Welcome to the families page

The original Fonseca family that immigrated into Texas in the early 20th century consisted only of a few family members. As the years went by, they interacted with families in Texas but in the beginning they continued their connections with family members left behind in Salvatierra and Morelia in Mexico.

Florentino and Herminia kept many of the Mexican traditions from the old country. They arranged marriages for their daughters and son. Jesusa and Sofia married a General and Captain, respectively, who served in Mexico's Revolutionary army. Jose also served in the Mexican Revolution and later married a friend's daughter from Morelia. Angela married a son of a family friend. Guadalupe caused a scandal that ended in a tragedy. Click on images to enlarge.

The families consist of:

Jesusa Fonseca Jesusa or "Chucha" as she was nicknamed was married to an ambitious young man, Agustin Alvaran, who became a General in the Mexican Revolution. Chucha was a very gregarious individual who was fondly remembered for her big, wet kisses, and even bigger, warm hugs which she always gave to her many nieces and nephews, yet her story is filled with sorrow. El General and Chucha had a son, Agustin. A couple of years after their son was born, El General was killed in battle. Chucha remarried but a few years later, her only child was decapitated in a tragic automobile accident that left several family members injured. They all moved to their ranch in Mathis, Texas and Chucha led a very happy and long life with Viviano Salazar.

Jose and Salud and their family Jose fought in the Mexican Revolution. Although you hear many a tale of grandfathers who rode with Pancho Villa, that was not the case with the Fonseca families who supported the Carranzistas. At one point during the war, Florentino and Herminia thought their son had died but he returned years later anxious to begin his life. Although his was an arranged marriage, he and Salud had a family of 15. Salud was diagnosed with bone cancer and the doctors recommended they move to a dryer climate. The family moved to California. Salud passed early in life, and Jose remarried twice to Salud's first cousins, Rafaela Tavera and Maria Fraga. There was a joke in the family that if Jose became a widower for a third time that he would marry the last first cousin, Ruth. Both Ruth and Jose denied that would happen. Jose died in Morelia in 1996 with his wife, Maria, who survived him by a few years.

Sofia and Salud Sofia was a beautiful young woman and she married Captain Aureliano Flores and he went away to fight in the Mexican Revolution. He and Sofia had two sons, Daniel and Jose. She named Jose after her brother who was thought to have died in battle. But her brother returned from the war a few years later and so there were two Joses in the family. Her son, nicknamed Pepe was killed tragically in the same automobile accident that killed her sister's son, Agustin. Sofia remarried a few years later Juan DeLeon, who was also her younger sister's husband's brother.

Angela married a young man who was not from Salvatierra or Morelia. She married after the family moved to Mathis, Texas and settled on the family ranch that was bought through a settlement from a car accident that killed her two nephews in 1931. She had several children and they lived happily on the ranch. She never remarried and led a long life filled with the love of her 10 children and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Agustin and Lupe The story of this family branch is very short and tragic. Guadalupe, who was born in 1917, was only 16 when she got pregnant. Something like that caused a great scandal in those days. Florentino persuaded the young man, Jesus Moreno, to marry his daughter and a shot gun wedding was held. Unfortunately Lupe ashamed and afraid, resorted to strapping herself so that people would not notice her pregnancy. She also went to a yerberia (herbalist) and took a remedy that was said to induce a miscarriage. Unfortunately, from the combination of the tight straps around her torso and the remedy which basically poisoned her, Lupe died. Guadalupe Fonseca Moreno was buried with her twins, a boy and a girl, in 1934 in Tynan, Bee County, Texas, USA.