My Family History
according to Cynthia Leyvas

Written for History 17B at Imperial Valley College in April 24, 1995.

[ Home ] [ Reunion 2005 Photo Gallery ] [ Family Reunion 2004 ] [ Old Photos Photo Gallery ] [ Old Photo Gallery ] [ Trip to Wickenburg ] [ Family Gatherings ] [ Family History Report ]

Elsie Leyvas

(My Mother)

Elise Leyvas came into the world on September 21, 1936, the daughter of Maria Esperanza Romero Arce and Cornelio Verdugo Leyvas. With the help of a midwife, Elise was born in a house on the corner of Sixth Street and Dool Avenue in Calexico, California. She was baptized at the Catholic Church in Calexico. Even though her birth name is Elise, everyone -- family, friends and co-workers alike -- calls her Elsie (pronounced L-C).

Elsie is the second oldest living child with eight sisters and three brothers. Everyday after school, she had to come straight home, in order to help take care of her baby brothers and sisters. The Leyvas family was very poor. The girls had only one dress to wear for the whole week. And then, there is the matter of new shoes. Each child was bought one pair of brand new shoes at a time, but then had to wait for the next pair until it was their turn again, going down the list of twelve children from top to bottom.

Elsie started off her school career at Dool Elementary School, where she attended from kindergarten until sixth grade. She then went on to seventh and eighth grades at Rockwood Junior High School. Elsie attended just her ninth grade year at Calexico High School, which used to be located where the San Diego State University-Calexico Campus now is. She was a very good student and even skipped the fourth grade. She would have liked to have continued her education, but was temporarily interrupted.

Elsie's best friends during her school years were Alicia Palomino, whom Elsie saw for the first time again three years ago, and Hovita Mata, who was a neighbor from across the street.

One of Elsie's favorite pastimes was, and still is, listening to The Beatles, Elvis Presley, and Javier Solis. She also enjoyed reading immensely, with mysteries and romance novels amongst her favorites. Elsie did not play any sports when she was young, saying she did not like them because she was afraid of being hit by the ball.

Andres Zamudio was Elsie's next-door-neighbor on Fifth street. When Elsie was a freshman, Andres was a Senior. They married in 1952, in a Yuma chapel, when Elsie was sixteen. Andres, Jr. was born on September 23, 1953 at the Calexico Hospital. A year later, on September 8, 1954, Ernesto was born. Two years after that, Maria Guadalupe was born on November 3, 1956. On December 16, 1958, Sylvia was born, the last of the Leyvas-Zamudio clan. All the children were baptized at the Catholic Church in Mexicali.

When Ernie and Andy Jr. were in Junior High, doctors found a lump in Elsie's neck. The lump was operated on and tuberculosis was found. Elsie then had to stay at the Tuberculosis Sanitary outside of Holtville for one year. The house that the family lived in was closed up, and the children moved in with their paternal grandmother.

Elsie L. Zamudio's husband, Andres, left the family to fend for themselves in 1965. They divorced in 1972.

In order to provide for her family, Elsie went back to school and earned her G.E.D. in 1966. She then went to Grace Doran Beauty School in El Centro for about nine months, from 1967-1968. She enjoyed being a beautician, but worked for only about one year, first at Presley's in El Centro, and then at De Anza Hotel in Calexico. In order to be a successful beautician, one needs the time to build up their clientele.

Elsie did not have the time to be a successful beautician. She needed money to support her family now! So, Elsie attended secretarial school in Holtville. She sent out applications to the school district as well as the Calexico Hospital. Elsie started working at the Calexico Hospital on February 14, 1973, where she still faithfully works to this day, because the hospital paid more money.

It was hard for Elsie to be a single mother during those times. Everyone thought that women needed to have a husband, especially neighbors who thought that she was after their own.

Then, three months later, on May 14, 1973, Elsie had one more child, Cynthia Elsa Leyvas.

