User:FamValenzuela

Hilda Martinez Valenzuela

Growing up in the Sierra Tarumahara

Born Hilda Martinez Chavez on November 15, 1932 in Concheño, Municipio de Ocampo, Chihuahua in the Copper Canyon Region of the Great State of Chihuahua, mom was the youngest of 8 children. In order of their birth, siblings Isaac, Berta, Edmundo, Panchito, Beatriz, Gustavo, & Lucila were the proud children of Francisco Martinez Bustamante (Abuelito Pancho) and Josefa Chavez de Martinez (Abuelita Pepa). Pancho was a tall man well over 6 feet tall with dark hair and piercing dark brown eyes. Pepa was slightly over 5 feet tall with hazel eyes and firm hands that let one know she was in charge.

Growing up in the rugged and serene Copper Canyon region of Chihuahua in the Sierra Tarumahara during the 1930s to 1940s, mom enjoyed her childhood riding by horseback to visit her cousins and eating cherries the size of apples in the high country lush with tall pines and robust fruit trees. Abuelito Pancho, was the son of a long line of miners who worked the mineral rich Sierra Tarumahara. He was fairly wealthy by the metrics of the time given lucrative mineral resources were abundant below the ground he and many miners worked.

Pancho toiled in the darkness of the mines deep inside the earth to return each day to raise a family. The Martinez family prospered from the mineral wealth extracted from the Sierra Tarumahara during a time known as El Porfidiato. This was a time named after President Porfirio Diaz when great economic disparity in Mexico created a chasm as great as the Copper Canyon between the privileged few and the unending masses of poor and destitute mestizos and indigenous peoples. This was a time where wealth and political prestige lay in the hands of a few, and so it was until Pancho Villa and his Revolution contributed to the conversion of the Mexico we now know. But that’s a story for another day.

Mom was born shortly after that point in Mexico’s history. Through the concessions granted to a certain wealthy few, Abuelito Pancho was able to hold on to the mines and a lucrative yet burdensome livelihood. Concessions are a sort of business license granted to people to conduct business in specific industries. PEMEX, FerroMex, and TelMex are examples of industrial concessions offered by the Mexican government.

The mines provided vast amounts of gold, silver, and other minerals. Pancho had a laboratory at the Big House (La Casa Grande) where the family called home. At La Casa Grande Abuelito Pancho tested the ore pulled from the mine. Bars of gold and silver were produced and sold in Chihuahua. Tia Beatriz and Tio Gustavo and bags filled with gold and silver were flown in small aircraft from the mountains high in the Sierra Tarumahara to Chihuahua City where they would stay in very comfortable hotel rooms. Upon completing the transaction they returned carrying luggage filled with cash earned from the mineral wealth surrendered by the Sierra.

Back before the Great Mexican Revolution of 1810-1820 our grandparents several generations back received the title of Marques of the Spanish Crown. The title came at great financial cost to the recipient. Laden thick with veins of gold, silver, and other minerals not easily drawn from deep below the mines throughout the Sierra Tarumahara, the earth slowly and not very deliberately surrendered it’s wealth allowing the purchase a title decreed by the Spanish Crown. Prestige, power, wealth and quiet solitude were all in abundance high in the Copper Canyon and the Sierra Tarumahara.

One afternoon Papa Pancho heard music at a distance and stepped outside to look for the band. As a motley group of musicians with fiddles, guitarrones, clarinets, bugles, and assorted drums approached their house, Pancho joined the festive bunch bringing up the rear dancing along to the music. Just as quickly as Pancho joined the band, Abuelita Pepa charged out of the house with a big old well worn single action double barrel shotgun. She cocked it and yelled out, "Francisco!!!!" - Abuelo Pancho hightailed it into the house faster than Pepa popped a load of rock salt at him.

Mom’s best friend growing up in the Sierra Tarumahara was Carmen Martinez, daughter of Tío Angel Martinez. As kids they rode the countryside by horseback eating cherries and coloring their cheeks with cherry juice. A trip to Chihuahua City usually took three days. The first leg of the trip was by horseback. For two days Mom, Carmen, and their traveling steward traveled across the high hills and low valleys to reach San Jose. The final trip was a train ride from San Jose to Chihuahua. for

Education played an important role for the Martinez Family. Teachers, however, were in short supply high in the Sierra Tarumahara. Pancho, Pepa and all those who could contribute to the cause hired Profesor (EPIFANIO) Salazar who along with his wife were given a house and a salary. Profesor Salazar became teacher to all the children in the area. Miss Almita Kostler (German) was the K and 1 teacher.

At age 11, when Letty was born, Pepa and mom went to Chihuahua to see the new baby. Tia Berta and Tio Ariel did not want mom to leave, so she stayed from then until she married. "Mis tres hermanitos."

In the

Miners whose broken fingers and backs laid claim to the wealth

Growing in in Chihuahua City.

At the age of 11 mom moved from the Sierra Tarumahara to Chihuahua City to live with her sister Berta Martinez de Reyes who with Tio Ariel Reyes welcomed their first-born daughter Letty.

She said that she and dad were talking just "the other day" about how everything revolved around Holy Week.

She went to church with Tia Herlinda,  Abuelita Pepa, Tia Lupe and the family. They were sitting in a pew, and there was not enough room. A young man in a green suit was sitting on the end. He got up, offered his seat to her and stood by a pillar. It was dad. He was 16 and she was 13.

At about 17 years old, a young man kept passing in front of El Expendio de Carnes. She worked with Raul Hernandez. Mom would exit the store and run into other places to hide. She says dad made the comment that mom made him run a lot to chase her.

Then he showed up at the store with Pepe Berumen (who mom could not stand). That's when he asked "que es huachinango"? Mom said to Raul, "come me cae mal, que sangron"! The next day he came by again and asked if she was going to El Jardine de las Rosas.