Cleopatra may be best-known for her immense beauty and powers of seduction, but there’s far more to her story. However, it is prudent to note that there lies some doubt as to the precise details of her biography, as no contemporary accounts of her life exist. Much of what is known about her is the result of the work of Greco-Roman scholars, particularly Plutarch.
In her lifetime, Cleopatra co-reigned ancient Egypt for almost 3 decades, first with her two younger brothers, and later with her son. Though forced to flee Egypt shortly after her ascension to the throne by her brother and co-regent, Cleopatra returned backed by the force of Julius Caesar’s army, and resumed her reign of Egypt.
Later, Cleopatra further strengthened Egypt by negotiating the return of much of Egypt’s eastern empire, as well as large portions of Syria and Lebanon, in exchange for providing funds for Mark Antony’s campaign against the kingdom of Parthia.
Unfortunately for Cleopatra, as the result of a feud between Rome’s ruler, Octavian, and Mark Antony, Octavian waged war on Egypt. Less than a year later, Octavian’s forces defeated those of Cleopatra and Antony. This left Cleopatra without a throne, as well as her lover Antony, and solidified Octavian’s consolidation of power in Rome. It is theorized that Cleopatra took her own life, and was buried, at her request, next to Antony’s grave.
Though Cleopatra is most commonly recognized due to her affairs with powerful men, Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, the accounts of her military cunning and unification of Egypt should not go unnoticed. She was a strong female leader who led her country for 3 decades. For this, we recognize her as one of the many notable women in history.
Can any of us really picture America the Beautiful without also instantly picturing such majestic places as the Yosemite, Yellowstone, or the Grand Canyon? National parks have been part of our collective image of America for so long, that it’s tempting to think of them as having always existed. But this isn’t the case.
How did America’s National Park Service get its start? When was it created and why? Here we’ll explore the answers to these questions, and more.
When Were the First National Parks Created?
It goes without saying that some natural places are so special, that protecting and preserving them for all time seems like a no-brainer. However, the creation of the national parks we know and love so well today wasn’t as obvious or as easy as you might think.
The parks themselves were born in the mid 1800s because a relatively small group of Americans felt it was important to preserve these wonderful places for all time and for everyone. These were folks that truly felt these natural areas were every bit as significant and important as the celebrated cathedrals and castles of Europe – wonders worth celebrating and protecting.
How It All Started
The national parks movement started with Yosemite, a California valley so majestic and beautiful it had even inspired overseas visitors to demand its protection. Settlers from the east were moving relentlessly westward, civilizing the region and changing it forever. No one wanted to see places like Yosemite fall victim to progress.
Beautiful writings and widely published narratives from the likes of John Muir helped bolster a growing awareness of the beauty of such lands. The resulting advocacy would eventually drive the creation of America’s first national parks.
A picture of Old Faithful, Yellowstone’s most famous geyser. Reprinted from Yellowstone National Park.
Yosemite itself officially came under protection during the Civil War thanks to President Lincoln. However, Yellowstone would become America’s first bona fide national park when Ulysses S. Grant designated it as such in 1872. More parks would follow in the years to come, including five new parks during Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency. Roosevelt would also designate 51 bird sanctuaries, more than 100 million acres of national forest, and 18 national monuments.
The Need for Management
As the number of designated national parks grew, so did the need for an official management system. Quite a few of the parks lacked organized protection, not to mention funding. This left their potential future in jeopardy. This was especially the case once those in the hotel, railroad, sawmill, and ranch businesses began to spot potential opportunity in the area.
Something needed to be done to prevent opportunists from over-exploiting these resources. That’s when a number of government officials, including forester Gifford Pinchot, came up with the idea of a forest service that would address the problem of unchecked exploitation and ensure that any utilization of associated natural resources would serve the greater good.
A number of different decisions came about as a result. These include but are not limited to the 1913 damming of Yosemite’s Hetch Hetchey Valley for the benefit of the water supply in San Francisco.