Maria Esperanza Romero Arce

(My Maternal Grandmother)

Maria Esperanza Romero Arce, known to her grandchildren as Nana Hope, was born on August 1, 1917, in her grandmother's ranch in Mexicali. She is the oldest daughter of Genoveva Urias Romero and Felix Arce. Esperanza's siblings are Felix Jr. (born in 1919), Isabel (born 1921), Margaret (1923), Elvira (1925), Jose (1927), and Nicanor (1931).

In 1919, when Esperanza was two years old, the family moved to Calexico. While waiting at the port of entry, her parents were sitting down, with Esperanza on her father's lap and her brother Felix on their mother's lap. A picture was taken of them that is still somewhere at the port of entry.

Esperanza lived in a house outside Calexico with her family, along with six boarders who bailed hay with her father. The Arce family also lived on ranches and in tents, wherever there was work.

Esperanza started school at the age of nine at Dool Elementary School in 1926. When she was about twelve, the family moved to an encampment on Jasper Road, where Esperanza attended Jasper School. The family moved to Holtville when she was about fourteen, where Esperanza went to Verde School. Many of her friends and their families moved there as well, including the Rodriguez, Ruiz, La Boris (French), Liera, and Bohorques families.

Esperanza and her friends went to school on horseback or on a horse-drawn cart that belonged to the Ruiz family (and her brother Felix's girlfriend). Mr. Ruiz blames the children for the death of his beloved, but exhausted horse, because of the huge amount of kids that rode on the horsecart everyday.

Wherever they lived, every morning before school, Esperanza chores included washing clothes, and bringing in wood and water.

In 1932, Esperanza's parents died within days of each other. On September 6, Esperanza's mother, Genoveva, suffered a miscarriage. Her father, Felix Sr., showed Esperanza the dead infant, lying in a pan, before he buried it behind their house, under a tree and near the canal. He said that they would bury the baby in the cemetery after their mother got well. But her mother never got well and died that same day. Soon after, Felix Sr. became ill as well, suffering a high fever. Genoveva Romero Arce was buried on September 11. The next day, the first time it snowed near Calexico that Esperanza remembered, on September 12, Felix Arce Sr. followed his wife, and died.

The family was then divided between family and friends. Elvira (Lito), Joe, and Maggie went to stay in Calexico with Mother (Margarita) Bracamontes, who was Joe's godmother. Also in Calexico, Nick's godmother, Victoria Barera, took in Isabel (Chavela) and Felix, as well as Nick. Esperanza went on to live with her godmother, her mother's sister, Reynalda Flores, who lived in Holtville.

Cornelio Leyvas

(My Maternal Grandfather)

Cornelio Leyvas was born on September 16, 1897, in Date Creek (a mining village that has since disappeared), near Prescott, Arizona. His mother was Andrea Verdugo, a midwife born in Yuma, and his father was Ignacio Leyvas, a Yaqui Indian and a miner born in Sonora, Mexico.

Cornelio's brothers and sisters are Maximilliano, Valentina, Serapio, Perfecta, Diego, Carmen, Magdalena, and Francisco.

Cornelio was a tall man, standing about 6'3". He enjoyed reading funny books and listening to cowboy movies on the radio in his spare time.

Cornelio worked in many different trades. He worked for many years bailing hay. He also helped in the building of the American Canal. Then he got a job working for the City of Calexico Sanitation Department, operating the sweeper and long, long garbage truck, and doing various plumbing jobs.

In 1934, Cornelio, thirty-five years old, met and married eighteen-year-old Esperanza Arce.

Cornelio & Esperanza Leyvas

Cornelio Leyvas wanted to marry Esperanza Arce. So, Cornelio went and asked Esperanza's Aunt Reynalda if he could marry her. Then, as tradition dictated, Cornelio had to ask the oldest living Arce male, Esperanza's little brother Felix, for her hand in marriage.

Cornelio Leyvas and Esperanza Arce were married in August of 1934, in Yuma.

Thus, the Leyvas lineage began.

