Latest / Stories That Live In Us / Texas: Christmas Card Culture Connections (with Sylvia Hernandez) | Episode 91

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Texas: Christmas Card Culture Connections (with Sylvia Hernandez) | Episode 91 · Stories That Live In Us

• 0:00
  Sylvia Hernandez: And then on Christmas Day, um, get up, open presents, lots of Mexican food on Christmas Day.
• 0:08
  Sylvia Hernandez: And then yeah, and then we just add mashed potatoes.
• 0:11
  Sylvia Hernandez: Not usually on this side, but you know.
• 0:15
  Crista Cowan: Stories That Live in Us is a podcast that inspires you to form deep connections with your family, past, present, and future.
• 0:23
  Crista Cowan: I'm Crista Cowan, known online as The Barefoot Genealogist.
• 0:27
  Crista Cowan: Counting down to the upcoming celebration of America's 250th birthday, you'll meet families from each state whose stories are woven into the very fabric of America.
• 0:38
  Crista Cowan: Tales of immigration, migration, courage, and community that remind us that when we tell our stories, we strengthen the bonds that connect us.
• 0:47
  Crista Cowan: So join me for season two as we discover from sea to shining sea the stories that live in us.
• 0:53
  Crista Cowan: The summer that I was 12 years old, my family took a trip across the country from Los Angeles up to Wisconsin, down to Arkansas, across Texas, and back home to LA.
• 1:08
  Crista Cowan: We spent two weeks on the road in our big family van, and it was one of those really impressionable moments in my life.
• 1:16
  Crista Cowan: Particularly impressionable was the trip through Texas.
• 1:21
  Crista Cowan: We entered the state on the interstate, stopped at the visitor center, and walked in to be greeted by a woman with quite possibly the largest hair I have ever seen in my life, saying, Howdy, y'all welcome to Texas.
• 1:36
  Crista Cowan: Similarly, I grew up with a grandmother, great-grandmother, who was born in Dallas, Texas.
• 1:43
  Crista Cowan: But she spoke German her entire life.
• 1:49
  Crista Cowan: Her early formative years were in German churches and German schools, living with German immigrant parents who learned very little English.
• 1:58
  Crista Cowan: Years later, when her younger sister was born, she had a very different American experience.
• 2:03
  Crista Cowan: And Aunt Selma spoke with a Texas twang.
• 2:06
  Crista Cowan: It was interesting watching those two women who were sisters separated by so many years and really so many different life experiences, but still with this deep love of Texas.
• 2:18
  Crista Cowan: My dad also lived in Texas for two years, where he served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the greater Dallas area.
• 2:29
  Crista Cowan: And so I spent my whole life hearing stories of Texas.
• 2:32
  Crista Cowan: And on that fateful trip when I was 12, we got to visit some of the places that he had lived as a 19 and 20-year-old young man.
• 2:42
  Crista Cowan: There are a million stories that could be told about Texas.
• 2:48
  Crista Cowan: Today we're going to share one that I am particularly proud of.
• 2:54
  Crista Cowan: Our guest today is Sylvia Hernandez.
• 2:57
  Crista Cowan: She works for Baylor University and she doesn't like calling herself a Waco native.
• 3:03
  Crista Cowan: Instead, what she says is that her Texas roots run deep.
• 3:09
  Crista Cowan: And they really do.
• 3:11
  Crista Cowan: And so as I shared with her my connection of Texas, and she shared with us her connection of Texas, she also talks a little bit about a project that she works on that's connected to Christmas.
• 3:27
  Crista Cowan: Enjoy my conversation with Sylvia Hernandez.
• 3:30
  Crista Cowan: Well, Sylvia, I'm so excited to have this conversation with you.
• 3:34
  Crista Cowan: I would love to hear all about you.
• 3:36
  Crista Cowan: Tell me just about where you're from and a little bit about maybe your education and your background and what you do now for a living.
• 3:45
  Sylvia Hernandez: Sure.
• 3:45
  Sylvia Hernandez: So I actually grew up for the most part in Waco, Texas.
• 3:49
  Sylvia Hernandez: Um, I was born in Pasadena, so just south of Houston.
• 3:53
  Sylvia Hernandez: But my family has been in the Waco area for generations.
• 3:56
  Sylvia Hernandez: I'm fifth generation, and we actually just had a new addition to the family that would make seven generations.
• 4:02
  Sylvia Hernandez: So that's really exciting for us.
• 4:05
  Sylvia Hernandez: Um I did my undergraduate work at um Baylor University, where I also work now.
• 4:13
  Sylvia Hernandez: Um so I didn't leave for a while.
• 4:16
  Sylvia Hernandez: I stayed here for a while, but then I had an opportunity to go out to Colorado for a little bit.
• 4:20
  Sylvia Hernandez: And then I went to graduate school at the University of Pittsburgh and got a master's degree in library and information science.
• 4:28
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so that's that's really what um I do now.
• 4:32
  Sylvia Hernandez: I am the outreach and instruction librarian at Baylor University for the Texas Collection.
• 4:37
  Sylvia Hernandez: So all of the stuff I get to work with is about Texas.
• 4:40
  Sylvia Hernandez: So cool.
• 4:42
  Sylvia Hernandez: Yeah, and for me, it's really exciting because I grew up here in Waco.
• 4:46
  Sylvia Hernandez: Um, we also have some really cool, interesting local history materials.
• 4:50
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so for me to kind of see that and earth unearth stories that I've heard about um all growing up, it's it's really fun and fascinating.
• 4:59
  Crista Cowan: So that is fun and fascinating.
• 5:01
  Crista Cowan: And I'm so excited, I'm even more excited to talk to you now.
• 5:04
  Crista Cowan: So um I just went to Waco for the first time last year.
• 5:08
  Crista Cowan: Uh we had a family reunion in Malone.
• 5:11
  Crista Cowan: And uh my dad and I stayed in Waco and got to explore the city a little bit and discovered that we've got uh quite a few cousins who are second and third and fourth generation um there in Waco as well.
• 5:27
  Crista Cowan: My dad's great-grandparents were German hill country immigrants, and his grandmother was raised there in Texas, and this was a branch of the family tree that we had lost touch with and were able to reunite with uh just this last year or so.