The National Park Service Is Born
Even so, there were also those who felt checks and balances, when it came to utilization of America’s resources, weren’t enough. They cried out for a federal management system that would preserve these areas officially.
Stephen Mather was just such a person – a millionaire industrialist that felt a dedicated National Park Service was the answer. In 1915, he started a crusade to accomplish exactly that with the support of the media, various industrial icons, and even the National Geographic Society. He would succeed when the National Park Service as we know it today was created in August of 1916. Mather would also become the service’s first director.
Today, the National Park Service system protects nearly 400 national parks, seashores, battlefields, national monuments, and more. This accomplishment was, of course, not accomplished without sacrifices: As parks were created and the inevitable associated settlements grew, native peoples were displaced.
Investing in these important natural areas and historically significant areas has been an important part of preserving the spirit of America for now and for all time. Thanks to these efforts, we can enjoy the full majesty of these areas today, as our children and grandchildren will be able to do after us.
Clair DeLune, author of South Carolina Blues, shares her list of a dozen (plus!) things you might not know about South Carolina blues.
1. The predecessor to the banjo was a stringed gourd, and the predecessor to the guitar was a diddley bow, which was a metal strand nailed to a board and plucked while pressing down on the fretless board. Early performers who made the most of what they had included Pink Anderson, from the Upcountry of South Carolina, who was one of the major influences for the British blues band invasion, serving as inspiration for half the name of the (then) blues band, Pink Floyd. Floyd Council, a sometimes partner to Anderson, also performed on the South Carolina Medicine Show circuit, helping hawk patent medicines, colloquially referred to as “snake oil.” Hear Pink Anderson sing about how he likes his collards cooked in “Greasy Greens.”
2. South Carolina was the source of four major international dance crazes: the Charleston, the Big Apple, the Twist (Chubby Checker was from the Andrews area of South Carolina) and the beach music dance sensation that has become the official state dance of South Carolina, the Shag. The Cakewalk, an 19th century dance that was popular for many decades, contributed to the evolution of subsequent dances based on African rhythms, including the Charleston, the jitterbug, and the Big Apple, which eventually influenced the growth not only of blues, but also jazz and ragtime music. Hear James P. Johnson, one of the Jenkins Orphanage Band members, play his original composition, “The Charleston.”
3. The Big Apple dance made its debut in the early 1930s at the former House of Peace Synagogue, a two-story wooden nightclub owned by Frank “Fat Sam” Boyd. The dance was invented by African American youths, who created a variation of the Gullah ring shout, at what was then the Big Apple Club on Park Street in Columbia. See the Big Apple Dance performed by the Savoy Dancers, leading to the NYC craze and adoption of the nickname for that city (look for elements of the Charleston) prompted by the second dance craze that emanated from a South Carolina city.
4. One of the first integrated singing groups emerged on the Ashley Plantation around the turn of the 20th century. Mabel Ashley, the plantation owner’s wife, organized what was then called a “Negro chorus” that performed each weekend. While we are fortunate to have previously unpublished photos of this group in “South Carolina Blues,” by Clair DeLune on Arcadia Publishing, there was no video at that time. The University of South Carolina School of Music Gospel Choir offers the Festival of Spirituals, with a video about the source of spiritual music.
5. Bertha Hill was one of South Carolina’s finest contributions to the era of the classic blues women of the 1920s. One of 16 children, Hill ran away from home at age 11 to work in vaudeville for Ma Rainey’s Rabbit Foot Minstrels. Known as “Chippie” because of her youth, Hill sang with Louis Armstrong. Tragically, in 1950, she was killed by a hit-and-run driver in New York City. Charleston’s Chippie certainly had “Trouble in Mind,” from 1926.
6. The song, “Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues,” was recorded by legendary Louisiana bluesman Lead Belly as well as many other blues and folk singers. While reportedly written by a disgruntled mill worker in Winnsboro, S.C., it is based musically on Lead Belly’s “Alcoholic Blues.” Pete Seeger’s live performance of Winnsboro Mill Blues explains the genesis of the song.
