Ignacia Yanez

Who was Ignacia Yáñez? Ignacia Yáñez, was called by those close to her, amá, cuñadita, nacha, and at times, in a loving manner, nachita by her younger son Manuel. Ignacia Yáñez was first of all, a child of God, then a wife, a mother, a grandmother, great grandmother, aunt, mother in law, sister in law, a friend, a sister in Christ and the list can go on.

She was born in Santa Barbara, Chihuahua Mexico on October 9, 1935 Her parents, Luis Solis (d. 2/1995) and Rafaela Moreno (1910-1959), had eight children. Petra, born in 1932; Ignacia, born in 1935, Jose (nicknamed Pepe) who was afflicted with measles and died when he was 1 year old; a set of twins, Antonio and Luis, who died from complications of whooping cough at the age of 3 months and 4 months respectfully; Marin, born in 1942; Maggie, born in 1945 and their last son Luis, born in 1953, who died that same year when he was one week old due to meconium aspiration. She also had a half brother, Hector Pasqual Solis, born in 1935.

Her maternal grandmother, Antonia Yáñez, was described as being very dark and her maternal grandfather, Patricio Moreno, as very white. She had a maternal aunt by the name of Rosario, who had five children. Their names were, Andrés, Adán, and Rosalío Martinez (two of them we have no reference to their names). Of these cousins, two of them died. Her older cousin Andrés, who drowned at the age of 18 and a female cousin who died at puberty.

Of the three maternal uncles she had, Baldomero, Maximino and Victor, only Baldomero never had children. Maximino had five children; Luisa, Musia, Encarnación (also known as Chonita who left to England never to come back after hitting his sister Musia), Esperanza and Refugio (known as Cuca).

Victor had two children, Josefina and Angela.

Her paternal grandparents, Pedro Solis and Segunda Flores had a daughter, Pomposa Solis. Years after Pedro Solis, left to the U.S. never to return, Mrs. Flores married Juan Pablo Berumen with whom she had three children; Sara Beatriz, Josefina and Berta (last known to be residing in Yuma).

Pomposa had four children; Andrea, Paulino, Norberto and Alberto.

Sara married Hector and had 11 children; Hector, Everardo, Juan Pablo, Salvador, Jorge, Alejandro, Antonio, Manuel, Jesus (known as Chui), Sara (who died at age 1 with her brother Jesus suffocated under a pile of sand while playing and Guadalupe (known as Lupito) who had Down Syndrome, and died of a heart attack prompted by trichinosis).

Josefina married twice. With her first husband she had 6 children; Guillermina, Alvaro, Josefina, Cleofas, Juanito and one more child (name unknown). Out of her union with Tomas Rubio (who was stabbed to death while drunk) she had three children; Guillermina, Sara and Juan Pablo.

Her Aunt Berta married Manuel and had 5 children; Berta, Alicia, Olivia, Azalia, Azucena and Luis Humberto.

Her sister Petra was married twice, first to Raymundo with whom she had three children, Raymundo (known as Mundo), Manuel, and Maria Isela; she then married Jose Luis, with whom she had Lorenzo and Miguel. Petrita (as she was called)met Jose Luis years after her husband, Raymundo, left to the U.S. Petrita, it was reported to have suffered next to Jose Luis as he was cruel in rejecting her older children. It was reported that he would buy shoes for his children and would let his step-children walk barefooted or with badly torn shoes. Petrita died of what was believed to be stomach cancer.

Marin had two relationships in his life. It was reported that while married to Altagracia, he had a concubine by the name of Juana with whom he had a child, Luis Solis. This child, described as crossed eyed, was offered to be purchased by his own mother to his paternal grandfather, Luis Solis. With his wife, Altagracia, Marin had Javier, Araceli (born on 04-01-1968), Alma Rosa and Linda. Marin was last reported to be living in New Mexico.

Her sister Maggie, who died of breast cancer, was married to Eliseo Ramos and had Olga Elisa, Sandra Margarita and Karina.

When Ignacia was a young teenager, she went to live with her aunt Sara. While living with her she remembered how she used to help her aunt wash clothes and enjoyed hanging them on the cord outside of the home. She also remembered asking her to iron her clothes, because she did not like ironing.

As a teenager living in the 1940’s, she used to enjoy going to the “quermes”, a gathering held in the local community park where games were played, dances held and food sold. It was during one of these that she met the love of her life, Daniel Yáñez. It was with a mischievous tone of voice and face that she used to share the story about the times when she used to walk down the sidewalk all dressed up, hoping to see the one who was to be her future husband, and her father, who was under the impression that she went to deliver something to a neighbor on behalf of her aunt Sara, came walking down the street and she would hide so he would not see her.