• 5:43
  Crista Cowan: So I am discovering my own Texas roots a little bit recently.
• 5:47
  Sylvia Hernandez: That that's really interesting that you say that you've lost touch with those.
• 5:50
  Sylvia Hernandez: I mean, there are branches in my family that we didn't even know existed on on some sides, because it's like there were so many grandchildren that were born through um on my dad's side.
• 6:03
  Sylvia Hernandez: There were 13 grandchildren and his grandparents' um eight um age bracket.
• 6:09
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so it's like we didn't know.
• 6:11
  Sylvia Hernandez: Um, my sister, we went to a family reunion, and my sister walked in and saw this the back of a head of some kid, and she recognized it from school, and she went and looked at his face, and it was a kid that she went to school with and had been sitting next to all year and didn't know that that was our husband.
• 6:29
  Crista Cowan: Wow.
• 6:29
  Crista Cowan: Well, so tell me a little bit more about your dad's side of the family.
• 6:35
  Sylvia Hernandez: Sure.
• 6:35
  Sylvia Hernandez: So my dad's side of the family actually first came to Waco um with the um the Mexican Revolution.
• 6:44
  Sylvia Hernandez: So a lot of stuff's going on in Mexico.
• 6:46
  Sylvia Hernandez: Um, you know, young men are getting inscripted into the army to go and fight.
• 6:52
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so to avoid um his sons getting inscripted to the army, his family um came to the States Waco area.
• 7:02
  Sylvia Hernandez: Um, and they just to escape that trauma.
• 7:06
  Sylvia Hernandez: Um, they didn't want the sons to um be inscripted and you know be part of that.
• 7:13
  Sylvia Hernandez: They wanted a safer life um for themselves.
• 7:16
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so they actually came up and started um they worked on some land.
• 7:22
  Sylvia Hernandez: There's a lot of cotton land around Waco, and so that's where they did.
• 7:26
  Sylvia Hernandez: They share cropped for a while and then they moved into um the Waco area.
• 7:30
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so um, this would have been my father's grandparents.
• 7:34
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so, or his great-grandparents, I'm sorry.
• 7:38
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so they come to Waco, and in this time that they were um in the cotton fields, they actually had a Methodist missionary come and talk to them because his great-grandmother was putting out a nativity display, and somebody and the missionary asked her, you know, what are you doing?
• 7:55
  Sylvia Hernandez: Do you know the story behind the nativity?
• 7:57
  Sylvia Hernandez: And she really didn't.
• 7:59
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so, um, because I think Catholicism is so steeped in Mexican culture to begin with, that um it's it's just there, and sometimes, you know, not everybody knows the stories.
• 8:09
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so the missionary came back several times and they just they began talking about the Bible and you know, learning about scripture, and so that actually inspired um his great-grandparents, my my great-great-grandparents to um when they moved to Waco, they actually helped found a church, a Latin American Methodist church.
• 8:31
  Sylvia Hernandez: Yeah, so it was specifically for people of Latin American descent.
• 8:35
  Sylvia Hernandez: Um, and it still exists today, and so it's it's a small congregation, but it's still family run and oriented.
• 8:41
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so that that was just kind of their introduction to faith and kind of how they've served their faith for many, many, many years.
• 8:49
  Sylvia Hernandez: I mean, this family's still very involved.
• 8:51
  Sylvia Hernandez: Um, and so that's you know how they get to get to Waco.
• 8:55
  Crista Cowan: And where where in Mexico were they from?
• 8:58
  Sylvia Hernandez: So they were from Ciudad Victoria, which is in Tamalipas.
• 9:02
  Sylvia Hernandez: Oh, okay.
• 9:03
  Sylvia Hernandez: So yeah, so it's not very far from the border, but it's kind of coastal.
• 9:06
  Sylvia Hernandez: Sure.
• 9:07
  Sylvia Hernandez: Um, but they were a little bit more inland.
• 9:09
  Crista Cowan: Um, yeah, and so they're they're there for quite a did they come up alone, or did they come up with like other people from their village or other family members?
• 9:17
  Sylvia Hernandez: Uh from I what I've been told and what I recall, it was just them.
• 9:21
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so it would have been um two that so um Ogenio and Cleofas.
• 9:29
  Sylvia Hernandez: That's that's the great great-grandparents, and they came with their two sons.
• 9:34
  Sylvia Hernandez: Um, that would have been Antonio or Tony, as he was called, and Manuel.
• 9:39
  Crista Cowan: And which one is your great-grandfather?
• 9:42
  Sylvia Hernandez: Neither of them, but their sister Maria was left behind, and she came in later.
• 9:50
  Sylvia Hernandez: Okay.
• 9:51
  Sylvia Hernandez: So, so what happens with um Tony and Manuel?
• 9:54
  Sylvia Hernandez: They're brought up to escape being um inscripted into the army in Mexico.
• 10:00
  Sylvia Hernandez: They end up joining the army in the United States.
• 10:02
  Sylvia Hernandez: Both of them fought in World War II, and so it it it didn't defeat the purpose of them coming to the states, but it was it was kind of weird in that they still ended up in a certain path that they could have ended up in when they stayed.
• 10:19
  Sylvia Hernandez: Yeah.
• 10:20
  Sylvia Hernandez: Um, yeah, and so when Tony and Manuel joined the army um during World War II, um, citizenship rules for the United States were very relaxed or they became more lax, and that actually allowed them by serving into the army, uh, serving in the army to become U.S.
• 10:36
  Sylvia Hernandez: citizens.
• 10:37
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so that was something they were granted citizenship.
• 10:40
  Sylvia Hernandez: Their parents were, and they were actually able to sponsor their sister, my great-grandmother, um, to come to the states.
• 10:47
  Crista Cowan: And so how old was she when she came over?
• 10:50
  Sylvia Hernandez: Do you know 36-ish?
• 10:52
  Sylvia Hernandez: I think yeah, and my grandfather was 14.
• 10:56
  Sylvia Hernandez: Okay.
• 10:56
  Sylvia Hernandez: So she had five kids.
• 10:58
  Sylvia Hernandez: She was a single woman with five kids and came to the states to Texas, Waco, um, with five kids.
