Bienvenidos a Guanajuato, Mexico

The City of Guanajuato

Thomas Mitchell Blaise Shepherd Author Tom Blaise Shepherd Your Renaissance Host

pronounced gwa-na-hwa'-tow  (place of the frogs)

My family operated El Cedro Silver Mining Co. here many years ago. At the time, my father, Dudley E. Blaise Sr., was president of the company.   My older brother, John (Dudley Jr.) was born in Mexico City in 1937. I was conceived in the Guanajuato home of my parents, Clara Olive Snyder Blaise and Dudley Eugene Blaise Sr. in February 1938.   In March, mine workers went on strike at El Cedro and Mexican President Cardenas  expropriated the assets of 17 legally based American, British and Dutch oil companies, provoking a worldwide boycott of Mexican oil. Cardenas then sold Mexican oil to Hitler, thus fueling World War II.   My mom, for her own safety and for the safety of my brother, was evacuated from Guanajuato. She returned to her mother's home in the USA with my brother, where I was born in November. My father left Guanajuato during the spring of 1939, temporarily residing at the Reforma Hotel in Mexico City, at which time he apprised my mom by mail that he was abandoning us.   During the war, my mom worked at an American Army base. Following the war, she produced and directed variety shows for various civic organizations throughout the USA.   My mom obtained a divorce 10 years later.  At the time, she later learned, my father was residing in Bolivia. She then married Charles M. Shepherd, a native of England, who was treasurer of a Missouri based electric power corporation. He died by his own hand five years later.   After completing my primary and secondary education in Missouri, I continued my studies at the School of Philosophy and Letters of the University of Mexico in Mexico City in 1956, when I first met my father, who was then administrator and part owner of a Mexico City based firm, Hoyland Fagersta, S.A.  He was polite, although evasive.    I had a brief visit with him on a return trip to Mexico City five years later, during which time, in a very cool and nonchalant manner, he apprised me that for a mere $500 he could conveniently arrange to have anyone he so desired to be 'eliminated.' He was then owner and president of a firm known as Drilmex, S. A.    He died in 1988 at the age of 80.                                                                                                                                                         --Tom Blaise Shepherd

The Blaise Family Home - Paseo de la Presa - Guanajuato - 1938 highlight above picture for tour of house

Mother Clara Olive Snyder Blaise in Home Arboretum 'Garden of the Frogs'

Father Dudley E. Blaise

The Blaise Family: Father Dudley, Grandad Gene Mother Clara Olive, Grandad's Wife Marie The Gardens of Xochimilco

Brothers John and Tom Joplin, Missouri 1943 1943

Mother Clara Olive Blaise Holding John (Dudley Jr) Born in Mexico City 1937   view birth certificate

left click on any photo for more data

Ten years later, in 1949, my mom Clara Olive obtained a divorce from my father on grounds of desertion. She then married Charles Shepherd, a native of England, who died by his own hand in 1955.

My Philosophy My Architecture My Publications Autobiography

The Colonial City of Guanajuato Guide to Guanajuato Universidad de Guanajuato Wiki-View Realtor Guanajuato Summer Law Institute Pro Musica de San Miguel Allende

The Blaise Family History

The Shepherd Family History

Tom Blaise de Shepherd

Diego Rivera    Rivera II

A Photographic History of  (Tenochtitlan) Mexico City

Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico

History of Mexico      The Politics of  Silver and Black Gold

The Roman Empire and The Latin Culture Latin culture comprises All people whose ancestors are of the Holy Roman Empire to include the English, Germans, French, Hispanics, Portuguese and Italians. The languages of all of the above peoples are derived, in part, from Latin, which was the spoken language of the Roman Empire. View Map of the Roman Empire +

Tom Shepherd's 'Evergreen Post'