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Chapter 2: Coming to El NorteDeath tugged at Gila settlers elbows Mama's grandparents envisioned lush fields in the Gila Valley like these worked by Gabriel Blanco and his coworkers. Story by Carmen Duarte Photos by A.E. Araiza The Arizona Daily Star The lightning bolt that killed my grandfather branded my mother. At birth, she was named Leonarda Villalba Bejarano, in honor of her grandmother. She also took her grandmothers nickname, Nala. But she would have to bear another nickname la burra through much of her life. Her own mother, Dolores, believed that the gran susto, the great shock of hearing about her husbands death, had harmed the child in her womb. She would send her into the fields, or keep her at home to cook and clean, rather than send her off to school. Mamas grandmother, Nana Leonarda, would become her namesakes ally and protector against those old wives tales, and against a sometimes cruel world.
The others were, in order, Gumesinda, Teodoro, Angela and Florentino. Two children had died Maria at age 16 and Gorgonio at 2. Nana Leonarda and her husband, Tata Florentino, not only looked out for baby Nala, they became the widow Dolores rock. Her husbands death had left Dolores with five mouths to feed. Dolores stepson, Dimas, who had eluded death when lightning struck his father, worked the land and became a father figure to his brothers and sisters. But the family leaned heavily on the abuelos. Leonarda and Florentino Villalba would teach Dolores and her children that life is hard and death is a part of it. They lost ten of their own children in their struggle to carve out a living in the fertile valley of the Gila River, whose beauty and promise had lured them from their native land of Chihuahua. There, their families had lived around Guadalupe Victoria for generations, eking out a living from small farms. They were poor in material goods but bore a rich tradition. In nearby Casas Grandes, the pueblo had developed a sophisticated pottery tradition long before Christs birth. The trading trails of those ancient potters and merchants would become the explorer Coronados path. Coronado, in 1540, traveled along the Gila River and on up past the buried wealth of copper at Clifton and Morenci, searching in vain for the Seven Cities of Gold. In 1882, Nana Leonarda and Tata Florentino traveled those ancient trails, leaving Guadalupe Victoria by horse-drawn wagon and settling in San Antonio, a community of Mexican immigrants founded in 1876 near the present town of Virden, N.M., eight miles from the Arizona border.
The town later established there was first named Richmond, then renamed Virden, in honor of the banker who arranged mortgages for the Mormon families who ended up owning much of the valley. But San Antonio was the regions first name, and my family was among its first settlers. On his first trip north, Tata Florentino had come alone, leaving behind Leonarda and their firstborn, Petra. He had been enticed to leave subsistence farming in Chihuahua for promised riches in El Norte. The first underground copper mines had opened in Morenci, and their owners sent recruiters into Chihuahua, looking for young, strong men to work the veins. They promised prosperous lives. It was a wonderful dream, a dream Tata Florentino decided to make his. He set out on horseback on a trail that followed the rivers paths through mountain and desert. When Florentino rode through the wide valley of the Upper Gila to reach Morenci, he, like many heading to the mines, dreamed of returning there to farm. In Morenci in 1878, Florentino joined hundreds of his countrymen who lived in tent cities and worked for a succession of smallmine owners who were soon to be bought out by the Detroit Copper Co. He broke rock, dug tunnels, lived roughly and saved his wages. By 1881, Phelps Dodge Copper Co. would come to Morenci and become part owner of Detroit Copper. By 1921, PD gained ownership of the entire mining district. Over time, it would produce the greatest wealth of copper in Arizona. Mexicans werent the only immigrant laborers. They were joined by others who made a short stop at Ellis Island before heading West with the same dreams. The Italians seemed to favor Morenci, but the Serbs, Croats, Irish and famed Cornwall miners came as well to the growing copper cities of the Southwest.
The Gila River, which gathers its waters in the wild mountains of New Mexico and Arizona, bisects our state today. But it was the boundary between Mexico and the United States in 1848 when Mexico ceded the land north of it. It remained the international boundary until Congress ratified James Gadsdens purchase of the southern portions of New Mexico and Arizona in 1854. Tata Florentino left the mines after four years and returned to Guadalupe Victoria for his wife and child. Mama heard the story often in her childhood. Nana Leonarda was surprised by his return. She had taken to calling him el desgraciado, believing he had abandoned his family. He had not. She was relieved and happy to see her husband.
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Ch. 1: Field of death
Ch. 18: The New Deal
Ch. 24: Cotton pickers and copper miners Ch. 27: The family doubles its size
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The Mexicans were immigrants in a technical sense only. This area had long
been part of New Spain and became Mexico after its independence was won in
1821.