Our Stories
Life’s Journey Has Its Challenges By David Valladolid
After a couple of years, my mother secured a job with the “Visiting Nurses Association”. With the help of her parents, she set out to buy a house after renting a one-bedroom house in Mid-City San Diego for herself and her five children. The Realtors all told my mother that the only community she could buy a house was in Logan Heights. Since she was going to be working and leaving her children at home, she felt Logan Heights was not safe enough for her family. My mother wanted to buy a home in North Park, but she was told Mexicans weren’t allowed to buy homes and banks wouldn’t handle the mortgage loans. She met and bonded with the Shaffer family who were selling their home. They offered to handle the loan themselves and she was able to buy a three-bedroom house and we moved in the 1950s. We were not initially accepted in the neighborhood but over time we made and bonded with friends that are friends to this day.
My father Genaro Valladolid and my mother Rita Virginia Torres met in Santa Paula, California when they were both teenagers. My dad’s family eventually moved to Oxnard and my mother’s family moved to Fresno. After graduating from high school, my mother applied to Mary Help Hospital in San Francisco. She was told to apply as an Italian since they didn’t accept Mexicans. After graduating with a Registered Nursing Degree, she returned to Fresno. My parents met up, again, when she travelled to Oxnard to visit my father’s dying sister. They rekindled their relationship, fell in love and married. They lived in Oxnard for five years and then moved to Fresno. At the age of 39 my father passed away from a long-time illness. He left my dear mother with five children ages 1, 3, 4, 6, and 7. My mother’s family persuaded her to move to San Diego so they could help her raise the five children.
Genaro & Rita Valladolid
Valladolid Children – 1950’s (Photos courtesy Valladolid family archives)
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San Diego Latino Legacy – Timeline • Milestones • Stories
Chapter 2 – Rebuilding Lives, Against All Odds 1900–1940
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