7. The lyrics, “When I die don’t you bury me at all; Hang me up on the factory wall; Place a bobbin in my hand; So I can keep on a-workin’ in the promised land” were not present in Lead Belly’s version on his “Final Sessions” album, but his rendition remains a version with great spirit and verve. Hear Lead Belly sing the original source of the song.
8.As “the Elvis of his day,” Josh White was one of the most popular singers of the 1930s, becoming the first African American artist with a signature guitar line and the first black male to integrate a singing act with a white female partner. A writer and singer of protest songs, he advised a president about social justice issues, but was eventually blacklisted for “un-American activities,” which adversely affected his career. Listen to: “Jesus Gonna Make Up My Dying Bed.”
9. Country guitarist Chris Bouchillon, from Oconee, invented a popular trend in music called “the talking blues,” which often featured comedic and often double-entendre-filled patter, at times featuring a comedy routine between him and his wife. Talking blues became all the rage in the early recording days of the 1920s, but soon faded into obscurity. Listen to his “Hard Luck Blues.”
10. Eartha Mae Kitt, a native of the town of North, near Orangeburg, who was once called “the most exciting woman in the world” by Orson Welles, enjoyed several Top 10 hits, including the everlasting sexy Christmas classic, “Santa Baby.” She leapt from recording fame to the stage and screen, being the first of several actresses to purr her way through the kitschy role of Catwoman on the original Batman television series of the mid-60s. Seen here singing live on television in the late 80s, she proves she never lost her appeal, on “I Want to be Evil.”
11. A National Endowment for the Arts Heritage Fellow for 2015, Drink Small – now an octogenarian – left his family sharecropping farm to play the Apollo in New York City as a guitarist and bass singer for the Spiritual Aires. Sister Rosetta Tharp later hired him to tour with her band, and in the early 1960s, he finally made the leap, as he describes it, “from Hallelu-jah to Boogaloo-ya,” with his first non-gospel recording, “I Love You Alberta.” His most recent leap was playing a tribute to the first black president of the United States at Lisner Auditorium in Washington, D.C. in October of 2015, achieving his dream of going “from the farm house, (almost) to the White House.” Here he performs with another S.C. legend, Kip Anderson, backed by North Carolina’s King Bees. “I Love You Alberta” was pressed in 1964 and is now quite rare. It was recorded during the same sessions that Kip Anderson recorded his first 45 RPM records, featuring Small on guitar. Listen to that rare session.
12. Born to a teenaged mother and a young father in a wooden shack in Barnwell, James Brown was raised in Elko, S.C., then spent his formative years in his aunt’s brothel and his later years in a detention center in the Aiken/N. Augusta area (see below). In between, he played with Drink Small and Mac Arnold in his very early years of making music. The author of South Carolina Blues shares a clip of a life-changing TV appearance that she saw live, with Brown passionately singing “Please, Please, Please” in the early ’60s to a nearly hysterical audience of young, teenaged fans; and here showing his fancy footwork on “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag.”
13. Nappy Brown, who lived in Pomaria (near Newberry) for over 30 years, is one of the performers who helped break color barriers with music. Elvis Presley made it a point to see Brown perform live every chance he got. Nappy influenced Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Little Richard, Buddy Guy, and Ray Charles. Here he dazzles a live audience in Finland in 1999 with the song he wrote, and which Ray Charles later covered, “Night Time is the Right Time.” Image: Nappy Brown in performance. Courtesy of the Nappy Brown collection.
Santa Fe, New Mexico is surrounded by the Sangre De Cristo and Jemez mountain ranges. For generations the area has been considered a sacred place for healing, reflection, and transformation. Spiritual seekers of every kind have flocked to the city and surrounding mountains on a quest for life’s answers. No particular religious belief holds sway over Santa Fe; it’s a spiritual equal opportunity destination where many have found solace or awakening.
