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wetnwildgrl LRFA's blog: "Erica's blog"

created on 10/01/2006  |  http://fubar.com/erica-s-blog/b9025
Elena Mireles Hernandez, who died in Greeley on Aug. 17 at age 87, was a mother to 18 children she raised with a firm hand, a warm heart and high expectations. Born Aug. 18, 1918, in Doctor Arroyo, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, in the chaos of the Mexican Revolution, Hernandez was less than a year old when her young parents carried her across the border to Texas. She was so small, she could fit inside a shoebox. Her grandparents, who later told her that Mexican outlaw Pancho Villa once robbed them, raised Hernandez. They lived frugally, relying on a horse-drawn wagon for transportation. As soon as she was old enough, Hernandez joined her grandparents in field work and other jobs. She learned to play the accordion and earned extra money playing in Texas cantinas before marrying Bernardo Hernandez. She was a strict Catholic who kept a container of holy water in her bedroom and displayed statues of the Virgin of Guadalupe and other patron saints. "Moma was Catholic and didn't believe in birth control," said her youngest child, Jeannie Anderson, born 45 years after her eldest sibling. "Here I am, No. 18, a love child, and she still wanted that baby." Money was scarce and became scarcer after Bernardo Hernandez died, killed by a hit-and-run driver when Anderson was a teenager. By then, the Hernandez children knew to rise early, make their beds, do their chores and then turn to work. When school wasn't in session, they accompanied their parents to top beets and work in the farm fields near Fort Lupton. When they went home, Elena Hernandez took their stained clothes and washed them in cold water because it was cheaper than using hot water. "Moma grew up with ... cold water for washing and rinsing clothes, and her colors were bright and her whites as white as white," Anderson said. When the clothes dried, Hernandez ironed everything, including T-shirts. She taught her children to take care with their appearance and dress respectfully for church, though she didn't make the girls wear headscarves to Mass as she did. Each night, Hernandez cooked a meal that managed to expand to accommodate visitors. "Once you entered her house, she'd start cooking something to make sure you had dinner," Anderson said. "Nobody could leave with an empty stomach. Moma always said, 'Barriga llena, corazon contento' - stomach full, happy heart." Valente Mireles, Hernandez's the eldest son, was 71 when his mother died last month at the home of her youngest child. Besides her youngest and eldest children, Hernandez is survived by sons Antonio Hernandez of New Mexico, Ramon Hernandez of Northglenn, Jose Antonio Hernandez of Greeley and Dakota Clearwater of Upland, Calif.; daughters Macaela Hernandez and Aurora Cardoza, both of Greeley, Maria Huffman of Springfield, Ore., Felecita Murilloof Roggen, Dominga Hernandez of Hesperia, Calif., Barbara Ann Perez and Tomasa Gutierrez, both of Fort Lupton, and Vinceta Gonzales of Parker; and dozens of grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Four children preceded her in death.
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