Auraria Remembered

              62   Torres Family
Auraria Remembered
Julie Torres:
This was when you could give the blood directly.
It came right out of her to him. And that is why he
had all that pretty hair. She never went to the beauty
shop. We could never get her to go, or to buy shoes,
because she said she was an Indian. When we buried
her, we buried her with her face to the mountains
because that's what she wanted, to face the mountains like an Indian and she said she didn't want to
wear shoes.
Phillip J. Torres:
Sometimes it was very hard being Mexican.
Some people even had to change their last names.
Ellen Torres:
Something happened to our Aunt Nea when she
moved to South Denver.
She lived at her house for forty years and they
wouldn't even let her go to church at St. Francis de
Sales back then. Last year, she received the parishioner of the year award. We all went to that. She just
stuck in there.
Well, they (mom, dad, aunt) were all subject to
discrimination and racism. My dad got away with
some things because of his looks. He also had Jewish
friends. It's just like my daughter Martina who is so
light. And Julie - most people think she's Julie's
daughter. Julie, at the bank where she worked, they
thought she was white, but it has always been Lopez
or Torres, never, never been ashamed of it.
But I'm convinced that we lead a pretty good life
because of our education. I know women my age and
they're raising children and their situation is hard.
When you're a single parent, it's hard, I don't know
how they do it. Without an education, we could not
live the way we live, or have the opportunities or give
those opportunities back to our children.
The other thing I think we really miss are the
nuns. Where would we be today without the nuns and
the education we got from them? Dad and mom did a
lot for that too. To pay for that education. My mom
worked the First Friday Breakfast and dad would
always go pick up the rolls. My parents were always
involved. My mother was president of the P.T.A. and
would bring in speakers. Dad always supported her
in doing all those things. Bringing people together,
putting on plays, insisting that when we were in
school we'd do the "Our Lady of Guadalupe Feast
Day" play. My mother worked the bingos - we did lots
of things. We nickeled and dimed it, but we stayed
involved with the church.
Phillip<•/. Torres:
Okay, where I sit, I've been through the mill.
I've watched this, I've watched that - how the Anglos
would not ever sell you a paper because you were a
little dark, had a moustache, had an accent or couldn't
speak English. At one time, half of the state of New
Mexico moved here.
Ellen Torres:
My dad's family lived here in Denver but my
grandmother was afraid she wasn't going to get good
medical care, so she went back to Mexico and had my
father. Then they came back to Denver when my dad
was six weeks old. My grandfather was on the wrong
side of the revolution. He was with the Federales and
he was a telegrapher. See, his brothers and sisters
were born all along the railroad tracks through
Albuquerque and places like that. And then they all
settled in Denver.
Phillip J. Torres:
My father brought the family to Denver.
Ellen Torres:
Now here's another thing that's interesting. My
father was born in Torreon, but my grandmother was
born in Chapas, Mexico. Then my grandpa Jimmy
was really Mexican and he was born in Palacio whi<-h
is next to Torreon. My grandpa Jimmy was really
Mexican. I don't know as much about my father's
family as I do about my mother's family because my
mother used to repeat it, and repeat it, and repeat it.
You have to be able to go back at least five generations. I had another aunt who was very Spanish. Her
parents were cousins and they married so that they
wouldn't marry with the Indians. When they were
very little, they had Indian servants. Then they came
to Denver.
Ellen Torres:
Dad (Phillip J. Torres) is a diabetic. In fact we
almost lost him in 1986.
Frances Torres:
To give you an idea of what a strong man this
man is, he went in for a quadruple bypass on February 28th of 1986. He had two other bypasses before.
His heart was in good working order. It was his