Ramon Novarro (1899-1968)
I put the information below about Ramon Novarro's New Mexico origins on
Wikipedia, but they took it off because they said that it wasn't what
made him famous. He was from the Ortiz and Delgado families of Santa Fe.
Ramon Samaniego was born on February 6, 1899 in Durango, Mexico to Dr.
Mariano N. Samaniego. In his book Ramon Novarro, A Biography of the
Silent Film Idol, 1899-1968 (Jefferson:McFarland & Co.), 1999, pp.
5-6, Allan Ellenberger writes: "...the Samaniegos were an influential
and well-respected family in Mexico. Many Samaniegos had prominent
positions the the affairs of state and were held in high esteem by the
president. Ramon's grandfather, Dr. Mariano Samaniego, was a well-known
physician in Juarez. He received his doctorate from the Ecole de
Medecine of Paris, France, where he was the student of Jobert de
Lamballe, the surgeon of Napoleon III. Known as a charitable and
outgoing man, he was once an interim governor for the state of
Chihuahua and was the first city councilman of El Paso, Texas....
Ramon's father, Dr. Mariano N. Samaniego, was born in Juarez and
attended high school in Las Cruces, New Mexico. After receiving his
degree in dentistry at the University of Pennsylvania, he moved to
Durango, Mexico, and began a flourishing dental practice. In 1891 he
married Leonor Gavilan, the beautiful daughter of a prosperous
landowner. The Gavilans were a mixture of Spanish and Aztec blood, and
according to local legend, they were descended from Guerrero, a prince
of Montezuma." The family estate was called the "Garden of Eden".
Thirteen children were born there: Emilio; Guadalupe; Rosa; Ramon;
Leonor; Mariano; Luz; Antonio; a stillborn child; Carmen; Angel and
Eduardo. At the time of the revolution in Mexico the family moved from
Durango to Mexico City and then back to Durango. Ramon's three sisters,
Guadalupe, Rosa, and Leonor became nuns. Ramon Novarro's grandfather,
Dr. Mariano Samaniego, was born to Florentino Samaniego and Josefa
Delgado y Ortiz de Samaniego, the daughter of (Fernando Delgado y
Gracia de Noriega and Ana Maria Ortiz y Miera of Santa Fe, new Mexico)
in Janos (Sonora), Mexico on July 16, 1832 (the place and date given on
his medical school records in Paris). Florentino's grandfather was
Manuel de Samaniego del Castillo, a colonel in the Orden de Calatrava
and the first Count of Samaniego (Counts of Sierra Gordo), who came to
New Spain with his sister Doña Manuela and his brother Don
Bartolomé. They were the children of Bartolomé Samaniego
(son of Manuel de Samaniego Mazo and Maria de Tazon Cajiga) and Manuela
del Castillo (daughter of Antonio del Castillo Sancibrian and Manuela
de la Llata Pedraja). They went to live in Queretero, Mexico.
Florentino's father Don Bartolomé founded the branch of the
family in Durango.