Author's note: The following narrative is based on an expansive volume of known family history, both written and oral, which was reconciled and supplemented with publicly available historical facts and documents. A dedicated effort was made to convey an accurate portrayal of the life of Dolores Valenzuela Ortega.
By Roy Ortega
She was known affectionately by everyone as "Mama Grande." But in my family, we called her
"Granny." She was a beloved and colorful figure whose diminutive stature belied her strength through decades of hardship, tragedy, pain and occasional triumph. By description, she was a small and feisty woman with a firm character and a loving nature. Over the years, she became the strength and soul of the large and burgeoning Ortega family.
Maria Dolores Valenzuela was born on January 10, 1888, in the village of
Huánusco located in the Mexican state of Zacatecas to Jesus Valenzuela and Carmen Rodrigues. The Valenzuela family lived among other farming and ranching families at the beginning of a long and protracted period of uncertainty and political turmoil. The growing economic crisis during the reign of President Porfirio Diaz eventually lead to a bloody revolution that lasted from 1910 to 1920 and claimed the lives of as many as 2-million people.
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| Huanusco, Zacatecas |
By the early 1900s, Dolores had met and married Froilan Ortega, a member of a neighboring ranching family. The couple began their lives together in the arid semi-mountainous scrublands between the tiny villages of La Cienega, Jalisco and Jalpa, Zacatecas.
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| Froilan Ruiz Ortega |
In 1906, their first daughter Amelia was born followed by Blas in 1908, Consuelo in 1914, Amparo in 1916, Hortencia in 1917, Adela in 1922 and Luis in 1925. Three other children - Salvador, Lupita and Mercedes - were born later in the U.S.
Life for the hundreds of ranching families in Southwestern Mexico was not easy, even before the start of the revolution. Most people lived in small impoverished ejidos and scratched out a meager living on communal farms or individually owned haciendas in the area. Some ranch owners were direct descendants of Spanish landholders who vehemently resisted calls for land reforms. During the Mexican Revolution, pitched disagreements over land ownership were a bitter and oftentimes violent matter between neighbors. But it was a sad and tragic episode that eventually drove Froilan and Dolores to leave Mexico.
Cultural and Political Woes in Mexico
Historical accounts of the life and culture of Zacatecas in the early 1900s describe the presence of several ruling clans
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| Click on image to see a closer view. |
were often brutally enforced. "All were related. So, I think that's why my grandpa says our family got away with all sorts of things. Like tio would be the sheriff or the cousin the bishop or another cousin the banker and so on," wrote the descendant.
Trouble Stirs Between Families
According to family accounts, Froilan and Dolores' 19-year-old daughter Amelia caught the eye of a powerful, older man in the community named Manuel Reyna who allegedly kidnapped her and announced his intention to marry her. Despite desperate protests from Froilan, Dolores and Amelia herself, Reyna literally carried her away.
My cousin Josie Martinez, whose mother Adela Ortega Martinez often regaled her with family lore, gave this account of the episode:
"When Grandpa and Grandma went to tell the authorities, the answer was, don't worry, he always does that, but he'll bring her back at a later day. They went higher, after going several times to the authorities but were told to be grateful because he was going to marry Amelia."
In other words, Reyna had no intention of releasing Amelia, and the local authorities had no intention of helping the Ortegas.
Frightened and weary by their inability to free Amelia from a forced marriage, Froilan and Dolores grew more distraught. Combined with the growing economic and political unrest in the country, the couple made a decision to flee northward into the United States.
Immigration records show that Froilan Ortega and his four brothers crossed into the U.S. at El Paso in 1925. Once safely in the U.S., Froilan sent for his family. Sadly, Amelia was left behind, hopeful of a future reunion.
For Dolores and her other children, the youngest Luis still a mere infant, the trek northward was undoubtedly a difficult journey filled with indescribable dangers and obstacles. Dolores and the children are said to have literally walked most of the way to the U.S. border, a nearly one-thousand-mile journey that lasted several months. Once united with Froilan, the family spent most of 1926 making its way first to Mississippi, Arkansas and later to Northern Iowa and Southern Minnesota. Along the way, they worked as itinerant farm workers moving from location to location during the summer and fall harvests.
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| Buffalo Center, Iowa |
During their time toiling the land, it was Dolores who devoted all of her emotion, time and energy to ensure the safety and welfare of the growing family. While Froilan and his older son Blas labored in the fields, Dolores tended the wood fire making tortillas, rice and beans. The older girls, Consuelo, Amparo and Hortencia, all pitched in to care for the younger children.
In 1927 Dolores gave birth to twins Salvador and Lupita in an open
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| Salvador, left, and Lupita as infants. Sadly, Lupita died shortly after this photo was taken. |
sugar beet field near the town of Helena, Arkansas. Still another heartbreak for the family occurred less than a year later when little Lupita died. But life wore on. Three years later, Mercedes was born while the family remained encamped in Northern Iowa. By 1929, the family had settled in one of several migrant camps in the town of Buffalo Center in Winnebago, County, Iowa near the Minnesota state line.
Life in Iowa was unbearably difficult made worse by the calamitous stock market crash in 1929. The Great Depression impacted every segment of American society. Froilan and Dolores struggled furiously to keep their young family fed, clothed and sheltered. The harsh winters in the Midwest made life even harder for Froilan and Dolores who carried the physical and emotional burdens of a family that by now had grown to eleven people. Despite the hardships and heartbreaks, Dolores remained confident of a better future.
