Favorite Friday Foto - Our Little New Zealand Cousin

This is one of my favorite photos because some days are like this.....you just run around chasing that elusive chicken. Little Ryan is the son of Mike Goodman. Mike's Robles connection is his mum Annette Booth Goodman, whose mother was the lovely Jeannette Provencio Booth-Castanon, whose mother was Ida Buttner Provencio, whose well loved mother was Gertrudis (Tula) Robles Buttner, whose parents Francisco and Rita Luna Robles are our common ancestors.

Whew! That's a long 'genealogy road' for little Ryan who lives with his family on their farm in New Zealand to his gggggrandmother Tula who was born and raised in Ures, Sonora, Mexico.

Wonder if little Ryan ever caught that chicken?

Tango Nuevo - Sam Robles, Jr.

Each of the Robles family lines has their talented individuals. Some were high school musicians like Augie and Tibo Munoz from Gertrudis' line playing with the Douglas High School band back in the '50's. Today, Tibo's grandsons are attending Arizona State University on musical scholarships earned from their musical talent. Jose Honne Robles, an attorney from the Rafael line is an artist who had a showing at La Pilita Museum in Tucson in 2009. Roberto Figueroa from the Miguel line creates heirloom wooden pieces in the form of spoons and rolling pins. And the list goes on.

But the Plutarco line......well, they are chock full of musical talent. The most well known musician in this line is Eduardo (Lalo) Robles who had an orchestra for decades in Tucson and played throughout Arizona. He played the saxaphone. Skipped a generation, but his grandson Sam Robles, Jr. also plays the saxaphone in a group he founded called Tango Nuevo. Here is an excerpt from their My Space page describing the group: "Tango Nuevo is a Los Angeles based instrumental group. They all met while studing at the California Institute of the Arts. By combining elements of Tango, Jazz, and modern classical music, Tango Nuevo has created a unique yet recognizable sound."

Who doesn't love the Tango? Fiery, passionate, evocative and so is the music that compliments the dance. As Sam says, this is Tango Nuevo, nuevo being the operative word. Theirs is a fresh take on an ancient form of dance/music. Embrace it.

Not surprisingly, Sam's day gig is a music teacher with the Los Angeles School District.

The more genealogy research I do, the more I am convinced it really is all about the genes. Think Lalo's musical genes are alive and well in many of his descendants and most especially in his grandson Sam. Viva Lalo, Viva Sam!


It's interesting when you go to Tango Nuevo's site just to scroll down their list of visitors/followers and see the people from around the world who have listened and commented on their music. You can listen to their musical collection by visiting http://www.myspace.com/tangonuevo.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sREN9HrTsU&feature=player_embedded

Favorite Friday Foto-Oscar's Pottery

Beat up and weathered, Oscar Juan Buttner is holding pottery made by the hands of his father, Oscar Robles Buttner probably 40-50 years ago. Miracle that it's survived. Was amazing for me to see this piece because my imagination goes into high gear and I can only imagine Oscar, Sr, who I have always thought resembles Clark Gable, sitting at a pottery wheel molding a lump of clay into this pot, then painting his design on it, then glazing it, then baking it in a kiln and finally admiring his creation. Oscar worked in the smelters in Douglas and Morenci, but in his heart of hearts he was a renaissance man. He learned the art of cooking, embraced his love of art and learned to paint, taught himself to play the guitar and on and on. In the end he bought himself and his wife motorcycles, grew his hair long and wore leather vests. Totally original, cool guy in my book. He fascinates me.