Augustina Muñoz
January 31, 2009
Here’s an article I wrote on my great grandmother.
Augustina Acosta Muñoz was born in Mexico by a lake called Chapala around 1873. She was daughter of Cosme’ Acosta.
Around the year 1900, Augustina married Martin Muñoz and the family moved to Abilene, Texas. The family eventually moved to Midland, Texas where Augustina earned 5 cents for every newspaper she sold. She was selling the now famous newspaper called La Prensa. Augustina sold the newspapers door-to-door for 10 cents. At the time the company that printed La Prensa was called ‘Lozano’.
The 1920 Midland County census shows Augustina was 47-years-old with three children ages 18, 5 and 1. The 1-year-old was my grandfather Maximo Acosta Muñoz. He was an avid reader, who never missed an opportunity to vote.
My family loves the story of Augustina peddling La Prensa in Midland, Texas. In the early 1900s, spreading a newspaper dedicated to the Hispanic people was potentially dangerous and had to be done underground.
Ironically, the only picture I have of Augustina Muñoz shows her mouth somehow smeared. I had a friend point out once how her missing mouth represented the oppression women and Hispanics endured during those early days in Texas. Nevertheless, my great grandmother knew the power of journalism and thought it was important to spread La Prensa.
Every time I pick up a copy of La Prensa, I’m reminded of my great grandmother. Little did she know, she was opening the doors for her descendants who would be allowed to finish High School and go to college. That idea of spreading the news lives on.
Augustina Muñoz died at age 92 in Midland, Texas in 1965.
Get up again
January 31, 2009
“…To dry my eyes and laugh at a fall,
and baffled, get up and start again…”
- Robert Browning
Results
January 31, 2009
“If you always do what you always did,
then you’ll always get what you always got.”
- Anonymous
The time is right
January 31, 2009
“The good neighbor looks beyond the external accidents and
discerns those inner qualities that make all men human
and, therefore, brothers.”
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
“The time is always right to do what is right.”
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
“We must accept finite disappointment,
but we must never lose infinite hope.”
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
Chance for FREE BOOK!
January 31, 2009
I’m doing an Author Interview with Writer and Editor Lillie Ammann.
Please comment at lillieammann.com for a chance to win a free copy of
Some Monument To Last.
The principle of right
January 31, 2009
“My only desire is to be right, and for this reason I can not nor will not sacrifice what my conscience and judgment tells me is right. I love the plaudits of my fellow citizens, but will never sacrifice the principle of right and justice for public favor or commendation.”
General, Senator and Governor Sam Houston of Texas
I’m enough
January 30, 2009
“Who I am is what I have to give.
Quite simply, I must remember that’s enough.”
- Anne Wilson Schaef
Successful business
January 30, 2009
“Wherever you see a successful business, someone
once made a courageous decision.”
- Peter Drucker
Dare to forgive
January 29, 2009
“Never does the human soul appear so strong
as when it forgoes revenge and dares to forgive an
injury.”
- Edwin Hubbel Chapin
Positive Thinking
January 29, 2009
“Positive thinking will let you do
everything better than negative thinking
will.”
- Zig Ziglar
