Joe & Odelia
By Larry J. Rodarte for the Diaz Observer
Odelia Rosas came from Brownsville, Texas, in the dry heat of the border town near Matamoros, Mexico. Jose V. Diaz, while seven years her senior was from the borders of Huandacareo, Michoacan and Piñicuaro, Guanajuato. His family had migrated to Houston, Texas living in a modest house on Bell St. She was very fair skinned and he was dark like many Indians from that region. Fate would bring them together on a winter’s morn in Saginaw, Michigan.
The Rosas family came back and forth from Brownsville to Saginaw, until they decided to permanently move to Texas, but for Odelia who has just turned 15, she was smitten with José, who she called Joe. Her family was housed in a rented upstairs apartment from Bartolo Guevara on Farwell St. near the plant.
By 1928, José already had graduated from Saginaw High School and then found employment at the Grey Iron Plant on Washington Ave. José and his father Senobio were foundry workers, with other men of color who were given the dirty jobs in the plant, like shoveling coal in the hot burners. Both would later have lung problems in their elder years.
Odelia and her siblings were attending Central Junior High School. Saginaw was a City that had a bustling downtown, reaping the benefits from an economy lifted from the lumber industry.
As the story goes, José would walk to work in the cold winter of 1929 when he was startled by snow falling on his head. He wondered where the snowball culprit was, not seeing anyone around him. This incident happened on his way to the plant near Farwell Street, a few times, and he was perplexed.
Then one day he managed to look up quickly, and there she was unable to move fast enough. The teenaged Odelia— the snow queen, was busted. She was attracted to the 22 year-old, and he to her. He didn’t think she was Mexican.
Soon, the lovebirds were meeting when she got out of school, and he secretly would walk her home. If her father Pedro found out, Odelia was sure to be in trouble and kept at home.
The time came when Pedro and Mauricia Rosas decided to return to Brownsville with their brood of six children. But it was too late; Odelia had already fallen in love. To say that Pedro was disappointed was an understatement, and his relationship with José Diaz never amounted to much.
The Rosases said their goodbyes, leaving Odelia behind, with the condition that she would first marry. That’s how unions were done in the early 1930’s, and on April 11, 1930, Odelia Rosas became Mrs. Joseph V. Diaz at St. Joseph Catholic Church. She would borrow a dress from José’s sister Cruz, with a high puffy bonnet headdress with a long veil, accented with white stockings and gloves. The Rosas family left for Texas that very day.
José was dressed dapperly with a suited attire, vest, bowtie and handkerchief included. Cruz and her husband Pablo Orozco were their witnesses.
Odelia, married very young, with little domestic experience, and early on there was trouble. She had no idea, like most teenage girls, what her life would become.
Ten month’s later, she would give birth to Anita, with her mother-in-law Cecilia and Francisca Guevara as her midwives on a house on 4th St. near downtown Saginaw. Cecilia was also pregnant with her 12th child, Maria Adela, while helping with the birth of her first granddaughter.
José would grab the newborn and lift his daughter high above his head running through the house giving thanks for their miracle. He allowed his mother to name the child.
Sadly, when Odelia said goodbye to her mother Mauricia on the day of her marriage, it would be the last time she seen her alive. Just after Anita was born, while ironing clothes in Brownsville for her family, the gas iron she was using exploded burning Mauricia very badly. She was hospitalized for months, crying out in pain, before succumbing to the accident.
Mauricia Rosas knew she had her first-born grandchild, with the announcement coming in a letter, but she wouldn’t live to actually see Anne. José and Odelia Diaz would have two more daughters, Angela in 1933 and Elizabeth in 1944.
Today as I write this story, my recollection is from the stories my mother Anita told me as well as the story written by my Aunt Jane Gamez, sister to Odelia. I find it funny that it was 90 years ago yesterday from the date of their marriage. My mother is probably laughing. And so it goes. I hope you enjoy this family history.
The Rosas family came back and forth from Brownsville to Saginaw, until they decided to permanently move to Texas, but for Odelia who has just turned 15, she was smitten with José, who she called Joe. Her family was housed in a rented upstairs apartment from Bartolo Guevara on Farwell St. near the plant.
By 1928, José already had graduated from Saginaw High School and then found employment at the Grey Iron Plant on Washington Ave. José and his father Senobio were foundry workers, with other men of color who were given the dirty jobs in the plant, like shoveling coal in the hot burners. Both would later have lung problems in their elder years.
Odelia and her siblings were attending Central Junior High School. Saginaw was a City that had a bustling downtown, reaping the benefits from an economy lifted from the lumber industry.
As the story goes, José would walk to work in the cold winter of 1929 when he was startled by snow falling on his head. He wondered where the snowball culprit was, not seeing anyone around him. This incident happened on his way to the plant near Farwell Street, a few times, and he was perplexed.
Then one day he managed to look up quickly, and there she was unable to move fast enough. The teenaged Odelia— the snow queen, was busted. She was attracted to the 22 year-old, and he to her. He didn’t think she was Mexican.
Soon, the lovebirds were meeting when she got out of school, and he secretly would walk her home. If her father Pedro found out, Odelia was sure to be in trouble and kept at home.
The time came when Pedro and Mauricia Rosas decided to return to Brownsville with their brood of six children. But it was too late; Odelia had already fallen in love. To say that Pedro was disappointed was an understatement, and his relationship with José Diaz never amounted to much.
The Rosases said their goodbyes, leaving Odelia behind, with the condition that she would first marry. That’s how unions were done in the early 1930’s, and on April 11, 1930, Odelia Rosas became Mrs. Joseph V. Diaz at St. Joseph Catholic Church. She would borrow a dress from José’s sister Cruz, with a high puffy bonnet headdress with a long veil, accented with white stockings and gloves. The Rosas family left for Texas that very day.
José was dressed dapperly with a suited attire, vest, bowtie and handkerchief included. Cruz and her husband Pablo Orozco were their witnesses.
Odelia, married very young, with little domestic experience, and early on there was trouble. She had no idea, like most teenage girls, what her life would become.
Ten month’s later, she would give birth to Anita, with her mother-in-law Cecilia and Francisca Guevara as her midwives on a house on 4th St. near downtown Saginaw. Cecilia was also pregnant with her 12th child, Maria Adela, while helping with the birth of her first granddaughter.
José would grab the newborn and lift his daughter high above his head running through the house giving thanks for their miracle. He allowed his mother to name the child.
Sadly, when Odelia said goodbye to her mother Mauricia on the day of her marriage, it would be the last time she seen her alive. Just after Anita was born, while ironing clothes in Brownsville for her family, the gas iron she was using exploded burning Mauricia very badly. She was hospitalized for months, crying out in pain, before succumbing to the accident.
Mauricia Rosas knew she had her first-born grandchild, with the announcement coming in a letter, but she wouldn’t live to actually see Anne. José and Odelia Diaz would have two more daughters, Angela in 1933 and Elizabeth in 1944.
Today as I write this story, my recollection is from the stories my mother Anita told me as well as the story written by my Aunt Jane Gamez, sister to Odelia. I find it funny that it was 90 years ago yesterday from the date of their marriage. My mother is probably laughing. And so it goes. I hope you enjoy this family history.
