Tucson's 11th el Día de San Juan Fiesta is Tuesday, June 24th. Watch Jim Griffith's Arizona Illustrated segment explaining this southern Arizona tradition [MPEG4] of celebrating the beginning of the "season of monsoon rains."
Tucson's 11th el Día de San Juan (St. John's) Fiesta. All of our Tucson community is invited to attend this event:
Date: Tuesday, June 24
Time:5 pm until 10 pm
Location: West Congress St. at the Santa Cruz River (south side, west bank).
About 120 people attended Friday evening's (January 25, 2008) The Legacy of Gold Mountain: Chinese Immigrant Families in Southern Arizona. Organized by Pima Community College as the first of its new Discovering Southern Arizona series, it was held at the beautiful Tucson Chinese Cultural Center. It featured presentations by David Tang, Yen "Gary" Low, and Pasty Lee. Peter Chan introduced the speakers and lead the Q&A session following the three presentations. Chan is on the Board of Directors of the Tucson Chinese Association.
Speakers
David Tang, Jr., gave the first presentation. Mr. Tang is a third generation Chinese American a second generation Tucsonan. Biographies of Mr. Tang's mother Esther Don Tang, father Ong Bing Lok (David W. Tang, Sr.), and grandparents Don Wah and Fok Yut Ngan, are featured in Through Our Parents' Eyes The Promise of Gold Mountain website. We will always be grateful to Esther Don Tang, without whose contributions this site would not exist.
Last week's featured site(s) drew attention to Día de los Muertos, The Day of the Dead, which occurred on November 1 (All Saints' Day) and November 2nd's All Souls' Day. I highlighted a Jim Griffith video about observing Día de los Muertos in Oquitoa, Mexico. Real | MP4 There was also linke to "Learn about Día de los Muertos" by reading its Wikipedia article.
One of my LTC colleagues posted a message to our webboard (a web-based bulletin board where we post announcements) with a link to a YouTube video: "Tucson Day of the Dead 2007," submitted by David Gilmore and showing a couple minutes clip of the All Souls Procession in downtown Tucson.
On Sunday, July 29th, Easy Company held its 57th Anniversary Reunion/Fundraiser, commemorating the men of E Company's call to active duty for the Korean War. Easy Company continues to honor its fallen members and do good work in the community.
Our website, E Company Marines Remembered, contains an impressive collection of oral histories and photos. Through Our Parents' Eyes has received a number of heart felt emails from former Marines (if one can ever be a former Marine) from around the country and websites that cover U.S. military history.
The call to duty for the Korean War is now 57 years ago and, sadly, many members of Easy Company have passed away. Last Sunday, Arizona Daily Star opinion columnist Ernesto Portillo, Jr., wrote of Master Gunnery Sgt. Efren E. Moreno's passing. This column followed one that Ernesto wrote that appeared last Wednesday. Read Ernesto Portillo, Jr.'s, columns about Easy Company. "E Company Members Keep Spirit Marching On," published: 08.01.2007, and "Marine Vet Held Tue to Company's Values," published: 08.05.2007.
Saturday, May 5th is Cinco de Mayo.
 | Among Big Jim Griffith's Southern Arizona Traditions segments is one about Cinco de Mayo. It is 3:52 long and plays in RealPlayer. |
Want to learn more about Cinco de Mayo? Here are some links to help.
Back in the late 1990s, we had the opportunity to participate in the Pascua Yaqui Connection, a cooperative project between the Pascua Yaqui Tribe of Arizona, Pima Community College, and the University of Arizona. The project's duration was several years and was funded by a U. S. Department of Commerce TOP grant award.
At that time the Yaqui's did not have their own website and our role was to work with tribal representatives to develop the Pascua Yaqui Connection website. We populated this website with content about the people, ceremonial life, publications & resources, and audio/video.
Dr. Joseph Wilder, director of the University of Arizona Southwest Studies Center provided us with two truly outstanding artifacts. One was a collection of photographs of Old Pascua from the late 1930s and the second was video shot circa 1941 at Old Pascua Village. It was narrated by anthropologist Edward H. Spicer and shot by Tad Nichols. Much of the video captured the sacred Yaqui Easter procession and not made publically accessible. Other sections were digitized with permission of the Tribe, and can be viewed from links on the A/V page.
Another part of the project involved digitizing a short work by Muriel Thayer Painter called A Yaqui Easter. The Tribal reps to the project suggested it would make a good reference work for non-Yaquis. The UA Press continues to publish the work and makes the digital version available through its website.
Tucson's La Fiesta de Los Vaqueros runs Feb. 17-25, with the Rodeo Parade on Thursday, Feb. 22nd.
Roy Drachman, Sr., During a Rodeo Parade from Just Memories
Celebrate La Fiesta de Los Vaqueros by visiting Cowboy Songs and Singers, It's Rodeo Time in Old Tucson sheet music, and Southern Arizona Folk Arts' Cowboy and Western Folk Art section
Congratulations and be prosperous!
Image courtesy Esther Tang
Chinese New Year celebration beings on Feb. 18th. Watch The Tapestry of Tucson: The Chinese American Heritage, a 45 minute video produced for a Tuscon community history project. It is available on the Promise of Gold Mountain website.
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If you live in Tucson, or did any amount of time, you have likely seen
Dr. James S. "Big Jim" Griffith's By the Side of the Road segments on KUAT's Arizona Illustrated . Normally shown in the last five minutes of Arizona Illustrated's Monday program, Big Jim explains a Southern Arizona tradition.
For holidays, we invite you to watch Big Jim tell us about a Southern Arizona holiday tradition -- La Posadas. [Real video 3:17]
Pearl Harbor Memorial
[image courtesy Stuart Glogoff]
December 7th is Pearl Harbor Day. The University of Arizona is honored to have one of the ship's bells in the Student Union. In addition, pictures and artifacts of the USS Arizona are displayed in the Student Union's USS Arizona Memorial Lounge. The UA Library's Special Collections houses many artifacts donated by USS Arizona survivors and their families. Remember Pearl Harbor by visiting the UA Library's USS Arizona -- "that terrible day"
