Family History (Late Post)

Originally I admit, I didn’t think much about my Mexican heritage other than the fact that family reunions consisted of approximately 100 people, and despite the large number, everyone was included in a warm sense of family and belonging. And of course, the authentic Mexican food was always a huge bonus.

But recently, my parents told me the story of how my great grandparents came to live in Sacramento, California, and give birth to the family that is still there today.

My great-grandmother, Concepción, was raised in a town in Mexico with her middle class family. One day, her family sold her to a wealthy doctor to be his dueña. She couldn’t understand why her parents would sell their oldest daughter, for they didn’t need the money. She hated the doctor, for he was not kind.

The doctor’s house was at crossroads where soldiers and merchants with wagon trains would pass through. My great-grandmother would watch them every day. One day, she hopped on a caravan and made her way to Southern California, in the hopes of starting a new, free life. There, she met Nicholas Huerta Sanchez, an illiterate young man who was also accustomed to the harshness of life, having been on his own since his teens. He made his living with his hands.

They fell in love, and married. They made their way to North Sacramento, where, with two other Mexican families, they bought a few acres, grew crops and raised their children. My great grandmother was a curandera.

When she was in her sixties, my grandmother and her sisters took Concepción to the Oregon Coast on a vacation. My grandma tells of her surprise when as they were standing on top of a sand dune, her aging mother laid down in the sand, and rolled to the bottom, laughing. Her daughters ran down after her, worried for her safety, (“Mom are you alright?”) but her response was simply, “I’m overjoyed at how my life has turned out.” 

My great grandparents had hard beginnings, and they were in not successful academically. Nicholas Sanchez was illiterate.  They made the most of what they were given, and created a life with 7 beautiful children, all who grew up to raise families of their own.

It seemed a little like a fairy tale, but that is my family history.