Maria C Rincon

11, 1917 to the late Antonio and Antonia (Rodríguez) Cantú on a farm in northern Guadalupe

County. She grew up working in the fields with her parents and siblings near the Galle,

Kingsbury and Geronimo communities.

María was home-schooled by her mother to do arithmetic, and to read, write and pray in

Spanish. Her lack of opportunities in education made good comportment, high grades, and

going to college priorities when she raised her own children.

Maria’s favorite pastime was going to dances held in local homes and barns, chaperoned by

her mother. Due to her father’s and uncles’ love of fishing and hunting, Maria learned to dress

game of all kinds and developed a lifelong taste for dishes such as guisos de conejo y ardía

(rabbit and squirrel) and fried fish.

In the spring she also loved to cut and clean wild nopalitos and to harvest wild dewberries and

agritos to make jellies. For her a perfect ending to a long day of hard work was sitting on the

porch with her family, enjoying watermelon, preferably de corazón amarillo (yellow meat

variety). In May, María set up the altar for the family’s celebration of El Día de San Isidro, the

patron saint of agriculture.

Maria’s dream as a little girl was to someday own a farm. In 1933 she married Crispin Rincon.

The couple eventually founded the Rincon Farms, raising corn, cotton, grain sorghum, cattle,

and hogs to pay off the notes. Maria kept chickens for meat and eggs and collected the cream

from the milk cows. On Saturday afternoons she sold eggs, home-made butter, and queso

blanco (white cheese) in Seguin’s neighborhoods.

Maria loved to grow her own vegetables, raise pollitos (chicks) and baby calves, pamper her

house plants, and was a very adept wood stove cook. She took great pride in her work, whether

cooking, mending torn trousers, or converting flour sacks and bulk cloth into clothes for her

family; she insisted that her children went to school every day wearing starched and ironed

clothes. She also relished hog butcherings and made blood and head sausage. She loved

chicharrones made in the paila (black cast iron kettle) and used the rendered manteca for

cooking, to preserve cooked meat during the winter, and to make lye soap.

Upon Crispin’s death in 1966, Maria became the head of los ranchos de los Rincones (the

Rincón Farms).

When farming hit hard times, Maria took outside jobs to supplement the farm income. She

worked at the Seguin poultry packing plant and later became a cook for the New Braunfels

Smokehouse. Her hard work ethic and love of people jumped over language barriers and won

her many friends at the restaurant, young and old alike. Maria also enjoyed making tamales and

tortillas at Loera’s Tamale Hut, with her life-long friend, the late Maria Loera, and the Loera

family.

The parents of Maria’s numerous grandchildren are Jacinto (son) and Cecilia (Finn) Rincon,

Alphonso Rincon (son), Federico Tristán, and Steve and Esther (Perez) Boehm. A daughter, Dahlia Tristán,preceded Maria in death. Maria is also survived by numerous greatgranchildren.

Her surviving siblings include Trinidad Cantú, Carmelita Reyes, and José Cantú, all of Edinburg. Her brothers Salvador, Juan, and Bito Cantú preceded her in death.

Maria thrived in the face of life’s and nature’s unvarnished challenges and fulfilled her childhood

dream of owning a farm. Even during her last days, as cancer consumed her body, her spirit

and tested optimism remained undaunted: she loved to look out her window and say, “Está muy

bonito afuera” (“It’s a beautiful day”).

Visitation will be take place at Goetz Funeral Home, Friday, April 29, 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., with a rosary service commencing at 7 p.m. Funeral mass will be at Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church on Saturday, April 30, at 9 a.m. Interment will follow at Our Lady of Guadalupe Cemetery.