Peras amb Vi Negre

Tres guapas, 2007, acrylic on canvas, 24x24 inches.

Notes for a Spanish Progressive Dinner~

My great-grandmother, Victoria Buenaventura de Avila de Gil was born on her family’s rancho near Jolon, California and baptized at Mission San Antonio de Padua in 1871.

This painting was done from her wedding photo...

Her parents were Maria Linares Avila and José María Gil, whose parents and their parent’s parents were Californios from the time of the second expedition of Juan Bautista de Anza sent west from Tubac by Carlos III in 1775.

The name José María Gil is first recorded at Mission San Antonio in 1782.

Spanish records of the Gil family are first found in the city of Santander, in the province of Cantabria.

There are Gils throughout Spain, most notably in Galicia where they married Hibernian Celts, and in Andalucía where they married conversos from Málaga and Granada.

Gils first appeared in the Americas in Chile in the 16th century.

Gramma Vickie's favorite dessert was Peres amb Vi Negre, an ancient recipe from Catalonia, from where, according to family legend, pear seeds were sent wrapped in the mantilla of the Duchess of Alba so that José María Gil would plant pear trees in the new world and the love between them never forgotten.