Celestino Garza

GEDCOM Note

Celestino Garza was born in 1902 in Gonzalez, Texas. Known as the "Lexington of Texas," Gonzalez is one of the most historical cities in Texas because it's where the first shot was fired in the Texas revolutionary war for indepnedence form Mexico. Celestino was the youngest of 10 children who were born to Pedro Garza and Isidora Olivarez de Garza. He additionally had a half brother named Leandro who was born to his mother during her first marriage to Narciso Saenz. Celestino's family was more than likely involved with farming and sharecropping. They were undoubtedly involved with migrant farming which would explain his being born in central Texas.
at the time of his birth.

According to the 1910 US Census, Celestino along with his parents and siblings lived in the vicinity of Falfurrias Texas. The Garza Family had a neighboring family who's Head of the household was Espirion Lara. Espirion was married to Macedenia Gonzalez and they had a total of ten children. One of theri sons was Jose Lara who was 7 years old at the time. Jose was the same age as Celestino. Being neighbors and all, Celestino and Jose were most likely friends since this very young age. Undoubtedly they grew up working and playing together. When Celestino and Jose Lara grew up, they ended up marrying two sisters which made them brothers in law. In adulthood, for a time Celestino actually lived at Jose's ranch. There close friendship and family ties lasted a life time. Some of their descendents have continued to be close for generations.

In the 1920's, Celestino met and fell in love with Manuela Gonzalez in the Falfurrias, Texas area. He met her through the his freindship close friendship with Jose Lara who lived on a rancho at "La Copita" near Falfurrias Texas. Jose Lara married to Manuela's sister, Paula, but it is unclear which couple married first. When apart from each other before they were married, Celestino corresponded with his future wife Manuela, with many romantic letters which she recipricated during their courtship. His daughters also have said that Celestino would also write romatic poems Manuela.

According to the 1930 United States Federal Census, Celestino was actually a "lodger" living with the Manuela's family, the Gonzalez's. Hew was 28 and Manuela was 21. Manuela's father Bruno, did not approve of the courtship of Celestino and his daughter. But nothing would stop the romance of Celestino and Manuela. Celestino took his horse, picked up Manuela and they eloped to get married.apparently a short time after the census was taken, because the census information listed both Manuela and Celestino as "single." This all occured just a little over three months after the passing away of his mother, Celestino and Manuela Gonzalez were wed in Falfurrias, Texas on a Monday back in August 18, 1930 by the Justice of the Peace, Jas T. Maupin of Brooks County. In 1931, their first child, Celia was born.

The following year, Celestino and Manuela were both baptized into the Seventh-day Adventist Faith on the same date of Celestino's birth May 19, 1918. They were introduced to the SDA church when they were living in Mercedes, Texas by Manuela's brother-in-law, Tomas Ruenez (who was married to her younger sister Maria). Pastor Requenez was the first in his family to introduce the SDA Faith to the rest of the family, many of whome went on to become Seventh-day Adventists themselves. Celestino and Manuela were baptized by Pastor Jose Castillo who was from Mexico and who himself, had been baptized into the SDA church in 1918. Pastor Castillo was responsible for building the first Spanish speaking SDA church in Corpus Christi, Texas. The Garza family attended the SDA church all over the Rio Grande Valley as well as the rest of South Texas. For a while, Celestino even worked as a culporter for the SDA church.

Two years after their baptisms, their first son Celestino Garza, Jr. was born on August 19, 1933. Unfortunately Celestino Jr. died 2 days later due to a birth injury that was caused by a prolonged and difficult labor. Celestino Jr. was buried at "Los Olmos" Cemetary which is located on Brooks Co. Rd. 2191 on August 21, 1933.

Celestino worked as a sharecropper who migrated for work throughout the South Texas area. As his family grew, his children worked along side him in picking cotton or any other farm work to make ends meet. Celestino and Manuela's family gradually grew to have seven kids in all including Esther, Eva, Noemi, Eli, Dina and Ruth. Celestino was remembered by his children as being a very strict father who was a discplinarian. When ever his daughters were of the dating age, he would keep a very close watch on their boy friends. Their was another Celestino Jr. that was born in the interim, but this child also passed away, most likely as a stillbirth. By 1949, Manuela herself passed away of eclampsia 10 days after a difficult labor and C-section while giving birth to their youngest child, Celestino never remarried.

With seven young children to feed and take care of, Celestino clearly recognized that raising a new-born baby as a widowed sharecropper would be an extremely difficult task at best. As such, Celestino painfully allowed his youngest daughter Ruth to be raised by his in-laws Tomas and Maria Requenez. He was hopefull that she could live a better life than he would be able to offer her at that time. Thankfully, Ruth was in fact raised in the loving household of the Requenez family, just as Celestino knew she would be. Even so, perhaps because of the pride he had for his family, he would not allow Ruth to be legally adopted and furthermore, he did not allow Ruth's last name to be changed from Garza to Requenez until she was 18 years of age.

About one year later, Celestino's oldest daughter Celia also died in the July of 1950 at the young age of 19 due to a kidney infection while the family was living and working in Hebronsville, Texas. The rest of his children attended school in Hebronsville during this time.

For a good while, Celestino was said to be in a great state of depression (probably "clinical deprssion" by toady's medical standards). In the 1930's and 1940's, Celestino had lost his mother, Two sons who were both named Celestino shortly after their births, his wife Manuela, and just a year later in 1950, his oldest daughter, Celia. To make matters worse, he had trying to make a living and feed his young family to by working as a sharecropper throughout the infamous Great Depression of the 1930's, During the Great Depression, farming and rural communities suffered immensly as crop prices fell by approximately 60%. This was compounded by the fact that farmers had a struggled with the loss of crops secondary to hail storms and ant infestations.

When some of his children had grown and moved out of their home, Celestion eventually moved to Alice Texas where he resided for about 12 years. He chose to live in Alice in order to live close to his oldest daughters Esther and Eva who were starting familes of their own. After living in Alice, he moved to Southern California, where he could be close to the rest of his kids, Neomi, Eli, Dina, and Ruth who were living there at the time.

When Celestion became elderly, it bacame evident that he would need round the clock nursing care, so he was eventully admitted into a nursing home. He would spend some of his time writting letters to his children and drawing pictures which he mailed to his grandchildren.

In the year of 1971, Celestino died on a Sunday evening at 7:40 pm, while in a Hospital in Loma Linda, California. He was 69 years of age. He lived long enough to get to know 9 of his13 beloved grandchildren. Celestiono's body was brought to Falfurrias, Texas where memorial services were held for him at Howard-Williams Funeral Chapel . He was then burried in "Old Sacred Heart" Cemetary where he was laid to rest by his late wife, Manuela and his late daughter Celia.

The decsendents of Celestino fondly remember him as a man who very family oriented. Among his siblings, he was known as the brother who made a great effort to stay in touch with family throughout his life-time. Celestino had expressed in his later years that he often felt that he and his family's conversion to Adventism might have caused a bit of alienation from his own Garza family because they were devout Roman Catholics. Nevertheless, he made it a point to stay in touch with them as much as possible. This notwithstanding, all of Celestino's direct descendents remain faithfull to the Seventh-day Adventist faith.

Celestino will always be remembered as a strong-willed man who in the face of adversity and hard times, never lost fatih in his God. He was someone who did the best he could as a husband and a father when it came to raising his family. Because of the many hardships in his life, he in many ways exemplified what it means to have a steadfast faith in the Creator. His legacy lives on through his descendents.