Belen was born on December 24, 1918 in Denver, CO at Presbyterian Hospital. She was the third child of seven children of Ramon and Carolina Gonzalez. Her siblings were; Rafael, Magdalena, Ramón, Marta, Celia, and Arnold.
Belen attended Baker Junior High and West High School. During high school, she formed a dance group that performed dances from Mexico and Spain.
After high school, she started working at the Denver Public Library.
On November 28, 1941, she married John Asa Aranda. She had known John and his mother, brothers and sister for many years. The Aranda's had rented an apartment from the Gonzalez family.
Unfortunately World War II began and John was drafted into the military 3 months after they were married. It was then that Belen left the library to work at the Arm's Plant (today's Federal Center) where she filled bullet casings with gun powder.
When the war was over, she returned to the library to work at the Bibliographic Center for Research, which was "housed" in the library. If you asked her what she did, she would say that she was a "Researcher", The "Bib Center" was the Google of its time if you were looking for an old book or a book written in another country. She retired after years and then volunteered at the Blair Coldwell Black Research Library.
"Family" was the focus of Belen's life. Her daughter Martha, was born in July 21, 1945 and her son John was born on February 14, 1947. Their grandchildren Brenda and Carrie and their great grandchildren Nathanael, Gabriel, Christian and Evelyn were "The loves and Joys" of our parents lives. Family gatherings were common at the parents home, from holiday parties to tamale parties.
In 2006 her sister Celia nominated Belen for the Channel 7 Everyday Hero Award. At this Library families of deceased members would donate items to the library. Belen would go through the donations and look for "historic" items to add to the libraries collection.
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