Wednesday, March 28, 2012

FAMILIA : LUJAN

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LUJÁN

In the province of Huesca in the region of Aragón in the country of Spain, lies the little village of Luján.  So some people were named after this town.  People named Luján moved around Spain, then to the Spanish colonies in America, spreading the name.  Eventually, someone named Luján came to the Marianas.  The name does not appear in the 1727 nor in the 1758 censuses, so the first Luján came to Guam after 1758 and all the Lujáns probably come from this one and the same person, though we can't be certain about that as we lack documents.  And I cannot tell you if this first Luján on Guam was a Spaniard, Hispanic from Latin America or Filipino.

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The tiny hamlet of Luján (population 15) sits in the Pyrenees Mountains in northern Spain

Luján used to have a bigger population, but, like many small rural villages, people left in the 60s and 70s for "a better life" in the bigger towns and cities.  Well, at least it's gone up from a population of 3 to that of 15.

HAGÅTÑA

The Lujans come from Hagåtña, although family members eventually moved south, which we'll get to soon.  The heads of Lujan families in Hagåtña in 1897 were :

Mariano Peredo Lujan married Luisa Perez Diaz.  He seems to be the founder of the Kapili clan of Lujans.  Joaquin Diaz Lujan, married to Ramona Ulloa Castro, may have been Mariano's son.

Salvador Diaz Lujan, by oral tradition, is the son of Mariano, but there is some question about his mother.  He is the founder of the Åtdot clan, which are the well-known Lujan of Aniguak.  Åtdot would be a Chamorro nickname of Salvador.

Virtud (Tainatongo?) Lujan.  He was a widower by the time of this census, and I don't know his deceased wife's name.  But he is the founder of the Bittut clan of Lujans.  Virtud=Bittut in Chamorro pronunciation.  I cannot confirm that Tainatongo was his middle name, but it must have appeared in some document if I made this notation.

Then we have some male Lujans on whom we have little information or who never married : Luis (whose mother was a Taitano), Matias, Jose, Silvestre, Vicente (the possible brother of Ana Rosario Lujan)

From the women, we comment on a few for various reasons.

Jose Lujan married Paz Santos, but those Lujan children became "better-known-as" Familian Paz because of her, the mother.

Paulina Lujan married Miguel Iglesias.  These two became the grandparents of Agueda Iglesias who married William Johnston and became known to us as Agueda Johnston of DOE fame.

Two Lujan sisters, Vicenta and Dolores, had as their middle name Tanoña (tano'-ña; his/her land).  One or both of them had several children out of wedlock, carrying on the Lujan name.

MALESSO'

Jose Aguon Lujan (from Hagåtña) married a Malesso' girl, Manuela Espinosa, and settled in Malesso'.  The Malesso' baptismal records survived the war (lucky them) so we have much more data on them.  Jose Aguon Lujan was the son of Joaquin Watkins Lujan, a mestiso with English blood, and Magdalena Aguon.  Manuela was the illegitimate daughter of Barbara Eguiguan Espinosa of Malesso'.  Eguiguan is a truly Chamorro name.  The Malesso' Lujans come from Jose Aguon Lujan.

INALÅHAN

The Inalåhan Lujans come from Jose Baza Lujan (from Hagåtña), married to Maria Cepeda Benavente.  Jose's sister Martina married a San Nicolas from Inalåhan.

LUHAN?  OR LUJÁN?

Some people think that the Lujans have a name that means luhan, Chamorro for "frightened."  But the two words are not pronounced the same.  Lujan has the stress on the second syllable; i.e. loo-HAN.  While the Chamorro word luhan has the stress on the first syllable, i.e. LOO-han.   It's pure coincidence that someone showed up on Guam having a Spanish last name that is similar in sound to a Chamorro word.

OUR LADY OF LUJÁN

trialx.com
BASILICA OF OUR LADY OF LUJÁN
Argentina

In Argentina is the city of Luján, where a famous statue of Our Lady is kept.  There she acquired the name Our Lady of Luján.

TWO LUJÁNS, BUT NOT CHAMORRO

boxnews.com.ua
Argentinian boxer Sebastián Luján

bgca.org

Former US Senator from New Mexico Manuel Luján

1 comment:

  1. Reading about the Lujan name is a surprise to me. My grandfathers name being Juan Lujan Fernandez which from family members say we are Chamorro. Question is where does the middle name of my great grandfather come from "Quitugua". Your story has me thinking of where the family names come from

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