A Brief Spiritual History
Anasazi and Pueblo Native Americans have revered the sacred high-mountain landscape for centuries. By the 17th century, Spanish Catholics arrived and coined Santa Fe the City of Holy Faith. Presbyterians and other European Christian religions began to call Santa Fe home by the mid-1800s. Eastern religions began arriving in the 1900s. Buddhism, Sikhism, the four lineages of Tibetan Buddhism, New Age and New Thought practitioners, nature based UDV followers of Brazil, and countless others dotted the mountain landscape, all drawn, either consciously, or not, by the energetic pull of something greater than themselves.
Santa Fe is flush with opportunities for every seeker, regardless of their commitment (or lack thereof) to a particular religion. Healers and shamans, writers and poets, yogis and body workers, and all types of artists from painters to sculptors have been drawn here for years. Maybe it is the sacred ruins of the area, the epic mountain vistas, the restorative hot springs, or the stars themselves that bring people here, but the attraction is undeniable even to the most hardened skeptic. Ana Pacheco, City of Santa Fe historian, explores this phenomenon in her book, A History of Spirituality in Santa Fe: The City of Holy Faith.
Sacred Sites in Santa Fe
If you find yourself inspired to experience Santa Fe for yourself, there are several locations that have resonated with seekers before you, some of which may appeal to you, as well.
Chimayo
A favorite among Christian pilgrims is Chimayo in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains outside of Santa Fe. The shrine there is believed to mark the spot of a miracle where a friar unearthed a six-foot crucifix. Since then, thousands of pilgrims have visited the crucifix for healing – either physical or spiritual. Visitors are allowed to remove a handful of holy dirt from where the crucifix was found. The pile of eye glasses, crutches, and other medical devices is a testament to the healing sought here.
Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi
This Cathedral is at the end of Old Santa Fe Trail on Santa Fe Plaza, the historic epicenter of Santa Fe. Built in 1610, it is home to the oldest statue of the Virgin Mary in the U.S. Its stained glass windows are from France and depict the 12 apostles. If you are as interested in the history of Santa Fe as the spiritual architecture of the city, Santa Fe Plaza is the place to begin your exploration of both.
Temple Beth Shalom
Spiritual home to around 350 families, the synagogue is open to practicing Jews, secular Jews, non-Jews, the LGBT community, and all others of every race, background, and persuasion who feel an internal connection to Judaism, or Jewish life. The progressive and reformist synagogue houses two historic scrolls: the Las Vegas Torah, a scroll of the Ten Commandments, and a Holocaust scroll from Czechoslovakia. One of the synagogue’s commitments is to tikkun olam – “repairing the world,” which they put into practical application in the city of Santa Fe.
Upaya Zen Center
This Buddhist center welcomes people of every faith for daily meditations and weekly dharma talks. Located a few miles outside of Santa Fe, it provides a quiet space in nature to step away from the busy-ness of life and experience a quieting of the mind and engagement with silence. A vegetarian lunch is available after the noon meditation, and the center offers programs and retreats for interested seekers.
Santa Fe Activities for Body, Mind, and Soul
There are a number of activities in and around Santa Fe that encourage visitors to stay in the present moment and appreciate what is in front of them. Climb the stairs to Cross of the Martyrs, which honors 21 slain Franciscan Monks. You’ll find an expansive view of Santa Fe. Yogihiker provides a guided 2.5 hour trek through nature combined with simple meditative poses along the way to connect with the earth and yourself.
Forty-five minutes outside of Santa Fe is Bandelier National Monument, where you can explore centuries-old archaeological sites, cliff dwellings, and petroglyphs to connect with the ancient past. You can spend contemplative time with the works of artist Georgia O’Keeffe at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, the only museum in the world solely dedicated to an internationally renowned female artist.
This is, by no means, an exhaustive list of spiritual connections, practices, and spaces in and around Santa Fe. It is, in fact, a small taste of what is awaiting you here. If you’re ready to commune with like-minded people or take a solitary retreat, reading about The City of Holy Faith should be your first step.
