The Valdivia Family as told by Ameila Valdivia Cervantez

Grandpa Valdivia, Juan Eliseo, was my Dad's Father.  His Mother was Mercedez Romo and his second wife was Rosa Valdivia.

My Great, Great, Grandfather came from Spain.  My Great, Great, Grandmother came from France.
They came to Mexico and met there and were married.  It may have been about the time of the Mexican Revolution with France.  He father was sent to Mexico by his employer.  We also have a Grandfather who was from Ireland, same situation.  [My Mom said he was a six foot, red headed Irishman, hmm the height went to Aunt Mollies' boys who are around the six foot mark, we're small.]  After the men stayed in Mexico after being sent by their employers they married local Mexican women and settled in Mexico.  That's where our family started.  Some were also Indians from Mexico and that's how we ended up with a mixed family. 

My Mother's (biological) side came from New Mexico, not Arizona.  That is just where she was living when she was adopted by Grandma and Grandpa Valdivia.  My parents were cousins but by adoption, not birth.  We do not have any background on my Mother's family.  We do know her Father was American Indian and her Mother was a Mormon Missionary from Utah.  They had a boy and two girls. We assume she spoke her native Indian language and English because of her mother.  We do know she was not allowed to speak Indian language or she would be spanked by her Valdivia "family."

[My Mom mentioned there was also twins who were infants.  Great Grandma died of Tuberculosis and because she was nursing the babies they died too.  Grandma, aunt and uncle were little at the time and they stayed with the dead bodies until a male friend of their mother's came to check up on them.  The children were taken to the church where notice was sent to other parishes about their situation.  Somehow the Valdivias found out about them.  The children were separtated, the boy was given to one family and he died within the year of his adoption. My aunt and Grandma were sent to different families in Topeka, Kansas to families in the same neighborhood so they could be together.  However, Aunt was loved and cherished and Grandma was adopted to be a Mother's Helper, or family servant, depending upon how politically correct you want to be.  She was not treated as nicely as her sister and was not allowed to see her outside of school.  Aunt Mollie said those Valdivias were kind of snobby and had "airs" but she never figured out why.  She and my Grandpa had an arranged marriage because my Grandpa Valdivia sponsored my Grandpa Ramiro to come and work at the railroad in Topeka.]

My Dad came to the U.S.A. and worked for the Union Pacific Railroad.  He married my Mother in 1931, she was 18 years old and my Dad was 27 years old.  He later became a citizen of the U.S. 
He died July 1968, he was 63. 

They had 9 children:
Amelia (Mollie) Valdivia Cervantez, who had 6 children
Eloisa Valdivia, no children
Carmen Valdivia Olvera, 4 children (Me)
Bauldeio Valdivia, no children
Daniel Valdivia, 3 children
Ramiro Valdivia, Jr., 2 children
Maria Guadalupe Valdivia, no children

My Mom left the family when we were young, I was 14 years old.  She remarried to Eleno Favarez.  They had a daughter named Martina, who had a daughter.  There was another boy born before she married Eleno. [A boy named David Valdivia who died accidently when he was two years old.]

Aunt Mollie later told me she quit school when Grandma left, which would be about 8th grade.  Aunt Mollie later went back to get her GED and she currently has an Associates Degree in Early Childhood Education.  She is a retired Head Start teacher.