She also remembered how many times she used to get her father out of the cantina, and how many times he after gathering items to sell, and selling them, would get drunk and all the money earned he would give to the strangers he came across.

As a child, she remembered how much her mother cared for them and how much her mother suffered when her children died, the last one on the kitchen table.

In September 1959 they eloped, as was customary for the time, and immediately were married without a formal ceremony. The next morning after Ignacia ran off, her father, Don Luis and his son in law Hector paid a visit to Daniel’s father, Don Francisco to inquire of their whereabouts. Don Francisco answered that he didn’t know of and both were in the same situation. Don Francisco agreed to inform Don Luis as soon as he had news of their whereabouts and would get word to him immediately. Daniel eventually returned to his father’s home accompanied by his new wife. Ignacia was very embarrassed at their situation and nervous of the reception she would receive but to her surprise everyone was very warm and accepting of her. Promptly 9 months after getting married they had their first child Jose Yáñez, born on June 2, 1960. For the first 3 months of Ignacia’s pregnancy she had a strong repulsion of her new husband that was so bad that she returned to live to her parent’s home. Just as mysteriously as this biological repulsion appeared, it disappeared after 3 months and she once again returned to live with her husband. They lived in Don Francisco and Doña Josefa’s home for a short while together with Daniel’s 2 youngest siblings, Emma and Francisco. Daniel worked as miner in the southern city of the state of Chihuahua named Santa Barbara. Daniel’s mother Doña Josefa did not like for her son to work as a miner and was very concerned for his safety. Daniel would have to descend into a mine hole tethered by a rope that was held by his partner outside of the mine hole. On one memorable occasion his partner fell asleep while securing the rope and it started to move back and forth and the rope strands started to wear and tear. Daniel noticed that he was literally hanging by a thread so he wedged his body against the sides of the vertical tunnel, shimmied his way up & out, proceeded to wake up his partner and gave him a beating that he wouldn’t soon forget. Daniel and Ignacia moved into a home directly across the street from his parents after living with them for only 1 week. Don Francisco and Doña Josefa moved north to a city known as Juarez to open a small neighborhood convenience store named La Palma. Eventually Daniel and Ignacia also moved to Juarez and resided in the attached store apartment. After 2 months of living in the store apartment they rented a home across street. While in this home a sudden storm struck the town and flash floods occurred everywhere. Between all the family members and a neighbor Salvador they created a human chain to rescue the newborn Jose Yáñez. They waded in the water and held onto each other as they passed the baby from person to person until he reached safety. After the grandmother received the newly rescued baby and was holding onto him and was giving words of gratitude she decided to check on him and to her surprise they discovered that they had him upside the whole time and that is the reason the family uses to excuse Jose’s tall tales and exaggerations. At this point Don Francisco moved his store” La Palma” to his home located on 1880 Santos Degollados Street (a home that Daniel help build and where Ignacia fell while pregnant of her son Rubén). Don Francisco always wanted to buy a store for his son Daniel and finally did so when he purchased a store name La Luz form his son in law Conrado Dominguez. This store also had an attached apartment and Daniel, Ignacia moved into it. Daniel’s young brother Francisco Yáñez was a baker and every morning would deliver fresh donuts to the store for them to sell. Unbeknownst to Daniel his 3 sons José, Rafael and Daniel could not control themselves and would proceed to drink a liter of milk each as they consumed all the donuts that were delivered every morning. Eventually Daniel and Ignacia closed the store La Luz (possibly from the lost revenue of the eaten donuts) and moved to a neighborhood called Barrio Alto and there they opened a store called “El Farolito.” To help her husband, she would ride the bus to El Paso, together with her children to buy supplies for the store. In 1963 Daniel’s mother Doña Josefa passed away and his sister Joaquina suggested to their father Don Francisco to ask Daniel and Ignacia to move in with him so he wouldn’t be alone. Daniel and Ignacia agreed to do so and sold their store “El Farolito” and moved in with Mr. Francisco Yáñez Sr. On September 15, 1974, Don Francisco, Daniel’s father, passed away. By this time Daniel and Ignacia had a total of 8 children, Jose Francisco, Rafael, Daniel, Ruben Luis, Maria Teresa, Martha Cecilia, Encarnación Manuel and the youngest Margarita. Daniel wanted to provide a brighter future and greater opportunity for his children and ventured to Kansas seeking a job opportunity. He worked in Kansas for a while and during this time his young brother Francisco Yáñez had secured a job with his sister at a cheese company in Riverside, California named Cacique Cheese. As the company grew and relocated to Bloomington, additional job opportunities became available. They encouraged their older brother Daniel to venture to Bloomington and join them at Cacique Cheese. He did and quickly was hired. Shortly thereafter, Daniel worked hard to bring his family to the United States. With the help of his sister Socorro Machado and his brother in law Aquiles Flores he was able to reunite his family. During this time all 3 siblings helped each other out by sharing a 3 bedroom, 1 bath house with their spouses and children, a total of 18 people. Once they were able to save enough money both brothers rented 1 bedroom apartments that happened to be next to each other in Fontana. During this time Daniel, Ignacia and family started receiving studies with the SDA church given by Angel Ogando and Noemi Montalvo. Through their SDA connections Daniel Yáñez was able to secure a better paying job at a machine shop in Riverside named ACE Drill Bushing. Eventually with a lot of hard work, sacrifice and saving, Daniel Yáñez and Ignacia purchased a 4 bedroom, 2 bath house in Rialto and quickly turned it into a home. This house is still owned by the family. After just 6 months of moving into their home with all their children Daniel Yáñez suffered a massive heart attack on February 7, 1979. This left Ignacia Yáñez with the full responsibility of supporting a home and 8 children. She could not speak the language and did not posses any marketable job skills other than being an excellent house wife and loving mother and wife. After a few days of mourning and secretly being observed by her young daughters crying herself to sleep, she pulled herself together and was strong for the benefit of her young children. Her undying faith in the Lord and using her unquestionable culinary skills to stretch meager food supplies to feed 8 hungry mouths and satisfy the hunger of growing teenage boys, she literally performed miracles in the kitchen. She encouraged her children to work hard in everything not only school but also to do their part in supporting the household. The church helped out the family income by providing them the opportunity to work Saturday evenings to clean the church, something the boys performed without complaining. The boys also helped out by mowing lawns and doing any odd jobs that came out to help out financially. Eventually though the eldest brother Jose Yáñez had to make the ultimate sacrifice by leaving school during his senior year and attain a full time job. The place where his father last worked ACE Drill Bushing gave him a job where he worked for several years. He was the only one that had to make this sacrifice and because of his sacrifice the rest of his 7 younger siblings had the distinct honor of graduating from high school. Some of which have proceeded to attain college degrees. Throughout their younger years Ignacia always emphasized the need to be dedicated to church and God. Not only did she demonstrate her love by her dedication to God, she also showed her love to them by her cooking as is obvious by her children’s girth. One of the greatest memories of her children and loved ones was when she would cook her special sweet tortillas. They were small, fat and delicious and were a cause of many fights amongst the brothers. Rafael would often hide them as if they were a rare treat and eat them at a special time. She did not have a lot of money but you would not know it by the way she would treat any guests. She would always go to the kitchen and whip a special meal. Her dedication to God and family were strong to the very end. Ignacia battled cancer for the last 14 years but despite the pain and the suffering she never lost sight of what was important. She would attend every birthday party, every graduation, every baptism, every camping trip, and every family activity she could attend. She would even walk a total of six miles to attend parent teacher conferences even though she didn’t speak English. She had two phrases she would say with a smile or a grin on her face, “a donde apunta la chancla alli voy… si me llevan” or “me gusta estar donde esta la bola”, phrases which pointed to her desire to be around her family all the time. She would attend different church activities, stayed late at church while her children played volleyball late Saturday nights, and when her children were in charge of selling food at church, she would help them by making “sopes” and homemade tortillas.

