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Guadalupe was born in a small town in Mexico. His father died when Guadalupe was very young, so he had to help take care of his younger siblings. He was still a child but he was also the man of the house.
He was only fifteen when he met his future wife. It was love at first sight. Three days after they got married, they came to the United States and started working on a grape farm near Coachella. They worked from six in the morning until seven at night, seven days a week. They slept on a relative’s floor for a few hours each night before starting all over again.
Once they’d saved up enough money to get their own apartment, they started a family together. He was a loving but strict father, making his kids study hard and learn discipline. Guadalupe’s dream was always to build a house for them back in Mexico where they could enjoy life instead of working all the time.
Mexico was so important to Guadalupe. He was proud of his culture — the food, the music. His favorite activity was to listen to Los Temerarios or Los Bukis, and tell his kids about the beautiful land where he was from. Where he planned to take them one day.
As he got older, working became harder and harder for Guadalupe. He’d been on farms and landscaping crews for so long that his body was knotted in arthritis. But his daughter says he also grew softer in his later years, giving hugs and checking in on his children all the time.
Last March, Guadalupe and his family all got COVID. Though his family recovered, Guadalupe was sickest of all, and after a month in the hospital, he passed away.
His daughter still listens to Los Temerarios and Los Bukis, imagining she can hear Guadalupe’s voice too.
