Guadalupe Trejo Ancestor #1 - Part 2

My grandmother told me that she knew my grandfather well before they married, as an acquaintance from the town.  Guadalupe Trejo and Emiliana Maldonado married on February 20, 1930 in Tarimoro.  The church records are the only documents I have from their wedding.   It would be great to have pictures of their wedding day or any pictures of the two of them together.  It’s somewhat difficult for me to picture my grandmother as a twenty-year old bride because I only knew her as an elderly woman.

Although their families knew each other, Emiliana’s parents did not approve of her marrying a widower.  Her parents only accepted their marriage when she gave birth to their first child, approximately nine months after her wedding day.   Emiliana raised Esperanza and Apolonio as her own.  I don’t know about Esperanza, but I was told that Polo referred to Emiliana as mama.

Guadalupe & Emiliana raised their family in a relatively small house for a large family. The house was about 1,000 -1,100 square feet, including a storage area for their crops.  Prior to moving into the house where they raised their family, they lived on 107 Zaragoza Street when they were counted in Mexico’s 1930 census.

The Trejos made their living growing crops and raising livestock.  Guadalupe grew crops such as corn, cacahuate, frijoles, and tomatoes.  Tarimoro is known as a cacahuate (peanut) growing region.  His oldest sons, starting a very young age, worked the land and cared for the animals.  Guadalupe raised cattle for their milk and Emiliana raised pigs for slaughter.  The boys, Apolonio, Vicente, Luis, and Lupe Jr would rise up before sunrise to make their way to the fields.  The eldest daughters, Esperanza, Carmen & Olivia, were very busy with house work and child rearing – Guadalupe and Emiliana had 11 kids together.

I don’t know where in the economic spectrum the Trejo’s lived, but my Tia Came told me they always had food in the house.  Sundays were a special day, when they would eat carnitas, barbacoa, and birria.  She told me stories about all the fresh cow’s milk they would drink and I’d imagine they had plenty of peanuts to snack on.  She recalled a story about her father bringing a bunch of watermelons home for the kids to eat.  She remembered hearing the juice from all the watermelon she ate swishing back and forth in her tummy.  I’m not sure why she told me that particular story, but it must have been a particularly good childhood memory.  

I only have tidbits of information about Jose Guadalupe.  From what I have been told, he was a gregarious man, who enjoyed having family get-togethers with the Maldonados on the weekends. These family gatherings came to an end after he passed.  I do not know much about his parenting style, but it appears that none of his children have any ill will toward him. 

Another tidbit of information about him was that he served as the president of the presa de cubo ( the management organization for the local dam).   This is something I will research further. 

Guadalupe and Emiliana would go on to have eleven children, only eight of which survived into adulthood.  His eldest daughter, Esperanza, passed away as a teenager (I don’t have a record of her death).   In his relatively short life, Guadalupe oversaw the funerals of four children and grieved the loss of his first wife.

All of his children eventually immigrated to the United States, with his second eldest son, Vicente, being the first to do so.  I wonder what advise he gave to his son, if any, as he went north seeking better economic opportunities.

Unfortunately, Guadalupe passed away before all his children reached adulthood.  I’m unaware of the exact cause of death, but from what I understand it was likely throat cancer.  During his relatively brief battle with his illness, he came to understand that his chances of survival were slim.  My Tia Came commented that his final thoughts were with his youngest children: ‘Dejo mis chiquitos’ he said.  He passed on January 5, 1959, in Celaya GTO.

Vicente returned to Mexico to bury his father.  He handled the arrangements and paid for the expenses of his father’s funeral.  I have pictures of my grandfather’s viewing, but I’m opting not to post them.

A few years after his death, his sons would make their way to the United States, partly to support their mother and siblings, much like Guadalupe did decades earlier.  

