By Ruth Ann Ruiz
The Post Newspaper Features Editor
Through many hours of listening to details as his family members shared stories, along with extensive research with historic documents, Dennis Raphael Grarcia an award winning author, crafted an engaging piece of literature which dives deep into the lives of his family history providing readers a chance to meet and experience the lives of Mexican immigrants as they developed their path to becoming part of the American dream.
In his book, “Las Madres Latinas in the Heartland who Led their Family to Success” readers meet three woman whose lives’ may have gone unnoticed had it not been for the extraordinary work of Garcia. He brings to the pages of “Las Madres” the daily activities of his ancestors along with their conversations that he heard as a child and as an adult and that were shared with him, showing all of us, no matter how insignificant we may feel our lives are in the moment, each step we take, each decision we make has an impact for generations in the future.
Garcia was compelled to write Las Madres because as he said, “I wanted to highlight what strong and determined women they were.”
The women and their families face hardships that Garcia speaks of as being catastrophic, yet they did not give up hope they persevered and continued to believe in bringing up their children in a way that would allow their children to live with less burdens and more security.
Garcia paints detailed accounts the saga of his family from their origins in Zacatecas to their immigration into the heartland of the United States.
Gracia said he has found documents tracing his family geneology back to 1630, but his book focuses on his family from the 1860s when his ancestors were living in Mexico as hacienda workers where their lives were harsh and filled with suffering.
His US family legacy started in 1903 after his great grandparents traversed from Zacatecas Mexico to El Paso Texas. His great grandmother, Candalaria was determined to set her children’s lives on a better course than the one she and her husband were living as hacienda workers.
Garcia explained to me that back when his ancestors came to the United States, the US boarder system was not too concerned about Mexican people coming and going into the US. In his book he tells the tale of a lie that his great grandparents may have told the border officials, so that they could easily enter the United States.
He explained it wasn’t until about ten years after his family entered the US that the US government’s attitude towards Mexican border crossers became more restrictive.
As his family history unfolds so too does the history of the United States.
Heeding the recruiting efforts of the Santa Fe railroad his great grandparents traversed from El Paso to cross the US. They settled in the Dodge City Kansas region where his great grandfather held a job for several decades with the Santa Fe railroad as did many of his other male family ancestors.
“Very few people realize that Mexican immigrants settled outside of the border states,” explained Garcia. “There was a large population of Mexican people in the Midwest brought there by the Santa Fe Railroad to work for the railroad.”
His family history includes members who were offered employment with the railroad in Chicago, where there also, Garcia explained has been a large population of Mexican immigrants who were drawn to work for the railroads.
It is in a place that Garcia calls the Village which was located right near the Santa Fe rail line that the lives of his ancestors begin to take root in the United States and his book shows how with each historic moment in US history, his ancestors were impacted.
As with all families there is the good the bad and the ugly and Garcia does not hide the truth of what family life was like. He shares some intimate details which are brimming with the emotions and actions of the women whose lives he writes about.
With this book he emphasizes the tremendous efforts of the women who set their own desires aside so that they could lead their families to a better future. There indeed are men in his ancestorial tree, and they are included in the book, but they have less significance as his story highlights the pioneering spirit of the females
Dennis Raphael Garcia will be speaking in Galveston sharing his family stories and his book on May7, 2025 at the Moody Mansion 2618 Broadway with a start time of 5:30 pm. There is no cost to attend. If you don’t have a copy of his book, there will be some available for purchase. If you have a copy, please be sure to bring it along and ask for his signature.
If you would like to learn more about how you can purchase Las Madres or one of his other books you can find that at : https://www.dennisraphaelgarcia.com.
