Guadalupe B. Almanza

Lupe Almanza was born on March 4, 1926 in Los Angeles. He graduated from Roosevelt High School in Los Angeles in 1944. In 1946 he met his wife to be, Paz, at a Halloween Dance. They quickly fell in love and on July 4th, 1948 Lupe and Paz were married at the Soledad Catholic Church in East Los Angeles.

In 1949 their first child, Raymond, was born. The family grew, next with Teresa, Charlie, George, Rebecca and the baby of the family Eva Marie.

Lupe and Paz started what turned out to be a very large family with 12 grandchildren, 19 great grandchildren and 1 great-great grandchild.

In 1951 Lupe went to work for Bethlehem Steel where he worked for 30 years, retiring in 1981 as the plant was preparing to close. Lupe worked hard to care for his family during those years. Most years he would take his vacations from Bethlehem and get a part-time job to earn extra money. In 1952 the family moved to Pico Rivera.

In 1978 Lupe volunteered his spare time at St. Francis church and quickly advanced to Eucharistic Minister, helping the priests with their masses and assisting with catholic weekend retreats. Lupe soon began devoting extra time to also assist St. Hillary church. Lupe would work an early mass at St. Hilary; rush over to St. Francis to work the next mass then race back to St. Hilary to work the late mass. Lupe continued his work with the church until his health began to decline but this did not prevent Lupe from attending mass every Sunday.

For those of you who knew Lupe you can attest to Lupe’s great love for his wife, his kindness, humor, and love of music. There was nothing Lupe would not do for friends and relatives. He helped many relatives who came to the U.S. from Mexico, sponsoring many for their citizenship and bringing them into the Almanza home until they could get on their feet.

He loved to tell stories of times past; about his mother Paula and father Antonio, of how much he loved his brothers and sisters Maria, Carmen, Manuel, Juana, Isabel, Andrea, Paula, his baby brother Danny, and missed those who had passed away; Albert, Tony, and Francis.