History Of...

Welcome! I created this site as a place to record the tid bits of history of family members long gone. I realized that as I grew
older, I lost some of the oral history that my grandparents had passed down to me. Sadly, there are fewer and fewer people
left that can re-tell and even confirm some of the events that are starting to fade away.

I will be modifying ths site as I receive more material. Meanwhile I will start this site off with the History of ....my
greatgrandfather Ignacio Zulaica (also knowns as, Ignacio López Zulaica, Ignacio López Zulaica F., el Mayor López, and
Ignacio Zulaika.). I plan to expand this site to much more than just the Zulaica Family tree as I have time.

Please contact me if you have any information to share, if you have website design talent to share, or if you would just like to
say "hello, I'm here."

Ignacio's paternal last name was Zulaica, while his maternal last name was
Fuentes. He took his uncle's (Juan López) last name of López. In the
military, he went by Ignacio López Zulaica F.

Birthplace: Not Sure, but he lived in Zaragoza, Coahuila.

Fathers Name: Victor Zulaica
Mothers Name: Josefa Fuentes (mother's siblings: Jesusita, Maria, Manuelita,
Ricardo)
Siblings: Victor Lopez, Crescencio Zulaica , Andrea, Maria, Margarita,and
Juanita

Wife: Tomasa Garza Sierra
Wedding Date: June 10, 1908

Children: Leopoldo, Ignacio, Rita, Tomasa,Paula, Consuelo, Esperanza,
Aurora, Josefa, and several that died at birth or in infancy, a few other children
scattered through out the area.

Joined the 2nd Federation Auxilary Regiment--July 11, 1911 as a
1st Sargeant

Promoted to 1st Lieutenant in August, 1911

Some time in 1913 he joined the Constitutionalist Army ( 2nd
Division of the Northeastern Army). There is some discrepancy over
the actual date.

In 1913 he was promoted to Lieutenant

On October 24, 1913 he was promoted to 2nd Captain

He was promoted to Captain sometime before February 1914.

He was pormoted to Major sometime after April 24 but before May,
1914

He was wounded in battle May, 1915 during the battle to take
Monterrey.

He was granted an unlimited leave of absence in May, 1915 due to
his injury. He remained on this leave until his retirment in 1945.

Below you will find a link to letters cofirming Ignacio's service in the military. The letters were written
by General González Garza and General Arnulfo González Medina. These letters were used by
Ignacio to apply for his military pension.

The links will take you to PDF copies of the letters Spanish and an English translation. Translating
these letters was a bit difficult since they are basically one long run-on sentence, and some of the
vocabulary is archaic. I tried my best to keep the orginal flow of the content, and not to intervene too
much with the grammer and word order. Nevertheless I had to insert a few periods for clarity.

Pablo González Garza-letter confirming Ignacio's military
carreer

-Spanish pdf

-English

Arnulfo González Medina--letter confirming Ignacio's military
carreer
-Spanish pdf

- English

When Ignacio was six years old, his father handed him a hot
branding iron so he could learn how to brand cattle. The branding
iron was too heavy for him to handle. The iron slipped out of his
hands, and scorched his boot right down to his foot. Despite the
pain, Ignacio picked up the hot iron, and branded his cow.

Ignacio's fathered died while Ignacio was still a boy. Ignacio, with the
help of his uncle, Juan López, took charge of the three ranches his
family owned. Ignacio was very fond of his uncle, thus he took his last
name of López.