México

Our family mainly comes from the Mexican states of Zacatecas and Jalisco.

Most of the family is from the city of Jerez. My genealogical research says that they lived in a few different ranchos in the area including El Tesorero, Organos, Cuervos and Ermita de los Correa (where all but Jesusita, Lupe and Lorenza were born).

Vita Castañeda’s maternal family came from the cities of Huejúcar, Huacasco, and Colotlán in the state of Jalisco, right over the border from Zacatecas. If you notice the outline of the state, at the top, it looks like 3 fingers point up. That where our family comes from. It’s easy to see that Jerez was very close to Huejúcar, and why they might have crossed back and forth.

Jesusita and Lupe were born in Lerdo, Durango, on the way to the US during the Mexican Revolution.

Lorenza (Lencha) was born in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, directly across the river from El Paso, TX. (There’s some confusion about Lencha. My grandmother insisted she was born in Juárez, not El Paso, as Lencha herself claimed. The 1920 and 1930 census has her birthplace as Texas. However, her husband Jose Perez’ naturalization papers say Lencha was born in Juárez. UPDATE: I found her baptismal certificate, and it’s from Ciudad Juárez.)