Songs My Mother Sang to Me by Patricia Preciado Martin

Author:Patricia Preciado Martin [Patricia Preciado Martin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
Published: 2015-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

Virginia Gastelum

MY NAME IS VIRGINIA GASTELUM. I was born on October 18, 1908, at Estación Llano, Sonora, Mexico. My father’s name was Santiago Gastelum. He was born in Tubutama, Sonora, Mexico, in May 1866. Tubutama is in the Distrito de Altar. My father died in 1961, two months before his ninety-fifth birthday. My grandfather’s name was Guadalupe Gastelum. He was born in Tubac, Arizona, in the early 1800s. He died there when he was very old, when my brother Carlos was a baby. My grandfather was first married to Rosario Rosales. She was the mother of my father. I have her picture. Beautiful lady. And dressed so beautiful. I’m very proud of her. That’s why my younger sister was named Rosario.

After my father was born, my grandmother Rosario separated from my grandfather and went to California to live. She married again and had another family–three boys and a girl. My grand–father also married again–the second time to Margarita Ochoa. They had quite a large family. My father had ten half-brothers and sisters. Their names were Viviano, León, Guadalupe, José, Ignacio, Nicolas, Tomas, Librada, Ana Maria, and Manuela.

By that time my grandfather had gone to Mexico to live. I don’t know why. Many years later my father brought the family back from Mexico. They came in wagons and on horseback. They brought the goats with them, too. They were all American citizens because my grandfather had been born in Tubac. My father brought them because he wanted them to have a place to live where their lives would be better. He wanted them to know about the land. So everyone signed for a piece of land; their names are in the records in the court in Nogales. The family built a house, and they settled in Tubac for many years. My grandfather had a goat ranch, but he got old and sick and couldn’t walk, and so the sons had to take over. My grandfather Guadalupe is buried in Tubac. They still use the cemetery for the relatives; the funerals go all the way from Carrillo’s in Tucson to Tubac, except for my father. We made him understand that all our family is supposed to be together in Tucson.

They sold the homestead and all the brothers and sisters moved away. Some of their children have gone to Tubac to visit because they heard about the land, but everything has fallen into ruin. There is nothing left of the house anymore.

When my father was growing up in Mexico, his mother would write to him from California. My grandfather saved the letters and gave them to him to read. He told him, “When you are a man, I want you to go and meet your mother.” So my father came from his birthplace in Sonora to Los Angeles to find his mother. He came to the Tanque Verde where the Campas lived. They were my father’s uncles and cousins. He went there to leave his horses.

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