Maria Luisa Cristan

On Sunday, September 15, 2024, John and Maria Cristan would have celebrated their 61st wedding anniversary. Having navigated the last 17 years without John by her side, Maria chose that day to leave this life and join her husband. How beautifully perfect is that?

Maria Luisa was born on August 25, 1948 in Tierra Blanca, Texas. She was the second daughter born to Tomas and Petra Esquivel. A sickly child who required more care than her migrant farmworker parents could provide, she spent her early childhood in Mexico being raised by her grandmother and great grandmother. After her parents snuck her back across the border, she moved with her family throughout the States, following the seasonal crops that would provide work.

Maria’s family eventually settled in Porterville, California. It was there that she would meet and later marry John Cristan, the best friend of her brother, Santos. John and Maria were married 44 years when he passed in 2007. Together, they created a home for their three daughters, first in Woodville, CA and finally in Hanford, CA.

After years of being a stay-at-home mom, Maria first entered the workforce as a yard duty attendant at Armona Elementary School. She was there to walk her girls to and from school. She knew all their friends and could get wild with that yard duty whistle.

In 1977, despite having only a 6th grade education, Maria enrolled in the Certified Nursing Assistant program at Hanford Adult School. In 1978, she began what would become a 30+years long career as a CNA, the majority of it spent caring for the residents at Hacienda Health Care. It was at Hacienda where she would meet some of her very best and closest friends…Mary Bruce, Hopie Sanchez, and Lupe Perez. The friends loved and supported each other through both incredibly rough and happy times.

Maria is preceded in death by her husband, John as well as her parents and several of her siblings. She is survived by her three daughters, Penny, Cyndi and JoAnne Cristan, her grandchildren, Jordyn and her husband, Matt, Wesley (her Juni) and his husband Liam, Judson, John and Alena, her sister Duvina Reyes and brother Jesse Esquivel and lots of nieces and nephews. She loved her former sons-in-law, Rick Fahrenholz and Scott Ervin even when life took them down a different path and she loved her new son-in-law, Alex Gabriel so much that she even showed him how to make Judson-approved tortillas.

A memorial service will be held at People’s Funeral Chapel in Hanford, CA on Wednesday, September 25, 2024 at 1pm. Visitation will be earlier that day from 11am-1pm.