Old cemeteries can seem like sad places, but in places like Savannah, Georgia, they can also serve as a portal to history. Every year, tourists from all over the world visit Bonaventure Cemetery to learn the stories of the town’s most intriguing residents.
This beautiful graveyard contains stunning memorial sites that have informed the cultural landscape of the town. The gothic statues, hanging Spanish moss, and dramatic trees create an unforgettable experience for visitors.
The cemetery has a storied history worth exploring. While it began as a private, family-owned plantation, it is now a public cemetery, where Savannah residents can purchase interment rights for their final resting place.
The Beginnings of Bonaventure
The Bonaventure estate was originally a private plantation named Evergreen, a name that changed after the American Revolution. It spanned over 60 acres, and the owner, John Mullryne, who was a British loyalist, played an active role in politics.
Fortune seemed to be on Mullryne’s side when he first settled in his new home on Saint Augustine Creek. He built the Tybee lighthouse in those early years, earning the admiration of his fellow citizens.
However, this prosperity did not last long. At the onset of the Revolutionary War, American patriots branded British loyalists as traitors. Soon afterwards, local authorities starting seizing property and auctioning it to the public, including the land of Mullryne and his son-in-law, Josiah Tattnall.
Tattnall later reacquired the property and gave the plantation the name Bonaventure, which means “good fortune” in French. The family lived there until 1803 when the last member of the lineage passed away. The Tattnalls were the first family to be buried on the property.
Later years at Bonaventure
Over the years, Bonaventure changed hands several times. The property remained private until 1846, when a wealthy hotel owner named Pete Wiltberger bought the place. It was Wiltberger who thought to include a large part of the land as part of a seventy-acre cemetery. He incorporated the ruins of the original plantation house, using the beautiful, oak-lined roads to separate the cemetery into different sections.
In 1907 the city purchased the land and made it an official, public cemetery.
The Cemetery
In his book, A Thousand Mile Walk to the Gulf, naturalist John Muir wrote:
“Bonaventure is called a graveyard, a town of the dead, but the few graves are powerless in such a depth of life. The rippling of living waters, the song of birds, the joyous confidence of flowers, the calm, undisturbable grandeur of the oaks, mark this place of graves as one of the Lord’s most favored abodes of life and light.”
Yet, the words from his book only touch on the intense level of inspiration one feels once entering the grounds. The paths are home to butterflies, birds, endless roses and azaleas, snakes, and dark oak trees that tower over its visitors. The Spanish moss that hangs from the trees adds to the haunting Gothic effect, enticing you to walk deeper into the cemetery.
Muir slept on graves in the cemetery when he was broke, disregarding the local tales about phantoms wandering the grounds. He claimed it was “an ideal place for a penniless wanderer,” and said he felt closer to God while there.
The beautiful statues, local legends, and the cemetery’s reputation make any visit to Bonaventure Cemetery truly thrilling.
A Legend of Bonaventure
One of the most famous statues from the cemetery is known as Little Wendy, also known as Bird Girl. Visitors may recognize her from the cover of the popular 1994 book, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt.
The statue Little Wendy stands with a bowl in each hand and her head inclined to one side. The sculptor supposedly modeled her after Little Gracie Watson, the beloved daughter of a hotel owner, who died at a very young age in 1889. The sculptor, John Walz, created the life-size memorial using only a photograph, and this statue has captured the interest of every visitor to the cemetery.
Many locals claim the ghost of Little Gracie haunts her plot. For years, people have reported seeing a little girl that fits her description playing in Johnson Square, where her father’s hotel once stood. The legend claims she appears as a normal, living girl in a white dress who vanishes without a trace when you get too close.
Many famous people have been laid to rest there, including notable author Conrad Aiken, and the singer/songwriter Johnny Mercer. Bonaventure Cemetery continues to delight people with its stunning memorial sites and the rich tapestry of the southern residents that call it home. Bonaventure Cemetery may contain some haunted legacies, but it is an enchanting place that transfixes every visitor that enters its gate.