• 11:05
  Crista Cowan: And then her were her parents still living at the time?
• 11:08
  Sylvia Hernandez: Yes.
• 11:09
  Sylvia Hernandez: Yes.
• 11:09
  Sylvia Hernandez: There they were actually very close-knit family.
• 11:12
  Sylvia Hernandez: Um, my dad, um, once his parents were old, um, had gotten married, they actually lived down the street from uh yeah.
• 11:20
  Sylvia Hernandez: Our family's always been very close, whether they, you know, wherever they're living, it's always very close.
• 11:25
  Sylvia Hernandez: Proximity.
• 11:26
  Crista Cowan: I love that.
• 11:27
  Crista Cowan: That's amazing.
• 11:28
  Crista Cowan: So your great-grandmother comes over uh with her five children, one of whom is your grandfather, yes?
• 11:35
  Crista Cowan: Yes.
• 11:36
  Crista Cowan: And what was his name?
• 11:37
  Sylvia Hernandez: Matthew, Mateo.
• 11:39
  Crista Cowan: Okay.
• 11:39
  Crista Cowan: And then um, how did do you know the story of how he met your grandmother?
• 11:44
  Sylvia Hernandez: I you know, I had a cousin.
• 11:46
  Sylvia Hernandez: I was with a cousin one time at um a family event, and she asked him, and he told her that they were at um some friends of theirs.
• 11:54
  Sylvia Hernandez: Um he was at a friend's 25th anniversary party, and that my grandmother walked in and he saw her and just knew that was her.
• 12:02
  Sylvia Hernandez: So they met at a party.
• 12:04
  Sylvia Hernandez: Yeah.
• 12:05
  Crista Cowan: That's sweet.
• 12:06
  Crista Cowan: And then those are your dad's parents.
• 12:10
  Sylvia Hernandez: Yes, those are dad's parents.
• 12:12
  Crista Cowan: Okay.
• 12:12
  Crista Cowan: And how how many children did your grandparents have?
• 12:16
  Sylvia Hernandez: They had three.
• 12:16
  Sylvia Hernandez: So they um, yep, two biological and they adopted um one son, but he's related and was from that same village area that they came from.
• 12:26
  Sylvia Hernandez: So yeah.
• 12:27
  Crista Cowan: I love that.
• 12:27
  Crista Cowan: And so the family just kept up their service to the the faith community.
• 12:33
  Sylvia Hernandez: Yes, always in the faith community.
• 12:35
  Sylvia Hernandez: Um, that little church, you know, since the 70s, they've had hamburger sales to help um um fundraise for the church.
• 12:43
  Sylvia Hernandez: So selling hamburgers.
• 12:45
  Sylvia Hernandez: Um, and they've had garage sales, and those are pretty common things that they've they've always done.
• 12:49
  Sylvia Hernandez: So yeah.
• 12:50
  Crista Cowan: I love that.
• 12:51
  Crista Cowan: And so then um, do you know the story of how your parents met?
• 12:56
  Sylvia Hernandez: I do actually.
• 12:58
  Sylvia Hernandez: My parents met um when they were in high school.
• 13:01
  Sylvia Hernandez: My dad played baseball, and he had a friend who was also on the team who was dating a young woman who happened to be my mother's sister.
• 13:10
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so my mom and sister go to this game um just to watch, you know, my her, my aunt's boyfriend play.
• 13:18
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so they were introduced um at this game, and so they started talking, and yeah, they've been married for almost 50 years now.
• 13:26
  Sylvia Hernandez: Yeah, yeah.
• 13:28
  Crista Cowan: I love that.
• 13:28
  Crista Cowan: So tell me about your mom's side of the family.
• 13:30
  Crista Cowan: How did they end up in Waco?
• 13:32
  Sylvia Hernandez: Sure.
• 13:33
  Sylvia Hernandez: Mom's side, um, they came up, it was her.
• 13:37
  Sylvia Hernandez: Well, I'll do it in relation to me.
• 13:39
  Sylvia Hernandez: It was my great-great-grandfather.
• 13:42
  Sylvia Hernandez: So the same generation.
• 13:44
  Sylvia Hernandez: Yeah.
• 13:44
  Sylvia Hernandez: Same generation.
• 13:45
  Sylvia Hernandez: Yeah.
• 13:45
  Sylvia Hernandez: My great-great-grandfather came over um again to the Waco area, just outside of Waco, cotton area.
• 13:53
  Sylvia Hernandez: He actually owned or leased land.
• 13:56
  Sylvia Hernandez: Um, and so he would do that and did that, eventually moved into town, into Waco.
• 14:03
  Sylvia Hernandez: Um, he had several children, I don't remember how many, at least three sons.
• 14:08
  Sylvia Hernandez: I don't remember if there were any daughters.
• 14:11
  Sylvia Hernandez: Um, and so they can't, he was here in Waco.
• 14:14
  Sylvia Hernandez: My great-great-grandfather, or my great-grandfather was born here in Waco.
• 14:20
  Sylvia Hernandez: Um, and so for a while, you know, they stayed in Waco for a while.
• 14:24
  Sylvia Hernandez: Um, and then my grandfather was also born in the Waco area.
• 14:31
  Sylvia Hernandez: Again, outside of Waco, it was Elk.
• 14:33
  Sylvia Hernandez: They listed as McClendon County on his birth certificate.
• 14:36
  Sylvia Hernandez: And that's that's that same general area where my great-great-grandfather um owned land.
• 14:42
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so it's very tied to that area.
• 14:46
  Sylvia Hernandez: But eventually, um, during the depression, my great-grandfather and grandfather and great-grandmother, they all moved back um to Laredo.
• 14:56
  Sylvia Hernandez: Uh-huh.
• 14:56
  Sylvia Hernandez: Um, Nuevo Laredo, so just across the border.
• 14:59
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so um they they lived there for a while during the depression.
• 15:04
  Sylvia Hernandez: And just because there's not as many opportunities for Mexican Americans during that time in Waco, and so it was just a it was a financial decision that made them move down there.
• 15:14
  Sylvia Hernandez: Um, and so they're moving down there, they lived down there for a while.
• 15:17
  Sylvia Hernandez: My grandpa becomes a young adult, a young man, a young adult at that time.
