Christmas 1947

The first photograph is annotated "Mom Sanchez + Anita Downtown SA 'Xmas '47"--you can see Christmas decorations behind the two as they walk down the street. Initially, I could not determine when the second photograph was taken until I compared mom's hair style. It appears to be the same in the two photographs. I believe it's safe to conclude that both photographs were taken before Christmas 1947, as mom and dad decorate their tree (or at least pretend to be decorating the tree for whomever is taking the picture because the tree already looks fully decorated).

Throughout the two photo albums, one of which mom later annotated, the other not, are lots of Christmas photographs. These are two of the few which do not prominently feature either my sister or me or both of us together. If mom and dad were married in late 1946 or January 1947, in Florida, and Grandma and Grandpa Sanchez were present, when dad was later stationed in San Antonio, they must have come back to spend Christmas with their oldest son.

I must now, briefly, mention my Uncle Leon, my grandparents youngest son (they had had a daughter, but she died as an infant--they never spoke of her that I can recall so that I do not know her name nor what she died of). In the early years of the war, Leon was at college in Tucson, Arizona. I understand that he was not doing well and was in jeopardy of flunking out and being drafted. I believe he was fearful of being drafted as an enlisted man and not an officer, so he simply left the country. He crossed the border into Mexico and remained there, becoming a citizen after a number of years of residence. He married a Mexican citizen, my Aunt Lourdes, whom I have never met. They had five children and were successful. I also have never met any of my cousins, though my sister has met them all, including our cousin Jose, who would, several years back, commit suicide.

This explains Leon's absence from any and all photographs in mom's albums--he could not return to the United States for many years because he had dodged the draft. I believe I have only met Uncle Leon twice. Once when he was visiting my dad and stepmother in Garden Grove, CA. And once when dad was in the emergency room and would die a few days later in April 2002. When I asked Ann a couple of years ago how Leon was doing, she was not even certain that he was still alive and said she would call one of our cousins to see what has happened to him. He had later divorced Aunt Lourdes, perhaps in the 70's, and eventually remarried; I did meet his new wife at the time that dad was in the hospital. Leon also had conflicts with Jose, which may have contributed to Jose's suicide. I also heard that Jose might have been, or was, gay; and that that also contributed to his committing suicide. Two brothers whose oldest sons were both gay has a kind of symmetry, whether welcome or not.

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