A Mexican Family Story

Art Alonso

Exploring Mexican history through genealogy, research, photos, and the stories of our Mexican ancestors.

Episodes

  1. 10/02/2025

    The Valdés Brothers

    Mexico is a land of cultural fusion, where history breathes through music, street life, and comedy. Few families reflect this better than the Valdés dynasty—four brothers who reshaped Mexican entertainment. Tin Tan brought pachucoswagger and Spanglish charm; Don Ramón embodied the beloved underdog; El Loco Valdés turned chaos into comedy; and El Ratón, the quietest, still carried the legacy. Their roots trace back […]

    9 min

  2. 06/08/2025

    Marilyn Monroe’s Mexican Connections

    There are stars—and then there’s Marilyn Monroe. Born Norma Jeane in 1926, into foster homes and uncertainty, she clawed her way into the spotlight. She wasn’t just the blonde bombshell—they never saw the girl reading Dostoevsky, starting her own production company, or chasing peace in Mexico. There, she found brief joy, and love with Jose […]

    14 min

  3. 05/03/2025

    Germans in Mexico

    In the quiet corners of Mexico’s past, Germans left fingerprints—engineers, farmers, and refugees who came not to conquer but to survive. They built coffee plantations in Chiapas, shaped Monterrey’s steel industry, and gave northern Mexico its brass bands and accordions. Some fled war. Others faded into Mennonite colonies or mixed into the music and machinery […]

    9 min

  4. 04/27/2025

    The Miners of Mexico

    Mexico’s miners shaped empires but lived in shadows. Since colonial times, they have toiled in brutal conditions, enriching Spain and later foreign powers, while enduring poverty, danger, and exploitation. Strikes like the 1906 Cananea revolt sparked labor movements and revolution, yet even today, mining remains perilous, with environmental destruction compounding hardship. Despite this, miners carry […]

    7 min

  5. 04/19/2025

    William Henry Ellis

    William Henry Ellis was a man who lived on the edge of borders—legal, racial, and geographic. Born in the late 1860s to formerly enslaved parents in Texas, he rewrote his own story with the cunning of a seasoned hustler and the soul of a rebel. In an America shackled by Jim Crow, Ellis refused to […]

    6 min

  6. 04/01/2025

    Wonder Woman & Daisy Duke

    The American Southwest is a land of endless horizons, where history lingers in family names. Lynda Carter and Catherine Bach, though Hollywood icons, carried deep roots in this rugged terrain. Born in Phoenix, Carter, the future Wonder Woman, had ancestry stretching from Arizona to Spain. Her family survived revolutions and frontier hardships long before she […]

    5 min

  7. 03/18/2025

    Emerguildo Marquis

    Emerguildo Marquis was a ghost of war, a kid from Mexico who clung to the Pennsylvania Volunteers as they marched home, a stowaway in history. Shoeless, nameless, a relic of America’s first imperial war, he was taken in by Captain James Nagle, a house painter turned soldier who raised him in the coal fields of […]

    8 min

  8. 03/03/2025

    Mexicans in the U.S. Civil War

    During the American Civil War, thousands of Mexicans and Mexican Americans fought on both sides, driven by ideology, survival, and regional loyalties. In Texas and California, many Tejanos and Californios joined the Union, opposing slavery and seeking to defend their communities from Confederate expansion. Others, particularly in Texas and along the border, sided with the […]

    10 min

  9. 02/16/2025

    Mexican Divorce

    In the mid-20th century, Juarez became the ultimate escape hatch for Americans seeking a quick divorce. You’d cross the border, where the rules were looser, the lawyers more than willing, and the paperwork shockingly easy. No waiting period, no drawn-out court battles—just a couple of signatures, a stack of cash, and boom, you’re free. The […]

    7 min

  10. 02/06/2025

    1930’s Mexican Repatriation

    During the 1930s, the U.S. government forcibly deported or pressured over a million Mexicans and Mexican Americans to leave the country in response to the Great Depression. Framed as “repatriation,” this mass expulsion disproportionately targeted American citizens, reinforcing racial discrimination and shaping Mexican-American identity for generations.

    7 min
  • 10 Episodes

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
14 Ratings

About

Exploring Mexican history through genealogy, research, photos, and the stories of our Mexican ancestors.

Information

  • Creator
    Art Alonso
  • Years Active
    2019 - 2025
  • Episodes
    10
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2019 Art Alonso
  • Show Website
    A Mexican Family Story