• 15:21
  Sylvia Hernandez: He is old enough to marry.
• 15:23
  Sylvia Hernandez: He's met this young woman in Mexico, and and um his father decides that they're gonna move back to Waco.
• 15:32
  Sylvia Hernandez: He actually told his parents that he was not moving back to Waco with this young woman.
• 15:37
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so they did that.
• 15:38
  Sylvia Hernandez: My grandparents got married very quickly, um, and they moved back to Waco.
• 15:43
  Sylvia Hernandez: They moved to Waco, and so for a very long time they lived here.
• 15:47
  Sylvia Hernandez: Um, yeah, and then so they lived here, they moved to Waco, but again, um, not completely settled.
• 15:56
  Sylvia Hernandez: My great-grandparents buy a house and so they rent it out for a little bit, and then they actually do migrant labor for a while.
• 16:04
  Sylvia Hernandez: There is um a lake in North Dakota, Lake Andes is what my grandmother says.
• 16:11
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so they went and built this dam.
• 16:13
  Sylvia Hernandez: So they're gone, they're built, they're back and forth for a little while, a while um seasonally because you can only build for so long in in North Dakota before it gets cold.
• 16:22
  Sylvia Hernandez: So they're um they're in North Dakota.
• 16:26
  Sylvia Hernandez: My grandmother gets pregnant, and so they decide, okay, we're gonna move back to Waco.
• 16:30
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so from that point, they settle here and are here, um, have been here permanently since.
• 16:37
  Crista Cowan: Wow.
• 16:38
  Crista Cowan: That that is hard work, uh, a lot of hard work.
• 16:42
  Crista Cowan: Um, but I love that they were so dedicated to taking care of their family that they did whatever it took.
• 16:48
  Crista Cowan: So, how many kids in your mom's family then?
• 16:51
  Crista Cowan: There were four.
• 16:52
  Sylvia Hernandez: Three of them had three of them had children.
• 16:54
  Crista Cowan: So okay.
• 16:55
  Crista Cowan: And it's interesting.
• 16:58
  Crista Cowan: So on your mom's side of the family then, um, were they Catholic or did they also join this Methodist church when they came to Waco?
• 17:07
  Sylvia Hernandez: Mom's side is Catholic.
• 17:08
  Sylvia Hernandez: Okay.
• 17:09
  Sylvia Hernandez: Yeah, yeah.
• 17:09
  Sylvia Hernandez: Mom's side is Catholic.
• 17:11
  Sylvia Hernandez: And they were actually Orthodox up until my great grandparents.
• 17:16
  Sylvia Hernandez: Um, what does that what does that mean?
• 17:19
  Sylvia Hernandez: They they were not Catholic.
• 17:21
  Sylvia Hernandez: I mean, it's very, it's similar to Catholicism, but it's not quite Catholic.
• 17:25
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so what happened was they're they're in this kind of very similar um faith situation, but they get to one of their anniversaries.
• 17:34
  Sylvia Hernandez: I don't remember if it's their 25th, they get remarried in the Catholic Church, and then from there they they're Catholic and the family's been Catholic since.
• 17:42
  Crista Cowan: Okay.
• 17:43
  Crista Cowan: And so when your parents met, was there any friction because he was not Catholic?
• 17:49
  Crista Cowan: No, there never really was.
• 17:52
  Sylvia Hernandez: Okay.
• 17:52
  Sylvia Hernandez: Yeah, I mean, he he converted to Catholicism um before they got married, and he he speaks of that experience with you know, with he loves that experience.
• 18:03
  Sylvia Hernandez: He talks about the priest who, you know, helped him with his catechism.
• 18:08
  Sylvia Hernandez: And like he very, very, you know, a touching experience, I think, for him.
• 18:13
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so yeah.
• 18:14
  Sylvia Hernandez: And it's really interesting because, you know, cradle cradle Catholics learn um scripture one way, but when you're more of a Protestant religion, you learn it differently.
• 18:24
  Sylvia Hernandez: So it's really interesting to kind of hear the way he speaks about scripture versus the way, you know, we've spoken with our mom about it.
• 18:30
  Crista Cowan: Yeah, that is what what is the difference?
• 18:33
  Crista Cowan: Can you articulate that?
• 18:35
  Sylvia Hernandez: He, for the most part, actually knows where in the Bible something comes from, and so can kind of identify that.
• 18:40
  Sylvia Hernandez: Whereas, you know, we hear it um in a Catholic Mass having grown up with it, and somebody will tell us if they're reading it to us, you know, during during that part of mass.
• 18:49
  Sylvia Hernandez: But it's like we don't study it the way that um a lot of Protestants do.
• 18:54
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so I think you know, there there's something to that that that I don't know, it it's different for both of us.
• 19:00
  Sylvia Hernandez: And I think both ways are good.
• 19:02
  Crista Cowan: So yeah, yeah, but I love that he's embraced that.
• 19:05
  Crista Cowan: I think that's really beautiful.
• 19:07
  Sylvia Hernandez: Yeah, yeah.
• 19:07
  Sylvia Hernandez: I mean, and he's very active with our faith community.
• 19:10
  Crista Cowan: So if you when you think about growing up, I just like I can't even imagine.
• 19:14
  Crista Cowan: Like I'm close with my siblings, and I, you know, knew three of my grandparents, but you know, they lived an hour apart, and I didn't always grow up with all of my cousins, but you lived in the community with first and second and third cousins.
• 19:28
  Crista Cowan: Um, some you knew, some you didn't.
• 19:30
  Crista Cowan: Like what is that like when you get together?
• 19:34
  Crista Cowan: Like, were there holiday get-togethers or family reunions, or what did that look like growing up?
• 19:39
  Sylvia Hernandez: Oh, it's it's even more familiar than that.
• 19:42
  Sylvia Hernandez: So on my mom's side, my grandpa actually out in the Lorena area, which is a little bit further south um of Waco, found a plot of 20 acres.
• 19:52
  Sylvia Hernandez: And on this 20 acres, it was subdivided into um four pieces of five acres each.
• 19:59
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so for a while it was my family was on one plot, my mom's brother was on one plot.
