Auntie Lola (Delores Baca Candelaria)

Auntie Lola
(Delores Baca Candelaria Salazar)
Eliseo
1940
Marian
Lola
Lucy
The rest of the week went all too quickly, a few days with the grandkids and that quick detour to visit Uncle Glenn’s family in Round Valley then a little back track through Gallup New Mexico to visit Auntie Lola.
Auntie Lola greeted them warmly, as is her custom, and offered them a tour of the Villa de Guadalupe retirement home where she had recently taken residence. Pointing to the pictures on her dresser, Lynae asked who they were. “Is that you’re wedding picture?” she asked excitedly.
“Yes, that’s me and my Roger. We were married when I was eighteen. I was born in the home built by my grandfather, José María Baca. The building still stands and is used today. We went into partnership for the store, with my cousin Matias Baca, and a few years later we bought out his shares and moved the store to a building on the north side of California Street”
“That’s the main street through Quemado, Highway 60". Mom explained. “By this time we were parents of four children,” Auntie Lola indicated a family picture. “Roger, Edwina, Vidal, who your Grandma Lucy dubbed Billy, and Clara Jo.
“-- Helena's Mom.” Lynae popped up excitedly.
“Do you know my granddaughter Helena?” Auntie Lola questioned.
“She’s our favorite relative -- besides you, I mean,” Brent added diplomatically. We stayed at her house, and she gave us tickets to the Wild Animal Park and Zoo in San Diego where she works -- Remember Mom, when I saw her walking by with a lady on a tour of the park and I recognized her voice?”
“That was quite a coincidence, “Mom agreed. “She didn’t even expect to be at the Zoo that day so she had left tickets for us at the gate. She was so busy that trip we didn’t even get to get together, but the summer before we had a great visit, and she and her husband, Will, were so gracious.”
“Yes, Helena is a wonderful woman.” Auntie Lola agreed readily. “Did you see her on Television a few weeks ago? She was interviewed on one of the network news shows about her work with the primates at the Zoo.”
“She’s really the only cousin, well first cousin once removed, that I kept in contact with. When we were kids Helena's parents brought the family to visit every couple of summers. Helena and I kept in contact as pen pals for several years.” Mom explained, then added, "Auntie Lola’s oldest son, Roger, here in this picture is the oldest of the whole generation of cousins, and I’m the youngest. He actually thought he was my uncle for a while. He was just six years younger than my mother. He's the one born while Grandma Lucy was in the Loretto infirmary so sick and when they said she had a nephew, she cried and said, 'I don't want another disease.' When Roger was in the hospital after a heart attack I wrote him a card:
From the youngest to the oldest,
I’m real sorry that you’re sick.
You lead our generation,
so get well really quick!”
Auntie Lola continued the tour of the building. Lynae admired the beautiful displays of Navajo designs in rugs and pottery and sand paintings throughout the building, side by side with the pictures and statues of Jesus, Mary and many saints.
“We bought a lot of land and buildings -- one set of adobe buildings we named Plaza Cottage Camp,” Auntie Lola reminisced.[1] “It was a collection of rental rooms, small stores and a pool hall.”
“Auntie met her husband Roger in Springerville. She was a boarder at St. Vincent's Academy in Albuquerque.”
“You went to boarding school even when your parents were alive?” Lynae questioned.
“That was the only way to get an education; there were no schools in this part of the country. Marian and Lucy would have gone there too — even if our parents had lived.”
“I thought they just were sent because they were orphans.”
“No, in our day many children had to be shipped off.”
“Is that why you say you are shipping us off to boarding school when we have to go back to Dad’s for the school year?” Lynae asked turning to Mom.
“Yeah, it’s easier than admitting you are leaving for joint custody.” Mom admitted, brushing at a little tear -- a mixture of sadness for generations of children separated from their birth parents.
“I had to send my kids away." Auntie Lola stated. "Marian’s daughters, Eugenia and Lydia went to St. Vincent’s in Albuquerque, too, but they lived at home because she and Chris lived close enough to commute,” she added, then continued with the history the children had requested. “Throughout 1920, Roger and I met whenever possible, he was working at Becker's Store in Sprigerville. We married in September of 1921 just a few months later, March 1922, my father died.”
“We rented the house and building to a young couple, who opened a bakery and ran it until they were financially able to continue to California, their original goal. I continued the bakery for some time with help from my older children managed the cabins and did most of the work that had to be done. And I also assisted Dr. Bell in the delivery of several babies, and was county registrar for more than twenty-five years.”
“Gina used to help deliver babies!” Lynae compared generations again. “But where was Roger?”
“Uncle Roger,” Mom corrected from long habit, having been corrected as a child.
“Roger Candelaria served as County Commissioner for two years, and several years as Justice of the Peace. When my father died in 1922, I inherited the part of his holdings known as The Mail Ranch, and we purchased other land to raise cattle. We kept herds of sheep until late 1947; we raised feed on the cultivated part of the vega which was watered by Rito Creek. Before 1940 the only trees in Quemado were Salt Cedars. Roger brought a truckload of Chinese Elms and sold them to folk to beautify their homes, and most people considered them a blessing.”
“I guess that’s what happened in Arizona and Nevada!” Brent acknowledged. “I sure don’t think of elm trees as a blessing when I have to hoe them out of the garden and chop the suckers that grow from the roots.”
The very young looking nove-generian spoke proudly of her family. “Both my sons, and five grandsons have served in the armed services, and my great grandson now serves overseas.”
“Auntie Lola, you’ve lived through most of this century — since 1907,” Lynae continued the interview, “what changes have you seen?”
“My father had the first car in Catron County, we had one of the first telephones, electricity, just about everything in this century. Vaccines and immunizations would have saved my parents.” Lola wiped an unexpected tear from her cheek at the very thought, and continued,” -- you take for granted now. The world has changed rapidly with new inventions and new appliances. I’ve lived through two world wars, and many other political conflicts, but I still try to have an optimistic outlook.”
“What do you enjoy the most?” Lynae asked.
“That’s an easy one, I always thoroughly enjoy get-togethers with my precious sisters and brother, my children and grandchildren, and friends.”
“Well, in a world of constant change, that much hasn’t changed in four hundred years. The most important thing, I guess, will always be family.”
[1] Taken from the QuemadoSenior Citizen Calendar section on the Candalaria Family, and family stories.