Interviewed: Members of the Vega family: Hortensia Vega Navarrette, Aurora Ontiveros, and Héctor Vega

Contact: Imelda Lopez (teacher), Corona, CA.

Sra. Navarrette, now elderly, had wanted to return to her “roots” for some time. She, with a sister and a brother, two daughters and their husbands, two grandchildren and a great grandchild, visited Álamos from their homes in Tucson, AZ, and Riverside, CA. They spent three days at the Tesoros Hotel and sifted through memories of the past.

One day they traveled to Milpillas in the state of Chihuahua where Hortensia was born. Much to the amazement of all, the original houses built by her father (by hand) were still standing! A cousin, now 72, still lives there.

Hortensia and her brother, Angel, came to Álamos in November, 1928, on a mountain trail from their home in Chihuahua. They were aged nine and four at the time, and their four older sisters came with them. Riding a donkey and a burro, which they had never done before, they had no way of guiding the animals and ended up with many scratches from the brush and tree limbs. At one point they ended up in a river when the burro took a break by sitting in the water! The journey was 150 kilometers and took three or four days. Since it was winter, in the mountains there was snow on the ground and Hortensia remembers running in the snow barefoot.

They came to Álamos to attend school and stayed at the home of María Otero, a family friend, whose husband was Chinese. Hortensia’s father was a farmer and owned cattle in Chihuahua, but later the parents came to Álamos and bought a house--the house where Al Harkes lives now (1997). They bought the house for $200 pesos and sold it in 1940 for $4,000 pesos. Hortensia remembers that she and her sister picked out two stones in the Callejon del Beso as their very own rocks, and if one of them stepped on the other’s rock they would quarrel!

Hortensia remembers that there were many people here in 1928, and many were very rich, the Almadas among them. By 1940 all the rich had left and all of the houses were abandoned. The factory where silk was made was closed.

The silk factory was on the corner of Juarez and Obregón, the house currently owned by Jane McKinney. The property has now been divided into three separate houses, but at that time is was one building and the owners were Japanese. Hortensia worked at the factory, dressing the looms and putting on the warp (a set of lengthwise yarns held in tension on a loom) and threading the heddles (used for separating thread) and the reed (which resembles a comb). The warp was very fine, perhaps 50 threads or more to the inch, and the silk was woven into solid colors. The mulberry trees were inside the factory, but there were no silkworms on them; the silk thread was shipped in.

The patio at that time was covered, and many women and children worked at the factory for long hours. Hortensia remembers that there were electric lights, but does not recall if the machines were operated by electricity or not.

The older family members worked in the shoe factories. There were several shoe shops in Álamos at that time--three of them along the Plaza Alameda--and there was also a tannery. At the tannery the hides would first be put in salt to remove the hair, then put in layers. The tanning agent was the bark of the Mauto tree, called cascarete.

There was a stratification of economic levels in Álamos, but the Vega family did not intermingle with the very rich families. The oldest girl, María Louisa (now deceased) was the only one to marry an Alamense: an Esquier, who was of the Palameras family.

For entertainment, there were dances in the area near the old mine, but the parents were very strict with the children.

In the days leading into World War II, the people of Álamos believed that the Japanese living in the area were spies. Carlos Wetzel, who lived in the house Hal and Margo Findlay later bought, set up a tall antenna on Guadalupe Hill. Martín Salido, father of the current gas station owner, took down the antenna, and it is now in Mexico City and still in use.

The Vega family moved to Navojoa in 1941 as the economy in Álamos continued to decline. Hortensia now lives in Tucson, and her daughter teaches in the public schools in Riverside, CA.