• 20:08
  Sylvia Hernandez: And then next door to that was her sister.
• 20:12
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so I on my mom's side, we grew up very close.
• 20:16
  Sylvia Hernandez: Um, in very close.
• 20:18
  Sylvia Hernandez: I mean, we were neighbors.
• 20:19
  Sylvia Hernandez: Um, so so that was, you know, closeness that that defines closeness, especially in that first cousin range.
• 20:26
  Sylvia Hernandez: Um, on my dad's side, the brother, um, we grew up with um one of his brothers' families um more closely.
• 20:36
  Sylvia Hernandez: They actually um they lived in Waco for quite some time and then they moved out to Lorena.
• 20:40
  Sylvia Hernandez: They did not go, they did not live in the same pro um area that we did.
• 20:44
  Sylvia Hernandez: They lived a little bit, you know, further out in Lorena, but we all went to the same school.
• 20:49
  Sylvia Hernandez: So I saw my cousins all the time at school.
• 20:52
  Sylvia Hernandez: So on both sides.
• 20:54
  Crista Cowan: The relationship you had with them, was it like, was it more like siblings or was it just more like classmates, or or did you like recognize the cousin relationship?
• 21:05
  Crista Cowan: And and what did that what did that look like?
• 21:07
  Sylvia Hernandez: We recognized the cousin relationship.
• 21:09
  Sylvia Hernandez: And I I think I mean we did for some um some time.
• 21:13
  Sylvia Hernandez: We ran in different circles.
• 21:15
  Sylvia Hernandez: I mean, we had different interests growing up, and so that that made it easy for us to kind of do our own thing, even though we had that familial relationship.
• 21:23
  Sylvia Hernandez: We were still allowed to be ourselves.
• 21:25
  Sylvia Hernandez: Yeah.
• 21:26
  Crista Cowan: Oh, that's so great.
• 21:27
  Crista Cowan: I love that.
• 21:28
  Crista Cowan: I adore my cousins.
• 21:30
  Crista Cowan: I wish I had been able to be that close to them growing up.
• 21:34
  Crista Cowan: Um, so I think that's for some people, I think that's a real gift.
• 21:39
  Sylvia Hernandez: It I mean, and it really has.
• 21:40
  Sylvia Hernandez: And I think as we've gotten older, it's like, you know, we were we were close to my mom's side um cousins because we were neighbors for so long.
• 21:48
  Sylvia Hernandez: We were closer to them, did a lot of family get togethers, birthday parties with them.
• 21:52
  Sylvia Hernandez: But I think as I've gotten older, um, I gravitate more and kind of um hang out with cousins on my dad's side.
• 22:00
  Sylvia Hernandez: And I don't know if that's maybe, you know, because we have similar interests at this age, or it's because maybe we're making up for lost time, or it's because we know that our grandparents are no longer around.
• 22:10
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so that kind of built-in relationship um is not there anymore.
• 22:15
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so we have to be better, you know, we're we're trying to be better about that and keeping those relationships intact.
• 22:20
  Crista Cowan: Yeah, you have to be more intentional about it for sure.
• 22:23
  Crista Cowan: And I think that's really lovely, like that you want to do that.
• 22:27
  Crista Cowan: I think that speaks volumes about the way that you were raised and those relationships, the importance of those relationships.
• 22:34
  Crista Cowan: So as you think about your grandparents on either side, um, were there um stories or traditions that were passed down that still show up in your family today?
• 22:44
  Sylvia Hernandez: Um, it's actually really interesting because there's one story that my dad likes to tell about how my families um they crossed paths multiple times before my parents got married.
• 22:56
  Sylvia Hernandez: So on my um mom's side, as I said, um that great-great-grandfather owned land.
• 23:03
  Sylvia Hernandez: Um and then on my dad's side, that great-great-grandfather worked land.
• 23:09
  Sylvia Hernandez: He actually worked the land of my mom's side.
• 23:14
  Crista Cowan: What?
• 23:15
  Sylvia Hernandez: Yes.
• 23:16
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so so that was kind of like the first generation that met.
• 23:21
  Sylvia Hernandez: Um, and so so it it's just really interesting to know that like those small world really is what it is that you know, the this one man's been come randomly to Waco.
• 23:34
  Sylvia Hernandez: This other man is fleeing the situation and comes randomly to the Waco area and happens to um be on this land, not knowing that, you know, three generations later something's gonna happen and those families are gonna unite.
• 23:48
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so he tells that, but there's also this second part of when mom's family goes to Laredo, they're down there for a little while.
• 23:59
  Sylvia Hernandez: My grand, my grandpa is a young man on that side.
• 24:02
  Sylvia Hernandez: Um, but also this is after World War II.
• 24:06
  Sylvia Hernandez: Um, my family on my dad's side has gotten their citizenship.
• 24:10
  Sylvia Hernandez: They've sponsored their sister to come up to the States, and so to do that um at that time, you have to pass through Laredo.
• 24:19
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so my grandpa is about 14 years old.
• 24:23
  Sylvia Hernandez: My dad's dad um is 14 years old at that time.
• 24:27
  Sylvia Hernandez: They get to Laredo, both of my grandpas meet, and they're they're friends for a little bit, and then something happened.
• 24:34
  Sylvia Hernandez: I think as teenagers.
• 24:36
  Sylvia Hernandez: As teenagers, they meet so crazy.
• 24:38
  Sylvia Hernandez: Yeah, and you know, they meet as teenagers, and you know, they're friendly for a little bit, and then my dad's family, they move to Waco.
• 24:45
  Sylvia Hernandez: My mom's family stays for a little while longer because we know they're about the same age.
• 24:49
  Sylvia Hernandez: Um, and so my dad's my mom's family stays a little bit longer and then they come back to Waco.
• 24:55
  Sylvia Hernandez: And unbeknownst to them, you know, their children meet as teenagers and get married.
• 25:02
  Crista Cowan: Wow.
• 25:02
  Crista Cowan: And and at what point in the family lore did everybody put these pieces together?
• 25:09
  Sylvia Hernandez: I think so.
• 25:10
  Sylvia Hernandez: When my parents got together and it was pretty serious, and the parents met, I think that's when they figured out that my grandpa my grandfathers knew each other.
