Marla Daily - 5-16-2009 at 07:40 AM
Sunday, May 17 at 7:00 PM in the Loreto Mission garden, a celebration honoring the descendants of Loreto's first families, will be held in honor of
the release of the late Ann O'Neil's book, now translated into Spanish: Loreto Baja California, Primera Mision y Capital de las Californias.
The non-profit organization, Terra Marine Research & Education (www.tmre.org), made Ann's dying wish come true—that her book be translated into Spanish and made available to Loreto's youth. Estela Gutierrez,
formerly of INAH, translated the volume in honor of the memories of Ann and Don (Tio y Tia) O'Neil. Estela, now of Mexico City, will give a
presentation about the book on Sunday. Arce, Cunningham, Davis, De los Santos, Garayzar, Green, Larrinaga, Murillo, Perpuly, and Romero families are
among those included. Most of those interviewed for the book are now gone, but their stories remain.
Copies of this 294-page volume are 200 pesos or $15. ALL (100%) of the money from sales benefits OLEF: O'Neil Loreto Education Fund, which provides
scholarships to children wishing to continue their education, who otherwise would be financially unable to do so.
Groups and clubs such as Rotarians are welcomed to subsidize books for an entire classroom through a contribution to TMRE. Thanks to Linda Nichols and
Mark Spaulding of the Oceans Foundation, the first 100 books have been purchased for local school distribution!