THE ORIGIN OF THE MORENO LAST NAME AND
OTHER INFORMATION ABOUT THE MORENO FAMILY
Written by PEDRO OCHOA PALACIO
Undoubtedly, our family name, MORENO, is one derivative of the
word moor, a term historically used to define the wide range of the Arab
culture imprinted upon the Iberian Peninsula. One small and commonly used
example is with food: moras y cristianos, meaning, a dish made with rice and
beans.
In Spanish, when we do not want to prejudge someone or to prejudge a
particular situation, we say: no veas moras can tranchete, which literally
means: not all Moors carry a knife . Also in Spanish, when we want to say
something in a discreet manner we say: que no hay moras en fa costa,
meaning it is safe to say such and such since no one is listening. But the word
mora or moor can also be used to describe someone with "moorish" eyes, ojos
moras; or "moorish features",Jacci6nes moras, meaning a person with
straight, black hair and fine features.
The origin of the word moreno, is historically Castillian. This word has
been widely spread throughout the Iberian Peninsula. It can also be related to
the Roman gentleman, Lucio MURENO. Descendants of his ancient noble
lineage are found in Spain in the provinces of Santander, Galicia, Aragon, and
Castilla. Some of his descendants are also found in Portugal as well as the
Spanish regions of La Rioja, Aragon and even as far South as Andalucia and
as far east as Extremadura.
A fact that is historically verifiable is that the Spanish Emperor Carlos I
(Charles the First), granted a coat of arms in Valladolid, Spain on the 15th of
June 1538 to the family of Pedro Moreno, a resident of Veracruz, New Spain
now known as Mexico. The coat of arms of the Moreno family is described as
divided in half by a gold band with thick, bright red stripes in the background,
and a stone bridge over water the color of indigo. Above are five arrows with
the shafts in gold and the arrowheads silver, which are tied together on each
side of the bridge. On the bottom half of the coat of arms we find green oblique
and parallel lines surrounding an Aztec temple as well as two more sets of
arrows in the same colors noted above, which are found below the temple. The
coat of arms has a border of cutlasses and tigers.
The family name of MORENO is found extensively in the Mexican
cities of Veracruz, Mexico City and along the Pacific Coast from Jalisco to
Sonora as well as in Baja California.
The oldest branch of our family was that of Don Lazaro MORENO y
Castro, who was born in El Triunfo, Baja California Sur, in approximately
1870, and his wife Dona Natalia MANSILLA Balarezo who was born in La
Paz, Baja California Sur, approximately in 1875. They settled in the little
mining town ofEI Alamo in the Northern part of what at that time was still the
territory of Baja California when they were struck with gold fever.
At that time, El Alamo, located South of Ensenada, was a small town
with about 1,000 inhabitants. Our grandfather, Lazaro, worked as a civil judge,
and was undoubtedly one of the few government authorities in El Alamo at the
time. Our aunts and mothers were all born in El Alamo: the first born was
Carmelita, who died at age 14, followed by Sixta, Rosario, Manuel, Maria,
Cadelaria, Lazaro and Natalia.
My mother, Maria, told me that during the Mexican Revolution, of
1910-1911, while the family was living still in El Alamo, a group of soldiers
arrived and no one knew to which side they belonged, if they were
revolutionaries or federal troops. Alarmed by the arrival of these outsiders,
Grandmother Natalia cut all her daughters hair and dressed them as boys so
that the soldiers would not rape them.
A few months later, Grandfather Lazaro made a crucial decision which
affected the lives of his children as well as our lives. He moved the family to
Mexicali sometime in 1911 or 1912 in order for his children to obtain better
educations and his daughters to have better luck in finding husbands. My
mother and her sisters were still quite young.
And in time all his children did marry. His children married as
follows: Sixta, the eldest, married Carlos Cota Camacho; Rosario married
Jesus Pacheco; Manuel married Maria Luisa Soto; Maria, my mother,
married Jose Valverde; Candelaria married Jose Bernardo Peralta; Lazaro
married Clara Bernardini and Natialia married Federico Palacio. All the
Moreno children married good gentlemen and ladies from respectable
families.
All our aunts and uncles were good and responsible parents. They all
made an effort to provide their children with better lives and a better education
than they had.
I propose a toast to our grandparents, Lazaro and Natalia, for our
mothers, aunts and uncles who are no longer with us and for all the
descendants of the Moreno family. We must not make this the last time we all
meet!