The Los Bexareños Genealogical Society can become proactive preservationists of Hispanic heritage as Consulting Parties under the National Historic Preservation Act and the Antiquities Code of Texas. This presentation is the initial step in a proposal to establish a Government Affairs Committee for the society as part of its Strategic Plan for 2010. The society would partner with the Texas Historical Commission and Federal Agencies on projects under state and federal review and request that project sponsors consider Hispanic genealogy, history, historic homesteads/ranchos, and cemeteries. The society also can be integral in the development of educational components for the larger sponsored projects that require Antiquities Permits. The benefits to the society would be greater exposure, membership, and book sales, and most importantly the preservation and dissemination of our heritage to the citizens of Texas.

Sergio A. Iruegas is the CEO, President and a Principal Investigator of GTI Environmental, Inc. He has a B.A. in History/Archeology and a M.A. in Archeology from the University of Texas at Austin. He has 23 years of cultural resource investigation experience, and a total of 5+ years as a National Historic Preservation Act Section 106 Federal Undertaking reviewer for the Texas State Historic Preservation Office/Texas Historical Commission (SHPO/THC) and the Massachusetts State Historic Preservation Office. He meets the Secretary of the Interiors Standards and Guidelines for Archaeology and Historic Preservation as a prehistoric and historical archaeologist, and is listed in the Register of Professional Archaeologists. As Program Administrator for the THC Archeology Division, Mr. Iruegas assisted in the development of numerous Programmatic Agreements. He has also co-authored numerous EA and EIS documents for legal sufficiency subject to NEPA.

As a Cultural Resources Director for private environmental firms, he has the required demonstrated managerial experience of a Task Leader for archeological and historic building investigations and documentation. As a Curatorial Assistant at Harvard University’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Mr. Iruegas worked with the second largest artifact assemblage in the United States that included cultural material from the Atlantic Coast, Mid-Western, Southwestern, and Pacific Coast States. Mr. Iruegas has served as a Principal Investigator in Texas, Arizona, Louisiana, and ten other states of the U.S. He has also served as an Expert Consultant/Expert Witness, and teaches historic preservation law courses for Continuing Legal Education International.

His professional affiliations include: Society of American Archeologists, Society of Historical Archeology, Texas Archeological Society, Council of Texas Archeologists, Sigma Xi – Scientific Society, and Register of Professional Archeologists. His specialties are: National Historic Preservation Act Section 106 consultation and ARPA Permit applications, NAGPRA consultation, Developing National Register Eligibility Research Designs, Data Recovery Plans, Cultural Resource Management Plans, Cultural Resource Sensitivity Plans; Preparing Environmental Assessment and Environmental Impact Statement documents; and Expert Consultant/Expert Witness services. He is also a member of the Los Bexareños Genealogical Society