My sister, Maggie, and I at the 5th Annual Blue & Gray Cotillion, Yorba Linda

Photograph by Gar Travis.

The annual Blue & Gray Summer Cotillion is presented by 2nd U.S. Cavalry, Co. I. Dance Master is Tom Atkins, of the the 8th Louisiana. This year it was held at the Yorba Linda Country Club, Yorba Linda, California, on the 25th of July, 2009.

After the processional, Maggie and I danced a quadrille with the distinguished President Jefferson and Mrs. Davis and other charming couples.

The sit down dinner was quite good, too.

Ranchero Hat and Spurs

On October 10, this year, we'll be attending an historical reenactment at the Dominguez Adobe Museum, in Carson, CA. The reenactment will include a re-staging of the Battle of the Old Woman's Gun of the Mexican-American War as well as a fandango with music, dancing, and a fiesta atmosphere.

I'm working on a historical garb outfit that will present a ranchero from the 1840s. These photos show my Spanish hat and authentic-styled spurs. While many cowboys sported silver-etched spurs, mine are more traditional in the fashion that might have been made by a blacksmith in one of the old small towns or on the rancho itself back in the day. The large Spanish rowl (the wheel) on the spur, for example, is exactly like those of the early Spanish/Mexican soldados, patterned after those worn by the even earlier conquistadores.

bievenudos a mi casa

Hola!

No, this blog won't be in Spanish, but I'm reflecting my Californio roots. Californios are those of us whose roots in The Golden State go back before the great gold rush of 1849 and before the Treaty that ceded California to the United States following the Mexican-American War. My ancestors were here since 1769 when the first missions and presidios were founded. My direct ancestor, Efigenio Ruiz, for example, escorted the pobladoros who founded both Los Angeles and Santa Barbara. Another direct ancestor, Jose Antonio Yorba, came with the Gaspar Portola and Father Junipero Serra Expedition of 1769. When I had my mitochondrial DNA tested a little while back, the analysis informed me that I was also part Native American, so you might say my roots in California go back many thousands of years.

One of the things I do is attend historical reenactment and Living History events. These span from the Renaissance to World War II, and include the American Civil War, the Victorian period, and, of course, the Spanish and later Mexican periods of California history. Whenever possible I make my own historical garb to wear to these events. This photo shows myself, my sister, Maggie, her son, Thomas, and his friend Nomy, at a recent Civil War reenactment in Huntington Beach, California.