MY MOTHER WANTED A BETTER LIFE FOR HER THREE SONS
My dear mother, Maria Luisa NavarroHolmes, was born in Arizpe in the state of Sonora, Mexico, on June 21, 1922, under very limited financial circumstances and raised by her wonderful father Rafael Navarro and family members due to her mother passing at a very young age.
She only attended elementary school up to the third grade in the city of Cananea, Mexico, and later moved to a very small town named Bacoachi after her father was forced to work with Yaqui Indians in the Sonora mountains in Mexico to support his family.
Her first boyfriend was Rafael Luquez, and when she was 18, she gave birth to Rafael Luquez Jr. That was 1940.
She suffered bad treatment by the Luquez family, which abused her as a housekeeper, and she decided to move back to Cananea for a better life with her own family, but was not allowed to take her young son.
She became a housekeeper in a wealthy rancher’s home, started a relationship with the family’s young son, Gilberto Martinez, when she was 25, and became pregnant with me — Jesus (Jesse) Navarro.
The Martinez family decided that Gilberto would not marry my mother and sent him to Mexico City, so she left the family’s home for a better future.
My dear mother had two very good friends, Olympia Salido and Concha Stenick, in Nogales, and they all decided to move to Tijuana for a better future. I was born in 1947, and my younger brother Armando Navarro was born in 1950 in Tijuana, but my dear mother never forgot about her son Rafael who had been taken away by his father’s family. She decided to travel back to Sonora in the mid-1950s and she brought him back to Tijuana.
My mother continued working hard and raising her three sons in Tijuana, but she always wanted a better future during difficult economic times as a single mother.
In 1960, she met a retired U.S. Marine by the name of Paul Holmes and decided to marry him despite their cultural, language and age differences. He was 21 years older than her, but she saw the opportunity for a better life for her and her three sons and they all immigrated to San Diego.
The marriage lasted only about five years because of their differences, but Mr. Holmes continued being supportive of my dear mother and our grandchildren, and I will always be grateful to him for helping my family immigrate to the best country in the world.
My dear mother continued raising us as a single mother here in San Diego, and she decided to attend adult school to learn the language. She eventually worked as a family assistant for the San Diego County Health Department for many years despite the fact that she had only attended three years of elementary school in Mexico.
Approximately four years ago, my dear brother Rafael passed away in San Diego due to medical conditions, and our mother became ill. We placed her in a senior home in Chula Vista, where she stayed until last June, when she passed away two weeks prior to her 100th birthday.
Like so many other mothers, my dear mother dedicated her life to her family and was always happy and caring to everyone. She was a great example of an immigrant who raised three sons who became successful citizens and was surrounded by many grandchildren and close friends.
She is now resting in peace at El Camino Memorial Park in San Diego.
is retired after 45 years of service with local law enforcement agencies including the San Diego Police Department and the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office. He lives in San Diego County.