• 25:20
  Sylvia Hernandez: Okay.
• 25:21
  Sylvia Hernandez: I think it took a little bit longer to realize about the other part, but but it was there.
• 25:27
  Sylvia Hernandez: Yeah.
• 25:28
  Crista Cowan: That's so cool.
• 25:29
  Crista Cowan: What a fun, like almost serendipitous right experience.
• 25:33
  Crista Cowan: Like they they were faded to be together, maybe.
• 25:36
  Crista Cowan: Yeah.
• 25:37
  Crista Cowan: Well, as you think about Christmas specifically, because this episode is gonna air on Christmas.
• 25:43
  Crista Cowan: Um what family Christmas traditions?
• 25:46
  Crista Cowan: Like you talked earlier about the nativity, and you know, you've got now this Methodist family and this Catholic family, and and did those Christmas traditions look different growing up?
• 25:58
  Sylvia Hernandez: Um, they kind of did.
• 26:00
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so, so on the Methodist side, we didn't really um do the church part of that.
• 26:07
  Sylvia Hernandez: We did more of the Mexican part of that, where we celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve.
• 26:13
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so, so that's what we did.
• 26:15
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so we would get together at my grandparents' house and you know, have Christmas.
• 26:21
  Sylvia Hernandez: We would have, um, I always remember she made tacos, um, or there were estamales, because estamales are popular Christmas things, so there was always those.
• 26:31
  Sylvia Hernandez: Um, just something that she always in general kind of had on her stove was a pot of mashed potatoes.
• 26:39
  Sylvia Hernandez: We we don't know.
• 26:40
  Crista Cowan: That doesn't seem very Mexican, which is not.
• 26:43
  Sylvia Hernandez: Maybe did she get that in North Dakota, maybe?
• 26:45
  Sylvia Hernandez: The other grandma, I don't know.
• 26:47
  Sylvia Hernandez: I mean, there there was a time where my my dad broke his jaw playing football, and so that's all he ate was mashed potatoes.
• 26:53
  Sylvia Hernandez: So I don't know if mashed potatoes came from that or I don't know.
• 26:56
  Sylvia Hernandez: There were just mashed potatoes, and so we've gotten together with cousins later on, and somebody said, I'm gonna bring the mashed potatoes.
• 27:02
  Sylvia Hernandez: Kind of a nice nod to that.
• 27:04
  Sylvia Hernandez: Yeah, we didn't I mean we celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve with that side.
• 27:09
  Sylvia Hernandez: With mom's side, um, we did the church thing.
• 27:13
  Sylvia Hernandez: We we went to mass, we still go to mass on Christmas Eve.
• 27:17
  Sylvia Hernandez: Um, and so when we were younger, we did this a few times where they would have midnight mass.
• 27:25
  Sylvia Hernandez: And at midnight mass, what they would do, they would have padrinos or sponsors, they would come in and to populate the nativity scene with the baby Jesus, they would line the center aisle and they call it the Royal.
• 27:38
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so it's where baby Jesus is in basically a bassinet, and you rock him back and forth.
• 27:44
  Sylvia Hernandez: The padrinos hold the little bassinet, rock him a little bit, and pass it on to the next one all the way up the center aisle.
• 27:51
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so from there, then he's placed into the um manger seat.
• 27:55
  Sylvia Hernandez: So that's what I remember as a young person going to that.
• 27:58
  Sylvia Hernandez: And I remember because my grandparents owned a store, they couldn't go to the children's mass, and so they went to the the midnight service.
• 28:06
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so that was all I remember them standing in the aisle, rocking the baby Jesus and putting him in.
• 28:12
  Crista Cowan: What a lovely tradition.
• 28:13
  Crista Cowan: I don't think I've ever heard about that before.
• 28:16
  Sylvia Hernandez: Yeah, yeah.
• 28:16
  Sylvia Hernandez: The my church doesn't do it anymore, and so I'm wondering if it that comes from the fact that the priest at that time was from Spain.
• 28:24
  Sylvia Hernandez: So I don't know if there's more of a Spanish tradition behind that or if it's it was just something that somebody in the church said, let's do this.
• 28:32
  Crista Cowan: So both families Christmas Eve, what did Christmas Day look like?
• 28:36
  Sylvia Hernandez: Christmas Day was um, we did celebrate that more kind of individually as our family, but we then got together with my mom's side of the family on Christmas Day.
• 28:46
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so there were 11 grandchild children total.
• 28:49
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so it's like kids everywhere, you know, open up, you know, big old mess from all the presents.
• 28:55
  Sylvia Hernandez: Um, but but yeah, I mean, but it was mostly about food and spending time with each other and playing outside with the cousins, even though we live next door to each other.
• 29:04
  Sylvia Hernandez: It was about going to grandma's house because again, those grandparents owned a store, and so they were never home.
• 29:09
  Sylvia Hernandez: We never got to visit them at their house.
• 29:11
  Sylvia Hernandez: So that we went Thanksgiving and Christmas to their house and got to spend the entire day with them.
• 29:17
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so that was always really fun to do that and to have that experience with our cousins.
• 29:22
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so the um because there were so many of us, the adults always wanted the kids to have a really good Christmas.
• 29:28
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so what they would do is um draw names for Christmas, and so you know, everybody's name goes in the cup, you pick one name, you buy a present for that one person.
• 29:37
  Sylvia Hernandez: So that happened at Thanksgiving, and then on Christmas, that's who you had.
• 29:40
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so my family actually still does that because again, there's the grandchildren, everybody wants the grandchildren to have a good time, and so it's draw a name at Thanksgiving, and then that's how you pick a gift for.
• 29:52
  Crista Cowan: I love that.
• 29:53
  Crista Cowan: That's fun.
• 29:54
  Crista Cowan: And of course, growing up in Texas, you can run around outside on Christmas Day.
• 29:59
  Sylvia Hernandez: Oh, yeah.
• 29:59
  Sylvia Hernandez: I mean, there there have been a couple of Christmases where it's shorts and t-shirts.
• 30:04
  Sylvia Hernandez: I mean, we we do prefer the ones where we get to wear, you know, kind of a hoodie or something, but yeah, it's it's so interesting because I grew up in Los Angeles and it was a very similar experience, you know.
