1990 Mother of Year’s Dedication to Family Overcomes Obstacles

World War II put Graciela Maxemin Romero’s life on hold. She had a promising career as a fashion designer but was forced to help her mother, who designed costumes for movie studios. Later, just two days after she married her high school sweetheart, Angel Romero, he left to serve three years in the Army.

Almost 50 years later, Graciela Romero was honored as the 1990 Mexican Mother of the Year by the Franciscan Guild of Los Angeles. The award recognizes dedication to the family and the community.

“Graciela personifies the qualities of the Hispanic mother--self-sacrifice and dedication to her family,” said Carmen Sandoval, Franciscan Guild president.

At a Mother of the Year ceremony last month, Romero and 11 previous winners were escorted down the center aisle of Our Lady Queen of Angels (La Placita) Church to the angelic sounds of the St. Charles Borromeo Choir.

The 40th annual Mass service also included five descendants representing their mothers who had either died or were too ill to attend. Later, more than 150 guests gathered at a reception at Luminarias restaurant in Monterey Park.

It is very appropriate that the event was celebrated at La Placita, said Father Luis Olivares, who wore a vestment bearing Mexico’s patron saint, La Virgin de Guadalupe. “It is a mother church of the archdiocese of Los Angeles. It is the place where Los Angeles was given birth. This is the mother church.”

Romero continues in the tradition of past recipients, Sandoval said. “She carries on the Christian principle, putting others before yourself. Many modern mothers are concerned only with their careers. For the old mothers, the most important thing is the family.

“Anyone in the (Latino) community who’s done anything outstanding can be nominated. They don’t have to be a member of the guild,” Sandoval said. The Franciscan guild board selects each year’s winner.

Romero served from 1984 to 1987 as president of the Franciscan Guild, which was founded by Consuelo Castillo de Bonzo, who was one of Los Angeles’ leading community activists and owner of La Golondrina restaurant on Olvera Street.

The guild serves as an auxiliary to the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of Los Angeles. It was formed to assist area girls, ages 9 to 18, from broken homes and carried on this work until the home in Silver Lake was deemed unsafe after the Oct. 1, 1987, earthquake.

“Without their support we would not have been able to help our girls in the years that have gone by,” said Sister Marina Salgado, of the St. Francis order. “We are committed to our professions as nuns . . . but without the help of the secular people the home would never have been able to go through.”

The home has yet to be repaired, but the guild still holds fund-raisers for the convent, where the nuns continue to live and help the West Los Angeles community’s elderly, sick and homeless.

Romero was president of the guild when the devastating earthquake occurred. This only added to her struggle to maintain her home and family, including her mother and her husband, who has had five heart attacks.

“She’s been taking care of me,” Angel Romero said. “I don’t know what I’d do without her.”

Graciela Romero, 70, a native of Mazatlan in the Mexican state of Sinaloa, immigrated with her mother to Los Angeles when she was 5. Throughout her years here she has been active in a number of community organizations, including the Mother’s Club at St. Columbkille’s Catholic School, where all four of her children attended school, and a fund-raising organization for Santa Marta Hospital.

The guild’s current vice president, Romero attributes her success as a mother to her keeping her home and family together “no matter what, through thick and thin.”

“In my generation we stuck it out. We didn’t expect things to be easy all the time,” Romero said. “Nowadays when something goes wrong, women do not want it. If something doesn’t go their way, right away they get a divorce.

“It was a big struggle, and it isn’t easy, but my children all grew up fine,” she said. “I guided them, taught them right from wrong, and then I let them go and find their way, and whenever they needed me, they came,” said the grandmother of six.

The spirit of the Latino family filled the banquet room at Luminarias, from the head table where all the Romeros sat to the traditional songs of the mariachi group and dances by Sister Salgado.

In the earlier days of the guild, the honor was given to mothers of large families, according to 1976 recipient Alice Camarillo, mother of 10. “We couldn’t help the sisters as much as we would have liked to, but we did what we could.”

For 1982 recipient Alicia Villalobos, the honor lasts longer than one year. “It represents the education, religion and examples that you gave them,” said the mother of five, all of whom are professionals.

The 1989 Mexican Mother of the Year believes the honor is too short. “I feel very sorry that I have to give up my throne,” Ana Maria Torres said with a smile.

Torres carried on a family tradition of receiving the honor. Her 90-year-old mother, Dolores Martinez, was honored in 1974 and her sister and current Franciscan Guild president, Sandoval, received the award in 1984.

Torres said her reign included giving advice to many women in the area. “Every time women come up to me I say, ‘Your husband can’t give you everything. You have to go out and get it through hard work and perseverance.’ ”

During her year as the current Mexican Mother of the Year, the determined Romero said she will continue her activities with the guild and would like work on a new project with La Placita. “When I get involved in something, I go all the way,” she said.