Ceniceros is a name in our family that is virtually interchangeable with Lucifer himself. El diablo.
My mother turned 88 last week, on July 10. She's bedridden. She's always had flat feet, and has diabetic neuropathy, so her tiny feet can't support her weight anymore. And she has alzheimer's, so her memory is very weak.
But when she hears that name her green eyes still glow red with fire.
Ceniceros was the man who killed her father, my grandfather in 1923 in Jimenez, Chihuahua.
He was the principal of the school in Hidalgo del Parral, Chihuahua at the time.
And a member of the brand new PRI Party. Perhaps, the first PRI candidate to be assasinated.
Grandpa Nicolas found Pancho VIlla's buried treasure, so the story goes. And Ceniceros killed him for it.
I don't have all the facts right. But family tradition says Ceniceros was released following a general amnesty that freed all prisoners following the revolution.
Naturally, the revolutionary period in Chihuahua is of interest to my family. I've tried to find sources without much luck.
I cannot corroborate whether General Trinidad Rodriguez was actually my mother's uncle as she has always told me. She took me to his mounted statue when she showed me Chihuahua as a boy, and told me that was her uncle.
As I've mentioned before, there are TWO Generals Trindidad Rodriguez in this period, and area.
General Trinidad Rodriguez Quintanilla is defnitely NOT my relation. The other Trini Rodriguez is the one we believe is part of our familia. But I can find no direct evidence:(
I would like to piece the puzzle together for my madrecita querida before she dies. Tie the Rodriguez family together at last.
Mama lost her father when she was only five years old. Yet she remembers him as if she saw him yesterday. Nothing has been able to erase that memory from her mind, or that love in her heart.
I recently heard from a cousin that family friends came to my uncle Guerro about forty years ago. My mother's older brother by 11 months. They told him Ceniceros was in town, there in Chihuahua, Chihuahua. They gave my uncle a loaded gun and told him they would go with him to kill him.
But my uncle uncharacteristically said his first responsibility now was his own children, not avenging his father.
Hola Nathan:
I read with great interest your mention of General Trinidad Rodriguez. I,
too, am a student of the Mexican Revolution and especially General Francisco
Villa and the Division Del Norte. When I read your message, I immediately
consulted the index of The Life & Times of Pancho Villa by Friedrich Katz.
There is indeed a reference to one General Trinidad Rodriguez, but no
listing of his maternal surname in the index. The narrative this 800 plus
page tome lists your possible ancestor four times. He was associated with
Villa from his bandit days before the Revolution. Villa considered him one
of his favorite generals -- as evidence, he adopted Trinidad's son Samuel
after the general was killed late in the Revolution. There is mention in
the book of Manuel Chao and Trinidad Rodriguez's troops being defeated by
General Pascual Orozco at the battle of Santa Rosalia in 1913. Trinidad
Rodriguez was the uncle of Rogelio Rodriguez Saenz whose father owned the
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Thank you so much. You are a gentleman, and a scholar.
But that's not my General Trinidad.
Trinidad Rodriguez Quintanilla had a son named Samuel, and was Villa's closest personal friend.
My Trini should be Trinidad Rodriguez Montoya, but I might be off on the second last name.
Hey. You had a fifty percent chance of being right! And I do appreciate the effort.
Quintanilla was moreno. My general was guerro and looked just like my mother's established uncles, and grandfather. My mother even looks like him. We all have super high cheekbones, and a long oval-shaped face.
There's even a town named Gral. Trinidad Rodriguez. But which general???
---- Jose Aguayo wrote:
> Hola Nathan:
> I read with great interest your mention of General Trinidad Rodriguez. I,
> too, am a student of the Mexican Revolution and especially General Francisco
> Villa and the Division Del Norte. When I read your message, I immediately
> consulted the index of The Life & Times of Pancho Villa by
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Ceniceros