Afterword

At the Tucson 1990 Reunion, the metaphor of a Journey to discover roots was employed. It suggested that the following questions were starting points to answer the questions about the family:

Who Am I?
Where Did I Come from?
Who are my people?

Recalling that the search for the family's legacy, began in Jecori, Sonora, Nueva Espana, thence to Tumacacori, Tubac, and Tucson. It is still unknown when Sosa ancestors migrated from Jecori to Tubac; with subsequent settlements in Tucson.

What is known is that between 1743-1760, there were several Sosa families in the vicinity of Tubac: namely at Buena Vista, Rancho Guevavi, and Tumacacori.

Further, it is known that ancestor Jose Maria Sosa began his military career in 1770, and was inventoried at Presidio San Ignacio de Tubac in 1774 He was of the troops subsequently transferred from the Presidio San Ignacio de Tubac to the Presidio San Agustin del Tucson, on a date now designated as August 20, 1775. The City of Tucson accepts this date as the City's founding date.

From the above recital and documentation, the family's known place of origin, was in 1746 at Sonora. Efforts to probes beyond 1746 have been fruitless, and genealogical research remains stalled. Hampering the search is the absence of the names of ancestor Sosa's parents. Captain Don Gregorio Alvarez Tunon y Quiroz, absentee Commandant of the Fronteras Presidio was being audited by Captain Juan Bautista de Anza. Manuel Jose de Sosa was an aide to Anza.

One piece of welcomed discovery was the burial site of Dona Rita Espinosa de Sosa. She died on April 16th, and was buried next to the Holy Water Basin, in the Tubac Church on April 17, 1820.

From authenticated archival research, partial answers to the 1990 rhetorical questions of Who Am I? Where Did I Come From?, and Who Are My People? can be glimpsed through the prism of remarks delivered by this Editor at the 1990 Reunion, when it was stated:

"Through the veins of your extended family runs the blood of the Old World and the New World. Through the veins of your extended family run the blood of Spain and Mexico, inextricably entwined. Through the veins of your extended family runs the blood of the European continent, the islands of the Kingdom, the North and South American Continents, the Pacific Islands, Asia, Africa, and Israel too. Look at your extended family and see a product of America, and a microcosm of the New World."

The above rhetorical questions, also confronted Octavio Paz. His
thoughts were articulated eloquently and forcefully in his 1950 book The Labyrinth of Solitude .

Octavio Paz, was born in Mexico of Spanish and Mestizo parents. As a mestizo, Paz declared himself a descendant from that allegorical and historical liaison of the Spaniard Cortes and the Indian Malinche. Paz postulates that the genesis of the Mexican Mestizo was the original offspring of this Spaniard and Indian liaison.

Paz expands on his examination of the Mexican mestizo psyche when he declares: "For that reason the Hispanic thesis, which would have us descend from the Spanish, to the exclusion of the Indian, is the patrimony of a few extremist who are not even pure white.... The Mexican does not want to be either an Indian or a Spaniard. Nor does he want to be descended from them. He denies them...."

It is left to others whether the themes by Octavio Paz have validity within the extended Soza, Sosa families of Arizona.

Contrasting the Mexican mestizo with his Mexican American mestizo counterpart, similarities arise. The Mexican American mestizo may deny his Mexican parentage in deference to American acculturation and hopefully hasten entry into the American mainstream. In any event, it gives credence to the notion that to deny the Spanish, Indian or Mexican heritage, is to deny mestizaje.

The historical cross-pollination of the Spanish and Indian communities is the source of the Mexican mestizo progeny, and the bedrock of the Soza, Sosa heritage and history. Even as Spain attempted to legislate, regulate and maintain the purity of Spanish blood through a rigid caste system, cross-pollination worked its wonders to preform. It gave birth to legions upon legions of mestizos that has been a mainstay of this family's heritage.

As products of an allegorical and historical union of long ago,
North American Sosa, Soza descendants continue an on going amalgamation and anthropological development. Family members continue to unite with others, whose progeny is outside the Spanish and Indian mestizaje tradition.

The descendants of that 18th century presidio soldier Sosa, from whose roots we descend, can re-affirm the declaration uttered in 1990 by this writer:

"Through your veins flows the blood of the Old World and the New World. Through your veins flows the blood of Spain and Mexico, inextricably entwined...."