NPS Photo Olivia Valero describes her journey to find out more about her family:There wasn't that many people or businesses around [the missions] so we were a close family, everyone was a close family here. There was a large family on my mother's side, there was 14 and it started growing and growing. [..] My mother grew up across across the street there [...] and she met my father, at a dance. My father lived at Espada Mission, he was an alter boy there. He lived with some family, their last name was Sandoval [...] they were my father's aunts. They had stayed here during the time when Mexico and Texas split you know, I believe that's when the other family stayed here, some passed away, some when back. We often wondered where my father's family [was]. I started doing some research [...] and I never knew anything about my dad, but then I started talking to other people and probably maybe ten years ago I found out that my grandfather who was from Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico, but legally they came here and my father was born in Laredo but he was an orphan, his mom passed away. So my grandmother was buried in Laredo, across the border, and my father said shes on this side. We never found her [...] so I said I'm going to find out all the information so that I and my dad can rest in peace. [...] So now I found out more [...] I gotta finish this, I have to. I told my son, I passed all the records to him, you know to continue.[...] I thank God you know, because that was something that haunted me for a long time, I wanted to know my dad, where he was from, I wanted to know if he had brothers or sisters, but no he was an only child." |
Last updated: October 5, 2021