Armida V. Renteria

Armida “Milita” Velasquez Renteria was born on April 29, 1940 in Santa Ana, Sonora, Mexico to Agustin Velasquez and Rut Caudillo de Velasquez. She grew up in Ejido Pantanito, Sonora, where she attended Felipe Carillo Puerto School. One of sixteen siblings, she helped plant and pick cotton, water the alfalfa fields, round up the cows and feed the chickens on her father’s ranch. She said that she preferred being out in the ranch rather than staying indoors. Except for that one time when she was six and tried to pick a pomegranate from a tree not knowing there was a beehive behind it. The bees stung and she ended up inside her cool adobe house under the care of my grandmother.

Growing up, my mother learned to cook on an iron wood-burning stove, the most exquisite Sonoran cuisine, which included enormous and delectable handmade flour tortillas. She memorized all her recipes. She attended church, studied the Bible, memorized verses, songs, poems.

My mother left Pantanito for Nogales Bible School in Arizona where she graduated with a degree in Theology. She became a missionary, traveling to different states in Mexico and teaching about the Word of God. My mother was a devout Christian whose own life was a testimony of pure kindness, compassion, dedication.

On her missionary travels through Tepic, Nayarit, she met my father, Jesus Renteria, a handsome U.S. Army soldier then on temporary leave from Germany. She was making tortillas at his sister’s house when they met. They later married, had four children and somehow ended up in Redlands, California.

When my parents moved to the States my mother learned English. She became the Sunday School teacher for the adults at the Latin American Free Methodist Church in Redlands. She worked hard. Nothing seemed impossible. Sometimes she would drive by herself from Redlands to Pantanito to visit family. Whenever I asked my mother, “Mom do you think that this is possible? Mom do you think I can do this?” She would say, “ Of course you can,” with such candor and confidence. Nothing seemed impossible for her. This was a reflection of her faith.

Oh! Yo siempre amare esa cruz.

En sus triunfos mi gloria sera.

Y algun dia en vez de una cruz.

Mi corona Jesus me dara.

- En El Monte Calvario

We lost our mother this year on Tuesday, July 9th at 3:00 in the afternoon to Alzheimer’s Disease. It was a long painful battle for her. Her work is finished here. Her suffering is over and her soul, light and flawless is with our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. I have faith that this is so and I am grateful.

-Ruth Renteria