HISTORY OF THE SOCIETY

Turning Interest Into Action

It all started when a group of friends doing genealogical research at the Family History Center, discussed the belief that if they dug enough, they would find that most Hispanics in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas were related. From having that discussion, the idea of forming a genealogical group to help each other with information grew. Three people were selected to approach the local genealogical society to ask them if they would support a group of people specializing in Hispanic genealogy, with a separate meeting date and time. Upon agreeing, the Hispanic Genealogy Group was born in January of 2008. After two and a half years as the Hispanic Genealogy Group of the Tip O’Texas Genealogical Society, members decided to form their own society. The Rio Grande Valley Hispanic Genealogical Society was incorporated in July of 2010.

Meet The Team

Alfonso Guillen, Jr.
PRESIDENT

Alfonso Guillen Jr., was born to Alfonso Guillen Del Los Santos and Senaida Castillo Plata de Guillen,

Alfonso Guillen De Los Santos, was reared in San Benito, Texas. After high school, he attended Texas A & I University in Kingsville, TX and actively served in the U. S Army from 1971 until 1974 and in the U. S. Army Reserves from 1974 until 1996 when he retired as a Major.

After completing his undergraduate and graduate studies at Pan American University and UT Pan American, he worked for Mobay Chemical Co, Texas Tech University, and retired from Texas State Technical College in Harlingen as Provost.

He has been an active member of the Rio Grande Valley Hispanic Genealogical Society since 2014, and on November 2022, he was elected President of the Society. He volunteers as a museum tour guide at the Harlingen Arts and Heritage Museum and at St. Francis Xavier Church in La Feria, TX. He is an avid family researcher who has authored a two hundred- and seventy-five-page book titled A Son’s Story, depicting his family’s history. Alfonso and his wife Mary Esther Garza de Guillen have three children and five grandchildren.