Juan and Trinidad Mendoza in front of their home on Olive Street, in Westminster, Circa 1950.
This was taken from the Orange County Register and was submitted by Ricardo Juan Valverde, Letty's relative.
Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated Sept. 15-Oct. 15. To commemorate the period, The Register asked readers to tell their family stories of the Latino experience in Orange County.
My grandfather, Juan Ornelas Mendoza, was born in 1905 in Mexico in a small ranch town called Villa Hidalgo in the state of Jalisco.
He had two brothers, older brother Natividad and younger brother Rosalio. His father Cypriano passed away when he was two years old. Due to their loss, the family suffered and lived in extreme poverty.
As you can imagine life was very difficult. He told stories of eating food picked up off the streets to survive and the fact that he went naked when the only clothes he had on his back needed to be washed.
His mother Librada had difficulty making ends meet so my grandfather decided to join his older brother Natividad who had just left for the U.S. with the hopes of working and sending money home. My grandfather was 17at the time.
He met up with his brother Natividad in Kansas City where he was living. They soon found jobs on the railroad with the Atchison Topeka and the Santa Fe.
He often spoke of their adventures on the railroad and their lives on the road, which were reminiscent of scenes in the movie the "Grapes of Wrath." He connected with scenes in the motion picture depicting life in the camps and on the road in caravans of old model A trucks. His stories always carried some lesson to be learned.
My grandfather was a good son. He sent money home to his mother who unfortunately passed away in the mid 1920's. He tells of the time he wanted to see her but his mother wrote to him forbidding him to visit because at the time the Mexican government was killing and persecuting Christians. It was the time of the Cristeros. He never saw her again and he regretted heeding her words.
He met my grandmother Trinidad Torres in Kansas while she was with her father, Matilde Torres, on a business trip from Mexico. She stayed and they married in 1928 and had three daughters.
They traveled, moving all over the U.S. My mother the oldest is named Ludvina. Her other sisters are Luisa and Socorro. My grandparents and their daughters worked the fields as campesinos. I remember stories about their travels through Stockton, Valle Imperial, Indio, and other towns. They followed the picking seasons migrating crisscrossing California to make a living. The whole family worked in order to make ends meet.
One story I found interesting was how the family wound up making their home in the city of Westminster. My grandmother at the age of eight wound up in the area while traveling with her father and was a student at the old 17th Street School where she befriended a young girl named Florentina.
They became friends and began a relationship that would change the road the Mendoza family would travel. Years later, married and with family in tow, my grandmother remembered her friend and returned to visit her. During the visit my grandparents decided to set up camp at a house nearby that was rented and later purchased. It became the Mendoza home on Olive Street in what was later to be called the city of Westminster.
With time my grandparents became well acquainted with the neighbors in the predominantly Mexican neighborhood. They used the home as a central hub for family, extended family and friends who followed the harvesting seasons in California.
My grandparents also worked side by side with the Japanese farmers in Westminster and recounted the fond memories of the life in the fields. My grandmother served as a midwife and many people claim to have given their first breath in the house I call home.
The home was full of activity for many years housed many relatives and friends. My grandparents allowed their daughters and husbands to get out and work to make a living by raising me, my sister Elsa as well as the other four grandchildren. Their home was a 24-hour childcare facility. My parents as well as my aunts and uncles lived there until they saved up monies to purchase their first homes.
Being the oldest of the grandchildren and male I was given the privilege to rub elbows with the patriarch of the family, my mentor, my grandfather. He was a well-respected man of whom I never heard an ill word.
I learned about the past from him and his friends by listening to their conversations and stories. We were inseparable and were always seen driving around in his green 1955 Chevy truck. I soon learned to drive that truck at age nine in front of the L.P Weber School on Hoover Street. I own the old truck to this day.
My grandparents, along with grandma's friend Florentina and her family, as well as many others in the community are considered founders of the Catholic Church down the street called Blessed Sacrament. They as well as many friends are also listed as the builders of Blessed Sacrament Catholic School. They were members of the Progresista Mexicana a mutual aid society that concerned itself with local social and labor issues. They were Guadalupanos a church social group that honored the Virgen of Guadalupe and provided support for the church and its fiestas. The fiestas became famous nationally and attracted many famous celebrities of the period.
I was in college at UCI in the 70's and the Gonzalo Mendez case came up in a political science class.
I then realized that it had taken place in Westminster and that they were talking about people I knew in the barrio. No one in town, to my knowledge, had ever mentioned the case.
I came home and asked my grandparents if they knew about it and they were surprised that anybody remembered the case. They asked why people were interested in Mendez. They had been involved in the group of parents formed (by the different barrios) to support the cause. They didn't understand the hubbub.
It turned out that one of my grandparents was either the secretary or treasurer of the group. Furthermore both grandparents were friends of the Mendez family and helped raise one of the Mendez family members as their own.
I live in Westminster and will most likely die here. There are many stories to be told about my family and the wonderful people and neighbors of the old barrio. My wife, my daughters and myself continue to stay active and are a part of our hometown. My grandfather instilled in me a sense of community spirit that I, my family, and many others will never forget. I hope I am fulfilling his wishes. He once asked I stay in touch with my roots and work to help the people he fondly called Raza.
He stated, "We need to demonstrate we are all equal and deserve to be treated justly." He didn't understand why people would get educated and then move away to spare their children from being raised in the barrio. He loved the neighborhood.
Because of them I have dedicated my life to serve our people, La Raza. I didn't move away. I have spent most of my life in service to the community. I will retire soon after 31 plus years currently in service as a social worker with the County of Orange. My wife works at the old Catholic School that just celebrated its 60 years from which my daughters, relatives, friends and I graduated. My daughters are now doing their part. They have all worked with the Westminster Community Services Department. One is a currently a school teacher, one works as a counselor with juvenile dependents of the court and the other is planning to work as a police officer.
I lovingly remember my grandparents, relatives and friends past and present when I cruise down Olive Street.
In my office I look up at my grandfather's picture hanging over my desk and the words of Cesar Chavez, "We cannot seek achievement for ourselves and forget about progress and prosperity for our community… our ambitions must be broad enough to include the aspirations and needs of others, for their sakes and for our own."
If my grandfather had received a formal education he may have been able to express himself like Cesar. He did what he could and I remember his words, he was a wise man.
p.s. My grandparents and their families stories were deeply impacted by the Mexican Revolution and poverty in Mexico. They traveled and met many wonderful people in Mexico and the U.S. Your wealth in friends was usually measured by the amount of compadres you had. My grandmother once stated they were Godparents to over thirty-some children!
Ricardo Juan Valverde, 55, is a senior social worker for Orange County.
