Angel Gonzales

Angel's mother, Nely, was a young girl of 13 when she was impregnated im Mapimi Durango by Avram Gonzales. Avram had also impregnated 15-year-old Manuela Espinosa whom he married and had a family, inlcuding a half-brother named Abraham who was nearly the same age.

Abuelo (Lelo) Angel's grandmother, Goya Ribas, took responsibility for him from the time of his baptism - where she is witness and godparent to his illegitimate birth. Lelo learned to read and write in Mapimi, his Nina Gregoria, a literate woman had helped to rear him. He carried the surname of his father Gonzales and was included as part of the Gonzales family in Mapimi.

When his mother reached a marriageable age, she married Manuel Rubio. Angel became older brother to his Rubio siblings who were all born in Mapimi. He had moved to the tri-cities area of Torreon, Matamoros, Ciudad Lerdo where he met his future wife Jesús. They married and named their first daughter Jesús, the Mexican Central Train passed through Torreon on its route from Mexico City to Albuquerque. His mother-in-law and father-in-law had already moved to Los Angeles when they were drawn by the advertising of the Arizona Copper Company to move to the mining town of Clifton. A second daughter, Nellie (named after his mother), and a third daughter, Golla (named after his grandmother), were born in Clifton. They lived close to the Catholic church and the children went to the Mexican school along Chase Creek. Angel did different types of work to support the mines, never having worked in a mine himself. He knew carpentry and was one of the many who had come with the promise of opportunity with these new mines.

His wife, his widowed Aunt Refugio "la Tia Cuca, his sister-in-law Angelita opened a restaurant for the workers, making hot breakfasts and sack lunches for the shift. In time the restaurant became an house of lodging. One lodger, a good looking railroad worker named Pablo Gonzalez, would soon join the family. The family was settled but the social climate in Clifton was not.

The women stayed on in Arizona with the hotel when Angel fled to Los Angeles. The climate in Arizona was extremely hostile towards Mexican nationals, and they lived under a constant threat of violence. In 1912 the Mexican Revolution had begun and Villistas began terrorizing communities along the border. After years of conflicts, a major strike and violence broke out in Clifton in 1915. As in many mining camps, the companies owned most of the houses and stores, the water and power plants, and the hospital. Mexican workers, who earned a lesser rate began to move on from Bisbee, Globe and Clifton.

Angel moved to Los Angeles at the end of 1914 ahead of his family, and moved into Aliso Street apartment with brother Theodore. Theo had been working at Hamburgers department store and as a fire fighter with the LAFD. When the rest of his family arrived form Thatcher and Clifton, Arizona he relocated from Calle de los Negros, and they settled on Terminal Island in East San Pedro working in the Van Camps packing plant removing fish heads and packing fish in tins of oil. As conditions became less agreeable in East San Pedro, Lelo and Lela moved with the family back to just east of Fort Moore Hill in a neighborhood dominated by Italians and Chinese. Some of these Chinese men who has also migrated from Torreon, Coahuila spoke Spanish and would chat with Lelo on his walks from the Eastside to Chinatown. At that time Lelo worked as a hawker at the 7th Street produce market. Farmers would bring in produce from as far as Oxnard and Lelo would help load it onto the produce carts destined for the restaurants, markets and food carts throughout the metropolis. He would return to his tenement with bags of produce in hand. Fresh food was never in short supply.

In his later years was the elevator operator at the Rosslyn Million Dollar Hotel, he would sit in the car and chat with the most interesting of people. He would follow his youngest brother Theo's example who had started working at Cedars Sinai on Fountain and Berendo and retired from his last job in the elevators of the City of Angeles Hospital.

Lelo lived at the back house of Nellie and Steve's until they broke up. When Nellie moved in with Chuy - Lelo and Lela found their own place at 5th and Beaudry. Lelo would collect bits of tinfoil and discarded tin from the streets to make large metallic spheres. He was an affable man who would love a nap and a good tale. His grandchildren remember him as a jolly old man who would dote on his wife, rubbing her feet and brushing her hair as she read the days news.

"México, Durango, registros parroquiales y diocesanos, 1604-1985," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QV3S-HT1M : accessed 14 August 2015), Manuela Nuñez and José Angel González in entry for José Angel González and Ma de Jesus Perez, 15 Jun 1897; citing Marriage, Sagrado Corazón de Jesús, Ciudad Lerdo, Durango, Mexico, parroquias Católicas, Durango (Catholic Church parishes, Durango); FHL microfilm .

Immigration 1900 "Texas, El Paso Manifests of Arrivals at the Port of El Paso, 1905-1927," (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QV1Z-BPV5 : accessed 14 March 2016), Angel Gonzales, 1915; citing arrival port El Paso, Texas Nonstatistical Manifests and Statistical Index Cards of Aliens Arriving at El Paso, Texas, 1905-1927., Immigration, NARA microfilm publication A3406 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll 46.

"United States Census, 1910," database with images (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MVVW-NFC) Angel Gonzales in household of Angel Gonzales, Clifton City, Graham County, Arizona, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 42, sheet 15B, NARA microfilm publication T624 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 1,374,052.

1916 Los Angeles City Directory Gonzales, Angel lab r337-1/2 Aliso, Los Angeles; Angelo lab h rear 330 S Alameda

"United States Border Crossings from Mexico to United States, 1903-1957," database,(https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X2NZ-5J4 : accessed 14 March 2016), Jose Angel Gonzales, 08 Mar 1918; from "Border Crossings: From Mexico to U.S., 1895-1957," ; 'citing arrival port Brownsville, Texas accompanied by wife Maria de H de Gonzalez, NARA microfilm publication M1502 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll 17.

1921 Los Angeles City Directory. Gonzales, Angel h321 Stockton, Los Angeles Gonzales, Angelo lab h813 Cleveland, Los Angeles Gonzales, A woodwkr Roberti Bros

1925 Los Angeles City Directory. Gonzales, Angel lab h1 Hart Ownsmith, Los Angeles

"California, County Marriages, 1850-1952," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K8NQ-297 : accessed 8 August 2015), Angelo Gonzales and Jesus Perez in entry for J Esteban Ramirez Grajedo and Manuela Gonzales, 23 Sep 1923; citing Los Angeles, California, United States, county courthouses, California; FHL microfilm 2,074,428.

"United States Census, 1930," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XCVP-5VH : accessed 8 August 2015), Gonzales Angel in household of Eslevan R Grajeda, Los Angeles (Districts 0251-0500), Los Angeles, California, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 0444, sheet 30B, family 122, line 55, NARA microfilm publication T626 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2002), roll 149; FHL microfilm 2,339,884.

U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 Birth, Marriage & Death Name Angel Gonzales Father Angel Gonzales Mother Manuela Nunez Birth 3 May 1868 - Durango, Mexico SSN 547326454 Gender Male Race White

Angel Gonzalez appears as witness to his half-brother Theodore Rubio's (known only as "Tio Rubio") wedding in Los Angeles to Maria Liza on 22 Nov 1930 in Los Angeles. https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K8J9-6VW

"California Death Index, 1940-1997," (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VPQK-94K), Angel Gonzales, 07 Dec 1946; Department of Public Health Services, Sacramento. Name Angel Gonzales; Death; 07 Dec 1946, Los Angeles, California, United States Birth Date: 03 May 1867; Father's Surname: Gonzales; Mother's Surname: Nunez.