Celtic Race in Mexico

New Zealand Tablet, 15 December 1910, Page 2073

Celtic Race in Mexico

A correspondent of the Mexican, Herald suggests to the editor of that paper the possibility of bringing about, before the centennial season closes, a reunion of the members of the Celtic race in Mexico adding that 'it would bo most interesting to know how much the blending of the old and vigorous Scotch and Irish stocks with the Mexican race of pure Spanish extraction has done for the building up of the Mexican nation.' The editor of the Mexican Herald, a New England Protestant, comments as follows: The suggestions of our correspondent are interesting, but we fear are too tardily made for anything to come of them, at least during what remains of the year. 11 is to be lamented that the St. Patrick's Society has languished and died, for it served to bring together annually the Irish in this vicinity, and a sparkling and intellectual lot they are, well meriting the wider recognition which organisation ensures. The local Scots have their St. Andrew's Society, which meets yearly for a banquet and a flow of soul, and so the national sentiment of the ' British Scots' is kept alive in this land. Some historian in the future will devote one or more chapters to showing how the various Celtic strains came to unite with the Spanish stock here, having a marked influence on the national life of the Mexican people. A Scot named Murray was master of the Mint in Guadalajara when this country was a Spanish colony, and in banking and manufacturng we' have the Scottish names of Grandison, Turnbull, and Waters; while the Youngs have been prominent of late years, and, in fact, the list might be indefinitely drawn out. Of prominent Irish families, who are now quite as much Mexican as Hibernian, we have the Greens. Lynches, Lonergans, O'Gormans, Morans, Morphvs, Branift's, Knights, Whites, Kellys, O'Reillys, Hopes, Wilsons, etc. Some of the Irish families are descended from the famous colony of exiles from the Emerald Isle, who settled in Cadiz, Spain, toward the close of the eighteenth century. After the independence of this country was assured — mostly after' I.B24many foreigners came here to merchandise and otherwise gain fortunes; among them were not a few sturdy Scots and adventurous Irishmen; there was a similar Celtic outflow in those distant days to the River Platte and to Chile, where many great families were founded by them, and are now essentially Argentine and Chilian. Very especially do the Irish blend easily with the Latin Americans; their temperaments are similar and there is a community of religious interests. We heartily wish that our correspondent's ideas were feasible this centennial year, and we think many people who regard the Mexican nation as hostile to foreigners would be astonished at the importance of the Celtic blend here.