A litte more about Julian.

I asked my Grandpa about his mother Elesta. He was very reluctant to speak about her, so most of the info I have was given to me by other family members. She was almost 6 feet tall, red-haired, clear green eyes & a creamy complexion. Except for her height you could be describing my mother!?. And yes indeed, we found a picture of her in my grandfather's attic. My nephew, Marty, was up in the attic getting stuff down for a house remodel. He called down & said, "Hey Gramma. When did you take this picture?" My mother told him to bring it down to look at it. The picture broke into a few large 'chunks' when he picked it up. I say chunks because the picture was a very old kind of compressed paper. On the flip side was a picture of a saint & we were able to piece it together, flip it over & walla! It was an image of my mother, except for the size & the tattoo mole my mother had on her cheek. Very impressive woman. I'm glad to say I still have that piece of history in my possession. Hope to use it when I finally get down to writing that book about my grandfather.

Grandpa was 6'2" tall, very light skinned, blue grey eyes, almost blonde hair, and an Italian nose. He was Spanish & Italian, I'm told. My grandmother, Deluvina, was 4'10" tall, black hair, slim & a pistol. her word was LAW.  She was 1/2 Apache. She died a few days short of my 3rd birthday of heart failure. I wish I could have known her. My family had lots of stories & her sayings were passed down. Sometimes in a not so nice way. My favorite, loosely translated from Spanish, was, "No lick & promises when you clean. To do that means twice the work later. Do it right the first time." Amen Gramma. She had 2 sons when my grandfather "found" her. He raised them like his own. In fact I didn't even know that until I was about 16 years old when I asked why they had different last names from my other uncles. Can't find out if you don't ask.

I was told that when Julian returned from Arizona with a new(& only ever) bride with 3 kids, he would not speak to his mother for several years. I can see why. But then I am prejudiced to his cause. I asked him why he came back to New Mexico. He had been summoned by the death of his maternal uncle's will. Elesta had been selling off pieces of land to pay taxes & her brother, Pablo purchased quite a few pieces of that land. Pablo left it all to Grandpa in his will. There is just God. Pablo had also tried to buy Julian & Tomas's contract when Elesta sold them. But her words to Pablo were, "Don't interfere in my business."

More later, folks