The Trunk

The Giron family trunk is now housed in the El Paso Museum of History.

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 (epmuseumofhistory.org)

My Father

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.

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.

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.

Photograph of Casimiro Giron circa 1887, attributed to McArthur C. Ragsdale in San Angelo, Texas

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, copies are posted below.

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)