Cecilia Rosales of Huandacareo
By Larry Joseph Rodarte, For The Diaz Observer
I came to the great city of Morelia to help motivate me to continue my book. This was the basis for this trip— to immerse myself in Grandma Cecilia’s world prior to her migration to the United States. Already 30,000 words have been written, but I felt I needed to see the landscape, the trees, the flowers and the simple dry brush so depleted from the hot sun. Mexico has changed so much since my last visit in 1993. It’s a young country population-wise. There are more people, thus more traffic, yet it is cleaner and there isn’t the smell that was so indicative of Mexico 15 years ago.
I needed to see the birds, the architecture, and the ancient celebrations surrounding All Souls Day. How could I write of Grandma’s homeland from Saginaw, Michigan?
Huandacareo had changed too. No longer was there an open market in the plaza where the elderly women sold their fruits and vegetables such as nopales or granada seeds with lime and salt; I find I miss this the most. Still life seems to revolve around the church of San Geronimo; where high at the top of the altar in neon lights above the crucified Lord was the name Señor del Amparo. It is the very same miraculous statue when Grandma Cecilia lived here.
MARIA CECILIA JUANA SOCCORRO WAS HER NAME
It was a real joy to find Grandma Cecilia’s baptismal record while researching our family tree. Some said she was born in 1886 or 1887, but it turns out she was born November in 1888. Triple eights!
According to the entry form of the archives of the parish of San Geronimo in Huandacareo, Michoacán, Mexico, the child to be baptized was two days old (a una niña de dos dia). The baptism took place on the 24th of November 1888 (el dia venticuatro de Nobre. de mil ochocientos ochenta). The baby was christened the baby girl Maria Cecilia Juana Socorro. Her parents were Socorro Rosales and Maria Ortiz (hija de Socorro Rosales y Ma. Ortiz) Her godparents were Amor Rosales y Jesus Raude, a mother and son, (padrinos Amor Rosales y Jesus Raude, Madre y hijo).
One interesting point was that Grandma Cecilia was born on the feast day of St. Cecilia, an early Christian martyr who is the saint of music. In Grandma’s time they named babies after saints.
It was said that she wore a red dress on her marriage to Grandpa Senobio, most likely because she had fled her father’s home through a window and eloped. This was told by her sister Catalina, many years later. Eventually they did get married in San Geronimo, the Catholic Church of Huandacareo. This was the genesis of a marriage that would last thru much mobilization thru turbulent Mexican and American history of the 18th and 19th centuries.
She was only 4 feet 10, maybe 11, but she was a strong woman, who migrated with her husband Senobio in May of 1919 to America. Three of her children were born in Mexico, while 5 were born in Houston, Texas, and her last two children were born in Saginaw, Michigan.
It was also said that grandma had two more babies who succumbed as infants, probably due to the revolutionary elements that the people suffered after 1910. She never learned to read or write, but she could sign her name. On the farm in Saginaw, she had a grand stove where she cooked her comidas, utilizing her metate and molcajete. Molé was her specialty that she made for her children’s marriages. And she would sell her popular white cheese with Saginaw locals around St. Joe's Catholic Church.
Grandma Cecilia loved to do her little jig of a dance, where she would lift her long skirt to show her ankles while swaying to a ranchera.
When family spoke of Grandma, it is her faith that stood out most, after her cooking. Everynight she was on her knees praying her rosario, and if you were it the house in the evening, you prayed with her. This was with candles at her family altar. She became a dama de Guadalupe at St. Joseph Catholic Church around 1929 and many referred to her as Doña Cecilia.
With God’s blessings, she endured a long life and passed away in February of 1962, at St. Mary’s Hospital at the age of 74. She was so loved as the Diaz family matriarch, and her remains were buried on South Washington at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Saginaw.
I needed to see the birds, the architecture, and the ancient celebrations surrounding All Souls Day. How could I write of Grandma’s homeland from Saginaw, Michigan?
Huandacareo had changed too. No longer was there an open market in the plaza where the elderly women sold their fruits and vegetables such as nopales or granada seeds with lime and salt; I find I miss this the most. Still life seems to revolve around the church of San Geronimo; where high at the top of the altar in neon lights above the crucified Lord was the name Señor del Amparo. It is the very same miraculous statue when Grandma Cecilia lived here.
MARIA CECILIA JUANA SOCCORRO WAS HER NAME
It was a real joy to find Grandma Cecilia’s baptismal record while researching our family tree. Some said she was born in 1886 or 1887, but it turns out she was born November in 1888. Triple eights!
According to the entry form of the archives of the parish of San Geronimo in Huandacareo, Michoacán, Mexico, the child to be baptized was two days old (a una niña de dos dia). The baptism took place on the 24th of November 1888 (el dia venticuatro de Nobre. de mil ochocientos ochenta). The baby was christened the baby girl Maria Cecilia Juana Socorro. Her parents were Socorro Rosales and Maria Ortiz (hija de Socorro Rosales y Ma. Ortiz) Her godparents were Amor Rosales y Jesus Raude, a mother and son, (padrinos Amor Rosales y Jesus Raude, Madre y hijo).
One interesting point was that Grandma Cecilia was born on the feast day of St. Cecilia, an early Christian martyr who is the saint of music. In Grandma’s time they named babies after saints.
It was said that she wore a red dress on her marriage to Grandpa Senobio, most likely because she had fled her father’s home through a window and eloped. This was told by her sister Catalina, many years later. Eventually they did get married in San Geronimo, the Catholic Church of Huandacareo. This was the genesis of a marriage that would last thru much mobilization thru turbulent Mexican and American history of the 18th and 19th centuries.
She was only 4 feet 10, maybe 11, but she was a strong woman, who migrated with her husband Senobio in May of 1919 to America. Three of her children were born in Mexico, while 5 were born in Houston, Texas, and her last two children were born in Saginaw, Michigan.
It was also said that grandma had two more babies who succumbed as infants, probably due to the revolutionary elements that the people suffered after 1910. She never learned to read or write, but she could sign her name. On the farm in Saginaw, she had a grand stove where she cooked her comidas, utilizing her metate and molcajete. Molé was her specialty that she made for her children’s marriages. And she would sell her popular white cheese with Saginaw locals around St. Joe's Catholic Church.
Grandma Cecilia loved to do her little jig of a dance, where she would lift her long skirt to show her ankles while swaying to a ranchera.
When family spoke of Grandma, it is her faith that stood out most, after her cooking. Everynight she was on her knees praying her rosario, and if you were it the house in the evening, you prayed with her. This was with candles at her family altar. She became a dama de Guadalupe at St. Joseph Catholic Church around 1929 and many referred to her as Doña Cecilia.
With God’s blessings, she endured a long life and passed away in February of 1962, at St. Mary’s Hospital at the age of 74. She was so loved as the Diaz family matriarch, and her remains were buried on South Washington at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Saginaw.
Grandma, Mamá Cela, Matriarch
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