Happy Easter 2011
Wine tasting at Grape Creek Vineyard
Molly Lendman, her daughter Elizabeth Holcomb,
me and Maria...the Olvera Girls
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Patricia Michelle Castaneda Olvera Valdivia de Dart
To begin to share my family linguistic story, I would like to begin with me and how I fit in the overall family. I began researching our family tree this semester for this project. It is a coincedence that a TV show, "Who do you think you are?" also started in January. It is the second season for the show in which the show highlights a celebrity and traces their family tree and shares their personal story. I was intrigued so I decided to follow their lead and see what I could find out about our family.
My parents were not very forthcoming when it came to our family lineage. I knew a little bit, but not too many details. My mother once mentioned that the "older people" in the family made a pact to not discuss the details of life in Mexico because they were starting a new life in the United States. What little I discovered I learned by interviewing my Aunt Mollie Valdivia Cervantez, who is my mother's oldest sister and the oldest sibling in their family. My father's side of the family I discovered information from my Aunt Maria Rosario Quintanilla Ponce. I initially interviewed the two ladies for a "Conocimento" for class project for one of my Biligual/Bicultural classes.
Both of my parents came from families where their parents were divorced; very uncommon during the 1940s. My Mother's Father never remarried and her mother did and had additional children. Both of my Father's parents remarried and had additional children.
I am the youngest of four children. Luis Olvera, Jr. was called Louie by his friends. He was the oldest and only male sibling. My two older sisters, Maria Teresa Olvera and Amalia Olvera Lendman were older than me by nine and four years. My brother and I were ten years apart. He, my Father and my Mother are all deceased. My sisters and I are very close to each other and we usually spend our free time together. My children and I live with my sister Maria in our family home where my parents moved when my Dad retired from the U.S. Air Force.
I have two children, Lance Wesley Dart and Renee Erin Dart from my marriage to Todd Dart. We divorced in 2002 after 13 years of marriage while in the U.S. Air Force. I moved home to San Antonio in the winter of 2002 and have been here ever since. Todd moved here later so he could be with the children. He is remarried, I am not. Lance is a Freshman at the University of Houston at Victoria and Renee is getting ready to graduate from Taft High School. She is preparing to attend the Art Institute of Austin in July.
Next I will publish our family tree so I can give a visual to our family.
My parents were not very forthcoming when it came to our family lineage. I knew a little bit, but not too many details. My mother once mentioned that the "older people" in the family made a pact to not discuss the details of life in Mexico because they were starting a new life in the United States. What little I discovered I learned by interviewing my Aunt Mollie Valdivia Cervantez, who is my mother's oldest sister and the oldest sibling in their family. My father's side of the family I discovered information from my Aunt Maria Rosario Quintanilla Ponce. I initially interviewed the two ladies for a "Conocimento" for class project for one of my Biligual/Bicultural classes.
Both of my parents came from families where their parents were divorced; very uncommon during the 1940s. My Mother's Father never remarried and her mother did and had additional children. Both of my Father's parents remarried and had additional children.
I am the youngest of four children. Luis Olvera, Jr. was called Louie by his friends. He was the oldest and only male sibling. My two older sisters, Maria Teresa Olvera and Amalia Olvera Lendman were older than me by nine and four years. My brother and I were ten years apart. He, my Father and my Mother are all deceased. My sisters and I are very close to each other and we usually spend our free time together. My children and I live with my sister Maria in our family home where my parents moved when my Dad retired from the U.S. Air Force.
I have two children, Lance Wesley Dart and Renee Erin Dart from my marriage to Todd Dart. We divorced in 2002 after 13 years of marriage while in the U.S. Air Force. I moved home to San Antonio in the winter of 2002 and have been here ever since. Todd moved here later so he could be with the children. He is remarried, I am not. Lance is a Freshman at the University of Houston at Victoria and Renee is getting ready to graduate from Taft High School. She is preparing to attend the Art Institute of Austin in July.
Next I will publish our family tree so I can give a visual to our family.
Mi Familia/My Family Language Inventory
Michelle Olvera Dart
THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT SAN ANTONIO
ECE 5133: Language and Discourse Development in Preschool-Primary Children
Spring 2011
The following blog page will focus on a Language inventory which addresses issues related to language loss/maintenance/acquisition. It is part of a class project which explores someone’s language from a wide perspective. I will present this project based upon conversations with family members regarding our family languages. I have asked some of the following questions:
1. What language(s) do you speak? What language(s) do you read?
2. What local, national, political, or academic influences your language use?
3. What influences your preference of language use, growing up and now?
4. How do you feel about your language ability?
5. Where did you grow up and attend school?
6. How has your culture influenced your language use?
7. Was it easy or hard to learn a second language?
8. Why do you think you lost your first language?
9. Why don’t you think you lost your first language?
10. Which language do you primarily use today?
11. Which language do you use to “think”?
12. Do you switch back and forth between multiple languages during conversations? Why?
I will share aspects of our familiy languages through this blog.
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