the living and those gone and the future awaiting this generation.

Depending on which country the exchange student is from, we may hear a prayer in German, French, or, last year, in Thai, from the exchange student. Barking pets provide a happy backdrop to the "amens" at the end of the prayers.

Then come the thee-mile run or walk, the pinatas,  and the sing-along mainly of Beatles oldies and 70s pop songs. We're aging gracefully, we hope.

That this diverse family is gathering to celebrate Thanksgiving in a Texan German colony in originally Mexican territory settled almost 200 years ago made up of cultures speaking languages from around the world in peace and harmony to thank their Creator for the bounty and family that He (or She)  has seen fit to bestow on us is uniquely American. It unites families and nations.

Given the state of the world and its divisiveness in politics and war, it's a unique American holiday worth celebrating.

From all of us, to all of you, have a Happy Thanksgiving.