Part of the Conociemento de Familia Olvera

My father loved the Air Force and was a part of who he was and how he identified himself.  My parents were always very proud to identify us as an Air Force family to whoever we met.  It was the bond that helped them bridge the gap with almost everyone they met, even strangers.  My Dad was proud of serving his country.   It provided a good life for him and my Mom, Carmen.  It even helped them provide for us children, Luis, Jr. (Louie), Maria, Amalia (Molly) and me, Michelle.  The running joke was that if the Air Force wanted the military men to have a family, they would have been issued one during basic training.  Although, my parents met a few years after he had became an airmen.  He was stationed at Forbes Air Force Base in Topeka, Kansas when they met.  My mother was a native of Topeka.  She worked full time as a salesclerk at a drug store when they met.  She had dropped out of high school to get married to someone else, but when those plans fell through; she decided not to return to high school.  She enjoyed the “freedom” that came with earning a paycheck.  She said she had grown up too much to go back to being a “high school kid.” 

     Her paycheck helped pay for her younger brothers and sister to attend the local Catholic high school.  Everyone in the family who worked pooled to their money together to help pay for their tuition.  The “story” was that my Mom was so ornery and always in trouble at the school office that the school banished the entire family from attending the local high school; so my uncles claim.  My Mom had the ability to say whatever was on her mind at the time and not care how the other person reacted.  She did say she would enjoy irritating her teachers for entertainment and because she was “too much of a tomboy to know any better.”  My mother continued to work off and on until I was in high school as a sales person.  She never wanted to get her GED, and was probably one of the most intelligent people I know.  She always kept up on what was going on in the daily news and the weekly San Antonio City Council Meetings.  My Dad, Luis, also left high school early.  He chose to obtain his GED and he enlisted in the newly organized Air Force (formerly the Army Air Corp) so he could help defend our country’s interest in the Korean War.  After basic training he was given career education in food service in addition to his professional military education (PME). 

     Currently, the Mexican American community is the fastest growing ethnic group in America. Mexican communities have strong family ties, more likely to live in close proximity to each other, and have a strong work ethic.  According to my Aunt Maria Estefana Olvera , my Grandfather Nieves Olvera used to say that if you didn’t have a job you were a bum.  He immigrated to Chicago from Nuevo Laredo during the mid 1930s.  He was employed at a steel forging plant when he retired.  When he was established, he sent for his mother so she would no longer have to continue her work as a housekeeper/nanny which she maintained since her husband (my Great Grandfather) died during the time he worked as a migrant worker.  My Grandfather was two years old when his father died and my Great Grandmother never remarried. Just like today’s single mother, my Great Grandmother was the sole provider for herself and my Grandfather during the early 1900s.  My Grandfather moved to Chicago, Illinois after he and my Grandmother, Tana were divorced when my father was a year old, about 1935.  She still lives in Laredo, Texas as a widow/homemaker.  Both of my Grandparents remarried and had a second family.  Both sets of my Grandparents arrived to this country hoping to move away from political and economic unrest as a result of the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920).

According to my Aunt Mollie Valdivia Cervantez, my Mother’s oldest sister, their father Ramiro Valdivia, Sr. came to this country to work for the Union Pacific Railroad making railroad ties.  He moved to Topeka, Kansas with his parents and uncle.  They heard the railroad company was looking for workers from other family members who were already living in Topeka.  He met my Grandmother, Jennie when he moved to Topeka.  She was adopted by his cousins so we don’t know a lot about her life before then.  We do know she had an older sister that was adopted by another family in the Mexican community so the girls could stay somewhat together.  My mother said she was born in Mexico, but my Aunt said she moved to Topeka from Phoenix.  I recently discovered she was born in Texas from Ancestry.com.   She was living with her adopted family by 1930.  Aunt Mollie did mention her father was a full blooded Indian and her mother was a Mormon Missionary from Utah.  We assume she went to Phoenix by request of her church.  She lived alone with her children so we figured my Grandfather did not leave his Indian tribe to travel with the family.    No one talked about her much because she left the family when my Mother was 12 years old. 

My Grandfather raised seven children without a wife, he never remarried. The ladies of the community helped keep watch over them as they grew up.  My Aunt Mollie said she quit school when Grandma left so she could take care of her brothers and sisters since she was the oldest.  She took care of six siblings ranging from 13 years old to under one year old when she herself was only 14 years old.  She is currently a retired preschool teacher who has earned her Associates Degree in teaching and the mother of six  children.