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The Casimiro E. Giron Collection The Casimiro E. (ès Monge) Giron Collection is housed at the University of Texas at El Paso Library Special Collections Department.  Visit the Library: UTEP Special Collections Department  The Casimiro E. Giron Collection at UTEP Casimiro E. (ès Monge) Giron, born in San Angelo, Texas, was the son of Casimiro Giron, who was born in the El Paso del Norte area before Texas became part of the USA, and Donna Maria ès Monge who was born in San Antonio, Texas. A photograph of Casimiro Giron circa 1887, attributed to McArthur C. Ragsdale in San Angelo, Texas:  Casimiro Giron was a pioneer of San Angelo, Texas and managed his own stagecoach line between El Paso del Norte, San Angelo, and San Antonio. He also carried mail on the stagecoach for a while for the USA government; when the railroads entered the area, he established a saloon in San Angelo which might have been called El Club de Bailes Mexicanos, where his son played music for social events. Giron's paternal grandmother was Clara Tellez Giron Mendoza de Ortiz who was also from the El Paso del Norte area and who eventually died in San Angelo, Texas. A photograph of Casimiro E. Giron circa 1887, attributed to McArthur C. Ragsdale in San Angelo, Texas:  The wedding photograph of Casimiro E. Giron and Josefina Cortinas in 1917 in San Angelo, Texas:  Casimiro E. (ès Monge) Giron, a musician, had his own orchestra in San Angelo, Texas. The residents of San Angelo, San Antonio, and even in Scottsbluff, Nebraska had annual festivals which celebrated Mexico's Independence from Spain, always on the 16th of September. Giron not only played the violin and guitar, but he also wrote music. He was extremely well known throughout Texas and eventually in Nebraska, where he moved during the Great Depression. Giron kept his music collection of twenty-five books and the following composers are included in his collection: A. Martinez Pedro Calzado P. Rodriguez E. Pena Felipe Buitron l. Villalobos M. P. Fraga Juventud Rosas A. Ballardo Pio V. Gonzalez M. D. Cisneros Jose R. Ramirez Juan Montemayor Agustin Lara G. Curiel M. Maria Valenzuela Ignacio Rodriguez Teo G. Boettger James V. Monaco Tom Turpin Armando Villarreal Octaviano Saldivar Casimiro E. Giron F. Aguilar Frantz B. N. Silva Francisco Guerrero A. B. Barrera E. Navarro Juan Pantoja George Botsford A. E. Oteo A. Garza C. Borel A. Pacheco A. Herrera R. Campodonico J. I. Cardenas J. R. Ramirez A. Guerrero P. Pena T. Snyder & F. E. Ahlert Domingo C. Rodriguez Leandro Cabrera A. Flores Jacobo Pedro C. Gamboa B. de Jesus Garcia J. M. Garza R. Hendel Brijido Munoz Gabriel Garzon C. H. Gutierrez Ed. Vigil y Robles O. Saldron Francisco H. del Rio Lee S. Roberts Ino Arnola Silbestre Rodriguez D. N. Nava W. C. Handy Scott Joplin Caballero Juan Cortez Rosendo Garcia The music the Casimiro E. Giron Orchestra played at the Club de Bailes Mexicanos included waltzes, polkas, mazurkas, fandangos, schottisches, marches, one-steps, two-steps, paso dobles, tangos, flamencos, jotas, fox trots, and rag. Giron collected the posters which celebrated the events. Though these posters are housed at the Special Collections Department of the UTEP Library, here below are photographs of them: 1910, San Antonio, Texas (25 1/2 x 38 1/2)  1910, San Angelo, Texas (16 x 23)  1922, San Angelo, Texas (16 x 22 1/2)  1925, San Angelo, Texas (Lists Prof. Casimiro Giron & Orchestra) (16 x 23)  1939, Scottsbluff, Nebraska (18 1/2 x 28 1/2)  Here below is the Giron family trunk which is housed in the El Paso Museum of History.  The placard below describes the trunk.  El Paso Museum of History 510 N. Santa Fe Street El Paso, TX 79901 (915) 351-3588 Visit the Museum: El Paso Museum of History |