Long considered America’s national pastime, baseball took off in New York during the 1860s and remains quite popular today. Over time, baseball has spread throughout the world, creating numerous international leagues.
Mexico and several countries in Central and South America are hot spots for the talent that breathes new life into Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States. In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, here’s a look at some current and former Mexican-American superstars who distinguished themselves as some of the top players in the game.
Álejandro (Alex) Treviño and Carlos (Bobby) Treviño
Alex Treviño is a retired professional baseball player of Mexican heritage. As a catcher, he played for six MLB teams over the course of 13 seasons, from 1978 to 1990, including the New York Mets, the Atlanta Braves and the Houston Astros.
After retirement, Alex Treviño became a Spanish-language broadcaster and baseball analyst for the Astros. During his tenure in the big leagues, Alex Treviño played in 939 games, logging 604 hits, a .249 batting average and a .310 on-base percentage.
Alex’s older brother, Bobby Treviño, also played professional baseball in the MLB. An outfielder, Bobby began his career with the Mexican team that won the Little League World Series in 1958. He started his professional career in the Mexican Baseball League in 1964 before being called to the majors in 1968 by the Los Angeles Angels.
Bobby Treviño set a record during the 1969 season, with a base hit during the first 37 games. Despite his strong performance, the Angels sent him back to the Mexican League in 1970, where he took a management role for the next two decades.
Julio Urías
Mexican national Julio Urías currently pitches for the Los Angeles Dodgers. He joined the roster in 2012, starting his professional career just days after he turned 16.
During his tenure in the minor leagues, he won an invitation to the World team at the 2014 All-Star Futures Game, and he secured the title of the Dodgers Minor League Pitcher of the Year in 2014.
The Dodgers called him up to the majors that same year. He made his first start against the New York Mets on May 27, 2016 at 19 years old, making him the youngest starting pitcher to debut in the majors since 2005.
When the Dodgers met the Washington Nationals in the 2016 National League Division Series, Urías picked up the win in game five after two successful innings of relief pitching. He also set a record as the youngest Dodgers pitcher to ever pitch in the post-season.
No stranger to adversity, during the 2017 season, Urías spent most of the season dealing with a torn anterior capsule in his left shoulder, resigning him to the bench while he heals. As a child, Urías developed a benign mass on his left eye. Although he can see through it now, the eye remained nearly closed for much of his life until he had elective surgery in 2015 to correct the condition.
Urías often jokes that God “gave me a bad left eye but a good left arm.”
Marco Estrada
The Washington Nationals selected Marco Estrada, another great Mexican pitcher, during the 2005 draft. In 2014, the Nationals traded Estrada to the Toronto Blue Jays where he currently takes the mound.
Estrada has the unfortunate distinction of being the first player since 1988 to lose back-to-back, no-hit bids in June of 2017. However, during that same month, he set two more records for allowing five or fewer hits in ten consecutive starts, with eleven straight starts pitching six innings with five or fewer hits. Estrada made the MLB All Star team for the first time in 2017.
Óliver Pérez
Pitcher Óliver Pérez began his career with the San Diego Padres in 1999, and has played for quite a few teams since joining the MLB. His esteemed career has included stints with the Washington Nationals, Pittsburgh Pirates, New York Mets, Seattle Mariners, Arizona Diamondbacks, and the Houston Astros. In 2015, he returned for a second alignment with the Washington Nationals, where he currently has a 3.75 ERA for the 2017 season.
In addition to his long career in the MLB, Pérez has also competed as a member of the Mexican national baseball team three times in the World Baseball Classic in 2006, 2009, and 2013.
Final Thoughts
Both Hispanics and Mexican-Americans continue to shape the competition in the MLB. These superstars help elevate America’s National Pastime in new, exciting ways. During Hispanic Heritage Month, tip your hats to these amazing players and look forward to their legacy to come to fruition for many decades!