• 30:13
  Crista Cowan: Um, but now I live in Utah and you know, Christmas is usually white.
• 30:18
  Crista Cowan: Yeah, yeah.
• 30:20
  Crista Cowan: Well, um, with your work, um, I saw an article online about some Christmas cards.
• 30:28
  Crista Cowan: And I would love for you to tell us a little bit about that.
• 30:33
  Sylvia Hernandez: Um, previously I actually worked as an archivist, and so part of that job was to um process collections.
• 30:40
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so processing means just organizing it and making it available for people to look at.
• 30:45
  Sylvia Hernandez: So, in doing this, oftentimes I run across different elements and things that are interesting, whether that's photographs or newspaper clippings or you know, somebody's story um that's out there.
• 30:55
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so with this particular one, um, these they were Christmas cards.
• 31:01
  Sylvia Hernandez: It was called the Pan American Round Table.
• 31:04
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so the scrapbook that these come from specifically is from the 1960s, and so you can kind of imagine that mid-century look, um, the way the stars are drawn, the way, I mean, kind of people are depicted a little bit more, people are a little bit more round-faced.
• 31:20
  Sylvia Hernandez: Um, there's just the color on them is absolutely beautiful, and then um just the the content of the cards is a little bit different than you see on a lot of them because it's the Pan American round table, you have this Hispanic influence to them.
• 31:37
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so again, deeply Catholic roots in Hispanic culture, you get um there's there's the nativity scene is there, you get um you get the star that guides the three kings to the baby Jesus, you get um it's it's a pilgrimage called the Posada, where it's Mary and Joseph looking for a place to stay um to birth their their child.
• 32:07
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so, so you get all these different pictures depicted on these.
• 32:12
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so for me, like to me, all of this made sense because these are things that I experienced.
• 32:17
  Sylvia Hernandez: Like having a donkey in the manger is very normal for me.
• 32:21
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so to see this picture of a little boy in you know traditional Mexican dress sitting on the top of a donkey with this very bright star above him, like that that to me is a very normal picture.
• 32:34
  Sylvia Hernandez: But when I went to show, you know, all of this to to some of my coworkers, they're like, I don't get it.
• 32:41
  Sylvia Hernandez: Like, like, really, and that and that's that to me was a little bit sad.
• 32:45
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so I decided to write this blog post.
• 32:47
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so this blog post kind of goes through and it talks about the very colorful depictions, it talks about the children, it talks about there's a pinata in one of them, and so it talks about, you know, the way the pinata reflects the star itself that guides them to the baby Jesus, you know, it talks about the posada and what that is and the significance of that.
• 33:12
  Crista Cowan: Can you explain the posada?
• 33:14
  Sylvia Hernandez: So the posada is um it's a reenactment of Mary and Joseph knocking on doors, trying to find shelter during um the lead up to the birth of Christ.
• 33:27
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so at our church, it it's happened a couple of different ways.
• 33:32
  Sylvia Hernandez: And when I was growing up, we would go from um building to building on the church grounds, singing songs and and asking for shelter.
• 33:42
  Sylvia Hernandez: You get turned away.
• 33:43
  Sylvia Hernandez: No, there's no room, keep going, find someplace else.
• 33:47
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so that happens over and over again.
• 33:50
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so when I was growing up, we would do that, and then we'd end up back in the church.
• 33:53
  Sylvia Hernandez: And then from there we'd sing and and um kind of have a gathering of you know, church celebration.
• 34:01
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so for me, that's all it was a very personal thing.
• 34:04
  Sylvia Hernandez: And I think that was one of the first personal things that I really wrote as an archivist.
• 34:10
  Sylvia Hernandez: Um, because again, I work at Baylor University, which is in Waco, Texas, where I grew up.
• 34:15
  Sylvia Hernandez: I did my undergraduate degree here at Baylor University.
• 34:18
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so it's like all of this is very familiar to me, but but it's not to others.
• 34:23
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so for me, it was a it was a really hard time to kind of explain to people look, this is this is my experience, and I really want to share that.
• 34:32
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so, so that's why I wrote this article.
• 34:35
  Crista Cowan: And it's interesting to me that people can live in the same city, have some of the same educational experiences, and yet live very, very different cultural experiences.
• 34:47
  Crista Cowan: Yeah.
• 34:48
  Crista Cowan: And that's a little bit what I'm hearing from you is that your coworkers, you know, some of whom are probably from Waco with just as deep roots there as you have, having very different cultural experiences.
• 34:59
  Sylvia Hernandez: Oh, yeah.
• 35:00
  Sylvia Hernandez: I mean, and it's very obvious in some respects.
• 35:03
  Sylvia Hernandez: I mean, I've had an opportunity recently to work on a class that is focused on my experience.
• 35:10
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so that's been really rewarding that somebody is interested in that and wants to share that with the students here.
• 35:18
  Sylvia Hernandez: Yeah.
• 35:19
  Sylvia Hernandez: Well, tell me tell me about that a little bit.
• 35:21
  Sylvia Hernandez: Sure.
• 35:22
  Sylvia Hernandez: So that class um was taught for the very first time.
• 35:25
  Sylvia Hernandez: It was called the Mexican-American Experience in Waco.
• 35:28
  Sylvia Hernandez: It was taught for the very first time in the spring of 2025.
• 35:32
  Sylvia Hernandez: Um, I actually worked with the professor.
• 35:34
  Sylvia Hernandez: He had been working on it for at least a year before I met him.
• 35:39
  Sylvia Hernandez: And then um over the summer of 2024, he actually stopped by in the Texas collection and spent the entire summer looking for materials related to the Mexican-American experience in Waco.
• 35:52
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so that was something that um I had been compiling a list since 2020 about that because there I mean, because I grew up with so many different stories that um in academia you have to have primary source materials for them.
• 36:08
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so I started keeping a list of what is the story that I hear about.
• 36:12
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so I found, you know, I found the church that my grandparents um helped, my great-great-grandparents helped found.
• 36:22
  Sylvia Hernandez: There was also um the first kindergarten for Latin American children in Waco was first hosted at that church.
• 36:31
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so I had heard about this story many, many times growing up.
