By Steve Walker
Today we
celebrate Mother’s Day. It is the day we honor our mothers and
motherhood, maternal bonds, and the influence of mothers in society. It is
celebrated on various days in many parts of the world, most commonly in spring
in April or May.
Here in the United States it is designated as the second
Sunday in May which turns out to be the 11th this year. Last year it fell on May 12th and
next year it will fall on May 10th.
The modern holiday of Mother's Day was first celebrated
in 1908, when a woman named Anna Jarvis held a memorial for her mother in
Grafton, West Virginia. She then began a campaign to make "Mother's
Day" a recognized holiday in the United States.
It took until 1914 when President Woodrow
Wilson signed a proclamation naming the second Sunday of May as a day for
“public expression of our love and reverence for the mothers of our country.” This year we celebrate the
100th anniversary of Mother’s Day in the US.
When we think of the sacrifice many of our mothers who
have nurtured us all through our life, we can’t help but be thankful to them
and for them.
Look at many of our successful leaders in San Antonio who
have been significantly influenced and guided by their mothers. When you think of Mayor Julian Castro and
Congressman Joaquin Castro you immediately think of their success and the influence
that their mother Rosie Castro has made a difference in their lives. Both are
graduates of Harvard Law School and Stanford University. Rosie herself is well
educated and making a difference in the community on her own.
Then there is mother Belle Ortiz, the mother of State
Senator and Lieutenant Governor candidate Letica van de Putte who encouraged
her daughter to be a success in whatever she chose to do. A Pharmacist by
profession Senator van de Putte herself has positively influenced her children
which also includes a daughter who is a doctor and another who runs her
father’s business Dixie Flags.
Then we have mother Millie Duran, the Founder of the La
Prensa Education Foundation which has raised millions of dollars for
scholarships. Millie is the wife of La Prensa Publisher Tino Duran and mother
to sons David, Steve, and Tino Jr. plus two daughters Barbara and Nina Duran.
Nina serves as the managing editor of La Prensa and also serves as an adjunct
instructor at San Antonio College.
According to history Jarvis the founder of “Mother’s Day”
became very disappointed with its commercialization by the 1920s. Her mission was
to honor her mother with an official Mother’s Day, not commercialize it in her
words. Obviously it became so popular it was eventually adopted by numerous other
countries and is now celebrated all over the world.
In Mexico for example the government of Alvaro Obregon
imported the Mother's Day holiday from the US in 1922 marking May 10th
every year as Mother’s Day, with the newspaper Excelsior holding a massive
promotional campaign for the holiday that year.
In this tradition, in the early 1920s, Hallmark Cards
began creating and producing Mother’s Day cards so each person could offer a
gift, card, or remembrance toward their mothers, grandmothers, and/ or maternal
figure on that special Mother's Day.
We have come a long way in one hundred years celebrating
Mother’s Day. Just a suggestion would be to give your mother a “Happy Mother’s
Day” card if you haven’t already and perhaps take her out to dinner to a nice
restaurant.
As
always, I write just thought.
Steve
Walker is a Vietnam Veteran, former Judge and Journalist
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