This guest post is brought to you by Michael Garcia.
After reading a recent post by Moises about his great grandparents’ relationship, I thought I would follow in kind and share a love story from my own family’s history. The following story was told to me by my aunt, with additional information added by her cousin:
My grandfather Victor Garcia was born in 1926 in Los Aldamas, Nuevo León. When Victor was 10 years old his father, Bernardo, died from a gangrenous infection. After his father’s death Victor started traveling between Mexico and the U.S. as a migrant worker.
As a young man Victor fell in love with a beautiful girl from Los Aldamas named Guadalupe Alanis. Victor would later describe her to his daughter (my aunt) as being very beautiful with black hair and green eyes. Victor asked Guadalupe to marry him and she agreed. Needing money to build a life together Victor returned to the U.S. for work. When Victor returned to Los Aldamas he discovered that while he was gone Guadalupe had passed away from tuberculosis.
Distraught over Guadalupe’s passing Victor left Los Aldamas. A year later Victor met and married a girl (my grandmother) he had met in Texas and spent the next 50 years of his life with her.
Using the information I got from the story I tried to find any additional information about Guadalupe. All my aunt knew was what she had heard from my grandfather – and that Guadalupe had a brother named Jose. I searched the 1930 Mexico Census and found two girls around my grandfather’s age in Los Aldamas, both of which had brothers named Jose.
Guadalupe Alanis #1 was born on December 5, 1928 to Antonio Alanis and Maria Alanis and lived just one street over from my grandfather as a child. Her known siblings were: Dorotea (1915), Rosa (1917), Josefa (1918), Carmen (1920), Jose (1921), Antonio (1922), and Ubaldo (1925).
Guadalupe Alanis #2 was born on May 23, 1929 to Alejandro Alanis and Maria Luis Pena and lived a couple of miles from Los Aldamas in Estacion Aldamas. Her known siblings were: Ramon (1920), Alejandro (1922), Jose (1924), and Maria (1926).
Apart from the above information I could only assume that since my grandparents were married in 1949 Guadalupe most likely died between 1946-1948.
If anyone knows anything about this story, or is perhaps related to either of these Alanis families please let me know.
Copyright © Michael Garcia. All rights reserved. For permission to reuse this article contact Michael at [email protected].
