Everyone learns something about their family history and in Alexander’s case the narrative came from his mother’s side. When his mom was a little girl, everybody would gather at her grandmother’s house to listen to the stories that she had been told, strictly ‘‘Californio’’ oral histories, mainly about the Ortegas from Santa Barbara.

There are more lines to his family too because some of his ancestors were in Alta California as early as 1769, while others came from New Mexico along the Old Spanish Trail. However, Alexander has spent 30 years trying to find answers to questions about his ancestors that came from New Mexico.