Jimi Victorino's Blog

Hoff Family
1978--three generations Hoffs--Dad (58), Bob (31, with eye patch from 3rd corneal transplant) and first son Jeff (just a few months old and now 35). Three generations of Hoffs; Erik, our youngest son, was born on Jeff's 10th birthday in 1988 and is now 25 years old and Darren, our second son, was born in 1984 and is now 29. Chris was 29 years old when Jeff was born.

My grandmother, Kathleen White Hoff, was a first cousin to William Allen White. He won two Pulitzer prizes, one for a "eulogy" for his daughter who was killed in a horseback accident riding as a teenager and one for his 1947 Autobiography. I am a fourth cousin removed to WAW and our sons are fifth cousins removed; two grandsons, Jimi Victorino Campos Hoff , 8-years old and Bane Drum Hoff, six-months old, are sixth cousins removed.

As a Kansas editor of The Emporia Gazette, White was famous for his journalism which attracted national attention for his political views and writing quality. The University of Kansas has named their school of journalism after him. He was a personal friend of former President Theodore Roosevelt, as well as other people who went to Emporia to seek him out and corresponded with him to find out his political views on national issues, as well as Kansas issues. Other famous visitors to his home in Kansas included former Presidents Herbert Hoover and Calvin Coolidge
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White said, "Reason has never failed men. Only force and repression have made the wrecks in the world."
"That peace without justice is tyranny."
"Liberty is the only thing you can't have unless you give it to others,"
"My advice to the American women is to raise more hell and less dahlias."
"I am not afraid of tomorrow, for I have seen yesterday and I love today!
"Consistency is the paste jewel that only cheap men cherish."
"The facts, fairly and honestly presented, truth will take care of itself."
About war: "The boys who died just went out and died. To their own souls' glory of course -- but what else? ... Yet the next war will see the same hurrah and the same bowwow of the big dogs to get the little dogs to go out and follow the blood scent and get their entrails tangled in the barbed wire"
"As a matter of fact student riots of one sort or another, protests against the order that is, kicks against college and university management indicate a healthy growth and a normal functioning of the academic mind."
"Youth should be radical. Youth should demand change in the world. Youth should not accept the old order if the world is to move on. But the old orders should not be moved easily—certainly not at the mere whim or behest of youth. There must be clash and if youth hasn't enough force or fervor to produce the clash the world grows stale and stagnant and sour in decay. If our colleges and universities do not breed men who riot, who rebel, who attack life with all their youthful vim and vigor, then there is something wrong with our colleges. The more riots that come on college campuses, the better world for tomorrow"

Farther back, one of our family ancestors fought as a colonist in the American Revolution.

William lived from February 10, 1868 – January 29, 1944

I have never been bored an hour in my life. I get up every morning wondering what new strange glamorous thing is going to happen and it happens at fairly regular intervals
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/w/william_allen_white.html#FYW1pTd9Gv7kfieD.99

Fernandez Family
On my wife's side, her father Cruz Fernandez:
- was an outstanding athlete in basketball & football in high school.
-the first Hispanic to graduate from Carlsbad High school in 1933
- played two years of football at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, NM
-worked for the sheriff's office in Carlsbad
-a graduate of the National FBI Academy in Virginia
-once teamed with a NM state policeman to chase two robbers into Carlsbad, shooting at the thieves' tires and caught up with them at the Carlsbad Caverns elevator building; the thieves split up and the law enforcement officers split up as well, the state policeman shot and killed the one he chased and Cruz bought back his man alive
-was known as "El Patron" (the boss) because he was always willing to help Mexican-Americans who needed help becoming U.S. citizens; was an interpreter in helping Hispanics in legal matters; helped and encouraged Hispanic families to keep their children in school and promoted good relations among African-Americans, Anglos and Hispanics.
-is still remembered in Carlsbad though he died in 1965
-has a city park named after him