 

Beatrice	June 11, 1935
Elise	September 21, 1936
Rebecca	September 16, 1938
Jessie (a girl)	May ?? - ???
Cornelio Jr.	May 13, 1942 - May 22, 1944
Ignacio	March 20, 1944
Conrado Andres	February 10, 1946
Gloria	January 20, 1947
Andrea	April 2, 1949
Josefina	February 11, 1951
Mary Luisa	January 10, 1952
Yolanda	June 5, 1954
Susana	February 7, 1957
Cornelio Felix	September 28, 1959

Cornelio and Esperanza Leyvas lived on a ranch at Jasper, until one night when Esperanza was alone with her first baby, Beatrice. She felt as if her blankets were being pulled off, even though no one else was around. When Baby Beatrice cried, Esperanza comforted her by saying, "Ssshhh- ssshhh!" Then she heard it repeated again, but not by her. The Leyvas' immediately moved to Calexico.

The young family moved into a house behind that of the Leyvas' main house (the in-laws), on Giles Avenue in Calexico. The rent was $10 a month.

Cornelio helped to build the American Canal under the direction of Max Rose and Lawrence Little. They used mule teams and a "screpa" to pull the dirt out. Esperanza would go with her brother-in-law, Francisco, in a Model T to take lunch to her husband, Cornelio. They would drive the Model T down into the canal in order to reach the working men.

Every year Esperanza had to renew her passport by mailing in a new form at the post office. In 1938, she forgot to renew it. One day, right after the birth of their daughter, Becky, Esperanza and her husband went to Mexicali to buy groceries. When they tried to cross, Esperanza was not allowed to because of her expired passport. She had to wait for three days in her sister Maggie's home until her new passport and picture arrived at the port of entry. Since the baby was still being breastfed, Cornelio had to take Baby Becky back and forth to Mexicali constantly during those three long days.

Even though they were poor, the family did not go hungry. They would eat big pots of beans & potatoes and tortillas. And they all ate together. In the early mornings, Cornelio would be the first to wake up. He would light up the "Lena" (old-fashioned wood stove) to warm the house, and make coffee and bean & potatoes burritos for everyone. On weekends, Cornelio would do the cooking, making menudo and stovetop homemade bread. Every time that it rained or was real cold, Cornelio would make champurrado for his children. Cornelio went to Mexicali to but bread & meat, and on his return he would stand at the doorway, and jingle the change in his pocket, teasing his children. Then, he would throw the change on the floor, and the children would throw themselves on the change.

Esperanza worked in the fountain and kitchen, and storeroom at Calexico's Cress thrift store. She was let go after the birth of her daughter, Yolanda, in 1954.

One time, Cornelio's liver went bad, after years of drinking alcohol, and he became real sick. Esperanza went to work tying carrots to make ends meet and her husband stopped drinking, for awhile.

Cornelio followed a regular daily schedule. Every morning at 5 a.m., he left for work. At noon time, he came home for lunch. Then he would either come home around 6 p.m. and go to sleep, or would come home at two in the morning, after a night of drinking. One day, on December 2, 1959, Cornelio was working, clearing bushes for Mr. Emerson, on a triangle of newly bought land. About four in the afternoon, Cornelio suffered a heart attack, and died. He was only 62 years old. The news did not reach the family until two hours later, around six o'clock, but Esperanza was not home because she was out buying her husband Lucky Strikes cigarettes and pork chops for the next day's lunch.

Esperanza Leyvas

(1959 - Present)

After her husband's death, Esperanza received welfare. But she had to work for her money, and she did so at the Calexico Neighborhood House. There, Esperanza cleaned and gave tours, while receiving training as a nurse's aide for the elderly. However, she worked in the Neighborhood House's Day Care Center from 1964 until about 1982. In addition to taking care of the numerous children, Esperanza planned the menus and prepared the food. To do this, she went to a Nutrition program in San Diego to get certified.

Esperanza attended Imperial Valley College for one semester, from January until June 1976, in order to get a license to open her own day care. She operated her private day care in her home on the corner of Fifth Street and Beach Avenue for five years, until 1987. She was then 70 years old.

My Grandmother Esperanza Leyvas (my Nana Hope), has spent her last years taking care of her home, managing her adjacent apartments, and watching her 12 children, 41 grandchildren, 61 great- grandchildren, and 9 great-great-grandchildren grow up.