• 36:36
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so another collection that I processed was from a um church women's group.
• 36:42
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so they were actually the main, that was one of the main ministries they had was with migrant farm labor.
• 36:48
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so to as I'm thumbing through these scrapbooks, I find pictures and newsletters about this kindergarten that I grew up hearing about.
• 36:58
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so that immediately there's joy and sadness and and so many different emotions that come in with that, because it's like if I wasn't the person who was um doing the work and processing that collection, nobody would have known about that information.
• 37:18
  Sylvia Hernandez: And because it's my personal experience being um input into this scrapbook, it's like, no, I know that you know, somebody's gonna want to know about this.
• 37:29
  Sylvia Hernandez: I want to know about this.
• 37:30
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so so it is very, very personal work that I do.
• 37:34
  Sylvia Hernandez: And and I think it's just it had to like all come together perfectly for me to be able to do this for everyone.
• 37:42
  Crista Cowan: Yeah.
• 37:42
  Crista Cowan: Wow.
• 37:43
  Crista Cowan: As a genealogist, I like God bless archivists.
• 37:47
  Crista Cowan: Like, we're so grateful for you.
• 37:49
  Crista Cowan: But to have such a unique experience to be an archivist in a community that is so, you know, integral to your identity and the fact that you recognize things in those collections as being part of your own family story.
• 38:04
  Crista Cowan: I like that's so powerful.
• 38:06
  Sylvia Hernandez: Yeah, I mean it really is.
• 38:08
  Sylvia Hernandez: I I every time I run across something that mentions my family or something about a story that I've heard growing up, I'm like, I have a notebook where I've started writing some of this stuff down because I want to be able to find it again.
• 38:21
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so, so that's that's really important to me to be able to find it again.
• 38:26
  Sylvia Hernandez: I mean, and having those notes is also important for classes like like that Mexican-American experience class.
• 38:34
  Sylvia Hernandez: Like, because want people to know the stories.
• 38:37
  Crista Cowan: Yeah.
• 38:37
  Crista Cowan: Um, we didn't talk about it, but do you have children of your own?
• 38:41
  Sylvia Hernandez: I do not.
• 38:42
  Crista Cowan: Do you have nieces and nephews?
• 38:44
  Sylvia Hernandez: I have a niece and two nephews.
• 38:46
  Sylvia Hernandez: Okay.
• 38:46
  Sylvia Hernandez: Yeah.
• 38:47
  Sylvia Hernandez: Five children, there's only three grandkids.
• 38:51
  Crista Cowan: Well, I don't have any kids either, so I understand being an aunt.
• 38:54
  Crista Cowan: Um, as you think about gathering with your family, maybe this Christmas.
• 38:59
  Crista Cowan: Like, I don't know what Christmases now look like in your family, but is there, you know, is there a gathering?
• 39:05
  Crista Cowan: Is there a means where you're passing those these stories on to the next generation?
• 39:10
  Sylvia Hernandez: There there is.
• 39:12
  Sylvia Hernandez: Um, we actually still attend Mass on Christmas Eve.
• 39:16
  Sylvia Hernandez: We go to the children's mass because of the kids.
• 39:19
  Sylvia Hernandez: Um, it's a little bit earlier in the day.
• 39:21
  Sylvia Hernandez: Um, and and we still kind of split it between Christmas Eve and um Christmas Day.
• 39:27
  Sylvia Hernandez: So we'll go to Mass, then we'll go out.
• 39:29
  Sylvia Hernandez: Um, so so that five acres of land that my parents lived on growing up, my siblings live on that same five acres now.
• 39:37
  Sylvia Hernandez: Um, my parents are still there, so they're neighbors.
• 39:39
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so it's been the lot has been subdivided.
• 39:42
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so so they make fun of me that I'm I'm one of the only ones that doesn't live out there.
• 39:46
  Sylvia Hernandez: And they're like, when are you gonna come and move out here with us?
• 39:49
  Sylvia Hernandez: But again, it it's it's very familial connectedness there.
• 39:54
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so um we usually go out there, sometimes I'll spend night with them just so I can wake up on Christmas morning with the kids and kind of see them open their gifts.
• 40:04
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so that's always I think for a lot of you know families is to do that.
• 40:08
  Sylvia Hernandez: But we'll do um we'll do we'll do dinner a little bit later of a dinner.
• 40:14
  Sylvia Hernandez: Sometimes there's tamales sometimes there's um just other other different kinds of foods.
• 40:19
  Sylvia Hernandez: And it's mostly kind of for us now as adults, we like to make it special for the kids.
• 40:24
  Sylvia Hernandez: And so we do stockings and those stockings get stuffed.
• 40:29
  Sylvia Hernandez: And and but but it's also one of those really big traditions to us though it's like we always want to make sure that there's an apple an orange and a few pieces of candy like those because we always got those growing up and there's different stories as to why um apples and oranges are included but that like for us we we do that because it was special to us growing up.
• 40:49
  Sylvia Hernandez: And then on Christmas day um get up open presents lots of Mexican food on Christmas day.
• 40:57
  Sylvia Hernandez: And then yeah and then we just and mashed potatoes not usually on on on this side but you know they pop up when we go and have Christmas with my cousins on my dad's side so fun.
• 41:11
  Crista Cowan: Well I love that.
• 41:12
  Crista Cowan: Sylvia thank you so much for sharing your family your heritage your stories with us I so appreciate that.
• 41:19
  Crista Cowan: As you think about what it means to be Texan what it means to be awake from Waco are they called Wacoans?
• 41:27
  Crista Cowan: Wacoans yeah what is that what does that mean to you?
• 41:31
  Sylvia Hernandez: It's a special place I've moved away a couple of times but it's always drawn me back.
• 41:36
  Sylvia Hernandez: And I think it's because my roots are so deep here like it it's just this is where I'm meant to be and what I do is what I'm meant to do.
• 41:44
  Sylvia Hernandez: Yeah.
• 41:45
  Sylvia Hernandez: Yeah.
• 41:46
  Crista Cowan: Well thank you.
• 41:47
  Crista Cowan: Right thank you and Merry Christmas.
• 41:50
  Crista Cowan: Merry Christmas studio sponsored by Ancestry