Sadly, times were about to get worse for the Ortega family.By 1930, oldest son Blas was 22-years old and decided to strike out on his own. A few years later, he made his
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| The grave of Froilan Ortega is located in the Riverside Cemetary in Blue Earth, Minnesota. |
way down to Des Moines to raise his own family. Meanwhile, Froilan continued working as a laborer in the fields. The work was backbreaking and difficult, but he pressed on.
On a cold and dreary day in the middle of winter of 1930, Froilan began to feel the effects of the long years of hard physical work on his 47-year-old body. A few weeks after the onset of a severe fever, Froilan died of pneumonia.
The family was devastated. Dolores was suddenly faced with the grim reality of surviving without Froilan. With no main income-earner and no emotional support, Dolores and her large family was suddenly forced to make a major, life-changing decision. Should the family remain in Iowa, or head back to Mexico?
Not long after Froilan's funeral, Dolores undoubtedly consulted with her older children and together decided to head south to Texas. Oldest son Blas chose to remain in Iowa.
A New Life in Texas
The circumstances surrounding a decision to go to San Antonio are still unclear. According to Josie Martinez, the family had befriended members of the Huizar family in Von Ormy, Texas south of San Antonio who provided assistance to Dolores.
Dolores and her daughters are said to have found some peace living in the pleasant community of nearby Somerset, Texas. During their stay in the area, daughters Consuelo and Amparo met and married their husbands and settled into quiet, peaceful lives, each raising families of their own. Amparo married Narciso Mireles, a tall strapping railroad worker, while Consuelo married Chale Huizar, whose family roots extended back to the establishment of the nearby San Jose Mission.
Amelia Flees Mexico
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| The grave of Amelia Ortega in Somerset, Texas |
During this period (mid 1930s), oldest daughter Amelia - who was forced to remain in Mexico - managed to escape her abusive relationship with Manuel Reyna and made her way to Texas to rejoin her mother and siblings. In a fit of rage, Manuel is said to have traveled to Texas to forcibly take Amelia back to Mexico. But by now, Amelia had found solace with another man with whom she bore a son, Joe. Disheartened, Manuel returned to Mexico. The episode took a tragic turn a couple of years later when Amelia died during the birth of a second child. Sadly, the child died two days later. Josie Martinez related that shortly before dying, "She (Amelia) gave Joe to tia Consuelo and tio Chale to raise as their own son."
Life in Texas
For Dolores, life in Texas was a varied existence consisting of her role as a firm presence and matriarch of the family. By the late 1930s, she found her way to the Southside of San Antonio where she continued to raise her youngest sons Luis and Salvador. She also met and married a man named Miguel Herrera, known to the family as "Don Miguel," and began a new phase of her life.
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| Dolores Ortega with her husband Miguel Herrera and son Salvador about 1943. |
By the early 1940s, World War II had begun to rage in Europe, making it clear to Dolores that Luis and Salvador would soon be subjected to military duty. True to history, Luis was called up to serve in late 1943 and Salvador was called up in early 1945. With two sons fighting in a far-off war, Dolores spent several agonizing and emotionally draining years in constant fear of losing her sons. Luckily, both sons returned home, although Luis suffered wounds in combat from which he quickly healed.
A Well-Deserved Peace
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| Dolores Ortega lived in this house at 1330 Stonewall in San Antonio during the final years of her life. |
1330 Stonewall in South San Antonio. Throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, Dolores lived a quiet and happy existence. By all accounts, she was happiest when surrounded by her grandchildren who visited frequently. Members of our family recall this period as the most joyous and tranquil time of her life. The image of her rolling her own cigarettes with tobacco from a can of Bugler and tending the tall rows of corn stalks in her garden is vivid to this day. "She sat on the porch, and I sat at her feet and watched her roll her cigarettes and then light one up," recalls my sister Etna Ortega. "I also recall seeing her working in the garden between the corn stalks that were taller than her."
On a cold January day, my father Salvador Ortega received word that his mother had been rushed to Robert B. Green General Hospital in Downtown San Antonio. When he arrived, he was told by the hospital staff he could not enter, citing medical reasons. Salvador felt a strong sense of dread and demanded to see his mother. Finally, after protesting loudly, doctors directed him to a nearby room and informed him of her sudden death.
Dolores Valenzuela Ortega died on January 15, 1963, of a heart attack at the age of 75. She is buried at the Mission San Jose Cemetery in San Antonio, Texas. To this day, the image of my dad sitting in his easy chair sobbing remains permanently imprinted in my mind. It was the first time I had ever seen my dad cry.
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| Dolores V. Ortega at the Mission San Jose Cemetery. |
Roy Ortega may be reached at rortega54@elp.rr.com. All comments are welcome.
Author's note: The fate of Mercedes Ortega, the youngest child born to Dolores and Froilan Ortega in Iowa, is not known. Attempts to locate pertinent government documents about her proved fruitless. Input on this topic is welcome.
Related link: Some History on Huanusco and La Luz before the "Rulebook" | Nuestros Ranchos (nuestrosraices.com)
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| This is the 1930 U.S. Census from Kossuth, County, Iowa. The census lists Froilan, Dolores and their children ranging in age from 6-months old to 15 years old.
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