Estado de Guanajuato

Guadalupe Trejo - Ancestor #1 - Part 1

                                                  

My paternal grandfather,  Jose Guadalupe Trejo, was born in August 2, 1901, in Tarimoro, Guanajuato, Mexico.  He entered the world at 10am in a house in the rancho del molino.  His parents, Apolonio Trejo (27) and Refugio Arroyo (23), were both from the Tarimoro area. His civil registration birth record lists his paternal grandparents as Pedro Trejo (deceased) and Crispina Lara (living).  His maternal grandparents are Estaban Arroyo (deceased) and Leandra Jimenez (living).
 

I do not have a lot of information about his upbrining, but based on my knowledge of the time and place where he lived, he did not likely have an education beyond elementary school, if that. As the son of a farmhand,  he likely spent a lot of time in the fields, perhaps picking cacahuate.   At the age of 18, he became the oldest male in his home when his father was killed in 1919. 

Within a year after his father died, he migrated to the US in search of work in 1920.  The 1920 trip was the first of two trips to the United States, with the second trip being in 1926.  The 1920 record surprised me because I had previously been under the impression that he only migrated once, in 1926.  I do not have return or exit dates for both trips, so I don’t know how much time he spent in the US.

I do not have any records or stories of how much money he earned while in the US or how he used his money.  I suspect he used it to support his mother & siblings.

A short time after returning to Tarimoro, he married Angelina Rodrigues, his first wife, on April 9, 1921 at the parish San Miguel Arcangel in Tarimoro. Guadalupe and Angelina had two children together, Esperanza & Apolonio (named after his grandfather). Esperanza was born around 1923 and Apolonio was born in 1925.  They lived in Tarimoro.

On April 6, 1926, Guadalupe entered the United States for the second and final time in Lorado, Texas.   Along with other Mexicans from Guanajuato, he made his way to Chicago.  From what I understand, the Mexicans in Chicago worked in the meat processing and steel industries.  My Tio Lupe told me that he worked in the meat processing industry.  My uncle also mentioned that his father did not talk much about his time in the US, except that he worked a lot.

By my estimate, there were nearly two dozen men from Tarimoro working in Chicago around the same time as Guadalupe.  My uncle (Tio Lupe) mentioned that my grandmother’s oldest brother, Jesus Maldonado, was also in Chicago.  The hometown connections in Chicago’s Mexican communities were important for migrants.  For example, a fellow resident of Tarimoro (Refugio Acevedo) taught him how to read & write.   

I have one picture of Guadalupe in the US, where he is sitting down in a formal studio portrait with two other men.  My tia came told me that he is the man sitting down and that his brother, Ascencion, is one of the two men standing in the picture.  I do not know the identity of the other man.  Perhaps it could be Lorenzo Arciniega, one of the witnesses for my grandfather’s second marriage who testified to living with him in Chicago.

Sadly, Angelina passed away on May 5^th 1927, due to pneumonia.  I’m uncertain if he returned to Mexico prior to her passing.  If he learned of her passing while on Chicago, there would have been insufficient time for him to return to Tarimoro to attend her funeral.  Its somewhat difficult to imagine the range of emotions he experienced after her passing.

At the age of 26, he was a widower and a single father to two small children. (The picture below was provided by Alejandra Garcia, Apolonio's granddaughter.)

The stories about Guadalupe Trejo were provided by Carmen Trejo, Luis Trejo, and Jose Guadalupe Trejo Jr.
for more information about Mexicans in Chicago in the 1920's:
Mexican Chicago
Steel Barrio

Hello

This is my first blog post for my Trexo family genealogy blog.  My objective is to write about the life of my ancestors with the goal of producing a ‘book at life’ at the end of 2016.    I have accumulated a lot of research over the past three years that I hope to present in an organized manner in this blog. 

I decided to spell my surname with an ‘x’ instead of the traditional ‘j’ because it was historically spelled with an ‘x’ and I like the way it looks. Also, I use it to represent the unknown names of my indigenous ancestors.