As I mentioned Friday 5th in my post about Casildo Gloria, one of the main subjects of my study is Timoteo Gloria, along with three other Corpus Christi residents of the 1840-1930 period: Cecilio Balerio, Gabriel Botello, and Tito Rodriguez. These four individuals represent lives that cross lines in the development of an ethnic identity that affirms full participation in United States citizenship and retains pride in a Hispanic heritage. GLORIA’S EARLY LIFE. Timoteo F. Gloria was born in Mexico in August, 1851, according to the 1900 U.S. Census. His age was given in censuses as 27 in 1880, 48 in 1900, 56 in 1910, and 65 in 1920. He gave his place of birth as “Del Real de Calesto, Mex” on his June 1907 application to join the Caballeros de Honor lodge in Corpus Christi. Gloria is reported to have come to the United States either in 1860 (1910) or 1859 (1920 census). His immigration year was given as 1886 in 1900 but that conflicts with times he was known to live and work in Texas. More on that another time... Three households of Gloria families were recorded by surname and first name initial in Brownsville in 1860, apparently in side by side houses. The heads of the Gloria families were all born in Mexico and worked as carpenters. No Gloria boy named as Timoteo or with first name initial T or F, or age 7, 8 or 9 was listed. Four children and teens among the families were born in Texas. Two families of Glorias were enumerated in Brownsville in 1870, none of them an obvious match for any of the 1860 Glorias, and no Timoteo. But a Timoteo Gloria appears as fourth in a list of Glorias on an 1874 Cameron County tax assessment roll. It assesses him as owning 50 dollars worth of “other” taxable personal property, for a total of 63 cents levied in state and county property taxes, and one dollar each for state and county poll taxes. The poll tax ca. 1874 was strictly a head tax. It was not necessary for voting, did not grant a right to vote and did not imply citizenship. Texas did not enact the poll tax as a voter suppression measure until 1902. (By 1880, Gloria played the violin and made his living as a musician. Could the $50 taxable personal property have been his violin?) I’ll go into Gloria’s career as a professional musician in another post. Meanwhile: I could use HELP! He gave his place of birth as “Del Real de Calesto, Mex.” Where would that have been in 1851? GoogleEarth satellite view shows Del Real as a neighborhood in present-day northwestern metropolitan Monterrey, and Calisto similarly as a neighborhood in NE Monterrey. But where would have been a “Del Real de Calesto” in 1851?
Posted on: Sun, 07 Dec 2014 03:09:55 +0000
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