She was full of stories that she loved to share, and we are now filled with many that we will share, such as one shared by her niece, Lili Mendoza, in which she relates how Ignacia used to sing to herself, “Que bonita soy, que bonita soy, como me quiero… que bonita soy, que bonita soy sin mi me muero” and to the young children, “Hay mama que bien te vés con ese vestido que traes al revés! Me gusta lavar mi ropa blanquita como me queda, se me, se me, se me acaba de descomponer, mi ma, mi ma, mi máquina de coser.” Stories about her famous homemade birthday cakes and her tenderness towards her grandkids will never be forgotten.

As her family grew, she remained the nucleus of it, a focus of love and affection that radiated out and touched those of us who were privileged to know her.

If you could sum up one word to describe her is “love.” She may have been tiny, but her five feet frame was able to sustain an unending capacity to love. To her, there was no difference between her children, her daughters in law, grandchildren, nieces or nephews, whether these where biological or not, her love surpassed all that. She opened the doors to her home and her heart to many. Ignacia leaves behind the wonderful legacy of a close-knit, caring family, and we owe it to her to carry on supporting and looking after one another, showing the same love that she did, so that our memories of her will not fade, but rather become more vivid as time goes by.

She loved her family and her family loved her, and it is because of that love that we must continue on our journey to heaven, focusing on Christ so we once again have the joy to be with her, but this time eternally.