Life Tributes Angela Romero Flores Martinez
June 29, 1927 - December 13, 2020
CHULA VISTA — Angela Romero Flores Martinez died Sunday evening, December 13, at Scripps Mercy Hospital Chula Vista, a few blocks from her long-time home, of Acute Hypoxic Respiratory Failure caused by old age and following a brief stay.
Born on June 29, 1927, in Los Lamentos, Chihuahua, Mexico, Ms. Flores, known as “Angel” by most and “Tencha” by close family, moved to El Paso, Texas, as an infant. She enjoyed singing with her Sister Antonia (1926-2014) on local radio and like other girls of her era, dreamt of stardom. Yet at age 16, she instead chose to drop out of school to raise her nephews, Frank Gonzalez (1940-1990) and George Flores (1943-2014) in loco parentis, thereby saving them from orphancy. The young family settled in Encanto in 1949, where she bought a house and worked as a Cosmetician at Walker Scott’s downtown flagship store until her nephew George graduated from San Diego High School in 1960.
In 1961, she married Stanley Joseph Martinez in National City, and they moved to Chula Vista in 1967. From 1974-2014, she was known to San Diegans as proprietor and artist in residence at a variety of Old Town based retail shops mostly selling American Indian jewelry and arts and crafts, excepting 1992-98, when she operated “Mrs. Martinez’s Millinery Shoppe” at US House. Her last location of “Angel’s Indian Gift Shop” on San Diego Avenue closed in 2015, the year she successfully defeated the stage three Colorectal cancer with which she was diagnosed in late 2013.
Indefatigably creative, resourceful, romantic, and determined, Mrs. Martinez was known by many for her good humor, and personal sense of style. Her interests in the art of Arizona and New Mexico based Native American tribes, the music of Andreas Bocelli and varied Country-Western recording artists of the 1970’s, the San Diego Padres baseball club she supported avidly, food of all types, and handsome Men broadly, were also renown to those in her confidence. But it was as a devoted Mother to her only son, Stanley Frank Martinez (b. 1968) also of Chula Vista, that most including she would say she felt most fulfilled. This was the role of a lifetime an erstwhile aspirant star seemed destined to play.
She lived her final four years with end stage Dementia supported by a 24x7 team of in-home health aides and the presence of her son and grandson, Francisco (b. 1991) of San Diego, in quiet dignity with simple, tender, unremitting joy.
“Look homeward, Angel.” Meet your rest and eternal reward.
Owing to public health orders, her family plans no immediate memorial. Interested parties may donate in her name to the San Diego American Indian Health Institute. https://sdaihc.org