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Don Pedro Jaramillo, more widely known as Don Pedrito, was a community leader and curandero, or folk healer, around the turn of the 20th century. From 1881 until his death on July 3, 1907, he lived in a modest adobe hut near the banks of Los Olmos Creek in Brooks County, where he prescribed equal doses of Catholic faith and homespun remedies to heal the sick. Thousands of pilgrims flocked to him by foot or wagon from throughout the Texas-Mexico borderlands.

Curanderos remain active in communities throughout Latin America. Unlike some curanderos, Jaramillo never charged for his services and often gave away the remedies he prescribed. He accepted donations of money and food but was revered for redistributing nearly all of it. Jaramillo’s prescriptions, or recetas, often incorporated herbs, vegetables, and simple measures like drinking water and taking baths. Many people with deep roots in South Texas still remember the stories their elders used to tell about the effectiveness of his treatments.

Born in 1829 near Guadalajara in the Mexican state of Jalisco, Jaramillo was a poor shepherd who, when riding a horse one day, crashed into a tree branch. The blow knocked him unconscious and broke his nose, tearing his flesh down to the bone. He felt an irresistible urge to go to a nearby lagoon and soak his face in the mud. The mud brought immediate relief. After lying at the lagoon for three days, Jaramillo heard a voice telling him that, from then on, he would cure in God’s name.

In 1894, a healing trip to San Antonio put Jaramillo on a collision course with professional physicians. They saw him as a dangerous competitor for patients. The esteemed South Texas attorney and politician José Tomás Canales—who later became the only Hispanic member of the state House of Representatives at the time—successfully argued for the case’s dismissal. He noted that Don Pedrito “never charged a single cent for his cures.” One of those cures had even healed Canales’ own mother of a grave illness when a professional doctor had failed, he said.

Today, the shrine to Jaramillo stands on his patch of land. It’s open to the public every day.

José Antonio Navarro was a leading Mexican participant in the Texas Revolution. Navarro’s early education was rudimentary, but he later read law in San Antonio and was licensed to practice. A developing friendship with Stephen F. Austin served to deepen his interest in Texas colonization. Before Texas independence Navarro supported Texas statehood in 1835 and embraced the idea of independence the following year.

Along with his uncle, José Francisco Ruiz, and Lorenzo de Zavala, he became one of the three Mexican signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence and one of just two native-born Tejano signers. Upon his election to the Texas Congress as a representative from Bexar, Navarro sought to advance the rights of Tejanos, whom many Anglo-Texans held in contempt after the Texas Revolution. Navarro was selected as a commissioner to accompany the foolishly conceived Santa Fe expedition. Decimated by Indian attacks and suffering from hunger and thirst, those who survived the march from Austin were imprisoned under brutal conditions at Veracruz for fourteen months, Navarro escaped and returned to Texas.

He was the sole Hispanic delegate to the Convention of 1845, which was assembled to accept or reject the American proposal; after voting in the affirmative, he remained to help write the first state constitution. He was subsequently twice elected to the state Senate. In 1846, in recognition of his contributions to Texas over the years, the legislature named the newly established Navarro County in his honor.

Jose Tomas Canales was born on a ranch in Nueces County, Texas, on March 7, 1877. J.T. Canales was devoted to public service, he made his mark as both a lawyer and a politician. He was the sole Mexican-American representative in the state legislature during his years in the state house from 1905-1921. J.T. Canales was an author, philanthropist, superintendent, and landowner. He was one of the founders of LULAC (1929) and wrote most of its first constitution. He valued education, embraced woman suffrage, and was vocal against the Ku Klux Klan.

J.T. Canales was the only prominent local Democrat, who was an outspoken critic of the Texas Ranger oppression of the Hispanic population of the lower Rio Grande Valley. In 1918 he brought 19 charges of misconduct against the Rangers for actions during the border wars and demanded a legislative investigation and the reorganization of the force.

Not enough can be said about one of the most important Latino figures in history. Cesar Chavez is more than a popular street name in Texas. Chavez was born to a Mexican American family in Yuma, Arizona in 1927. Like many Latinos then and today, Chavez spent his working life as a laborer, picking avocados with his family on Californian farms during the Great Depression. Previously, the land his family owned was unfairly seized and auctioned off following the death of his grandmother. Chavez would carry this experience with him into his activism later in life.

Chavez would come to found the National Farm Workers Association, a labor union for the agricultural community in the San Joaquin Valley. He took great measures to conceal that he was organizing a union to avoid hurting the workers at the hands of their employers. In 1965, he and the NFWA would support the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee in the Delano Grape Strike. They would go on to hold strikes and boycotts against grape growers in the Delano area; Schenley Liquor Co., DiGiorgio Corp., and then Guimarra. Through his activism, Chavez was able to help open negotiations to raise workers’ wages. His friend and colleague, Dolores Huerta would lead those negotiations.

Chavez remains a fixture in our history because of his dedication to the community, his Christian values, and his pride in his heritage.

Happy Hispanic Heritage Month! Here at The Americano Dream, we believe strongly in honoring our roots. What better way than to honor the origins of the month we are celebrating?

Hispanic Heritage Month first started out as Hispanic Heritage Week. Representative Edward R. Roybal from Los Angeles first introduced legislation to celebrate Latinos and President Johnson signed it into law in 1968. Eventually, President Ronald Reagan passed new legislation to expand the week into a month thanks to sponsorship from Representative Esteban Torress in 1988!

Now, we get to celebrate our Latino heritage from September 15th to October 15th every year. But why in the middle of the month like this? September 15th was chosen as the start of Hispanic Heritage Month because it marks the anniversary of the Cry of Dolores, the inciting battle that kicked off Mexico’s war for independence from Spain. As a result, many Latin American countries celebrate their independence day on September 15th, 16th, and 18th (Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador, and Chile to name a few). In short, it’s more meaningful to begin honoring our Hispanic heritage when so many of the countries we hail from gained their independence.

Cecilia Abbott made history as the first Hispanic person to serve as First Lady of Texas when her husband was sworn in as Governor. She’s the child of Mexican immigrants and grew up in San Antonio. Her parents were educators, and Cecilia would take their influence to heart to earn three degrees from the University of St. Thomas at Houston.

Like many Hispanics, Cecilia comes from a strong Catholic background that has imbued her with strong ties to her community and service. Before her time as First Lady, Cecilia served as a principal for many Catholic schools in the central Texas area. She would then direct her attention to the elderly, as she transitioned to a role as Director of Community Relations in a senior living center. As First Lady, she is a member of the National Charity League and the Dell Children’s Women’s Trust, where she continues to give back to the Austin community through philanthropy work.