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June 22, 2001 My name is Enriqueta Torres Quihuis. I was born December 5, 1910 in Chihuaha Mexico at four o'clock in the afternoon on a Monday. I was born during the turbulent years that preceded the revolution of Mexico in 1910. I am the first born and I have two sisters - Emma Antonia born October 19th, 1913 and Refugio (Cuca), born July 4th, 1915. My father's name was Manuel Saldaña Torres, and my mother's name was Guadalupe Najera Briones. My father was born on February 13, 1875 in the state of Durango, Mexico in a town called Rio Naces. My mother was also born in Durango - in a town called Topia. She was born on July 11, 1885. My mother and father were married in Topia on February 7th, 1907. My father's family has
an extensive history in Mexico. I am told that my father's ancestry was
very wealthy. They were pioneers in bringing cattle business from
Argentina in South America to Veracruz Mexico in the early 1700's.
My father's uncles were involved in Mexico's politics - one was a former
Governor of the state of Durango. I am told that a band of soldados
from Pancho Villa's clan killed two of my father's uncles. Due to
the troubles times prior to the
Mama Chonita - Concepción Saldaña - is my father's mother. Her husband was Sevedo Saldaña Torres. They were first cousins. At that time, the Torres family wanted to maintain the wealth within the family so their parents encouraged them to marry. Concepción and Severo were married on May 5, 1870. They had eighteen children of which seven survived: Tíburcio, born April 12, 1871; Severo, born in 1873; Manuel, born February 13th, 1875; María, born May 22, 1876; Rosenda, born June 14th, 1877; Manuela, born March 14th, 1879; and Carmen, born July 15th 1882. During the years before the revolution of Mexico, my father moved around throughout the southern part of Mexico. My father and mother were educated. My father worked for the government and met my mother at the post office where she worked part time. My fater had plans to propose to three women - Guadalupe Briones (Mama Lupe) from Durango, Enriqueta Nuñez from Chihuahua, and Laura Espinosa from Sinaloa. My father says that Mama Chonita did not like Enriqueta Nuñez - she gave her a lot of grief. It happen that the first women my father approached was Guadalupe - since he was closest to her. Guadalupe accepted his proposal! Mama Chonita was a happy women and I was her favorite - since I was her first nieta. When I was born, Mama Chonita asked, "well what are you going to name her?" The next day, Mama Chonita says "it is time we baptize my grandchild." And without asking, she quickly washed me and on the way out the door, Professor Alberto Vicarte (a family acquitance) was coming in; but, before he had a chance to make his greetings, she took him by the arm and says "come, lets go baptize my nieta!" When they came back, Mama Chonita says, "aqui esta tu hija y se llame Enriqueta! Enriqueta! Porque la otra Enriqueta me hizo sufrir. Este Enriquenta será una alegría para mí (she will be a joy to me)!" At the time of the revolution, it was very difficult for my family to continue living in Mexico. When I was two we moved to the United States. On December 28, 1912 we moved across the line into the United States from Juarez to El Paso, Texas. My family was not alone, many thousands of Mexicans came to the United States to seek a better life. My father completed all the paperwork for the family to immigrate but forgot to include me. So my first forty years here I have been a "mojada" - an illegal resident! My father was very smart and had a good business mind. He was a good promoter but was the type that he didn't like to get his hands dirty. He hired people to do the work and he took care of managing his business. He was not afraid to go after his ideas and start a new business. The problem with my father was he couldn't stick with something over a long time. In El Paso, my father opened up a soda factory called "Lone Star Bottling Works". He sold soda water and beer. In 1917 the business was good. He made up business cards out of aluminum with a calendar printed on the back. My father sold Lone Star Bottling Works and we moved to Calixico, California. Here, my father decided to open up a tortilla shop - to sell hand-made tortillas - he called it "El Metate" (stone grinder). It just so happened my father and mother did not know anything about how to prepare masa from the corn to make tortillas. When they first tried to grind the maíz, the masa turned out too thick and course and fell apart when forming into a tortilla. To help them with the food, my mother and father hired five "soldadas (women from the soldiers) from Mexicalli. Las soldadas knew everything about the corn and how to prepare it to make the masa and tortillas. The right preparation of the corn is important to a successful tortilleria. Corn is a simple food, but it needs to be treated delicately. The corn has its own language: maíz (corn), nixtamal, nejayote, correa, machiwie, and masa. The women would first put the corn kernels in large tubs to be boiled and soaked in lime. The corn is left to sit until the corn skin softens and peels off. This makes the corn into nixtamal. The women would then grind the nixtamal into masa. Correa means to hold together and is the base that holds the masa together. Machiwieis the water the women used to work the masa into a dough to form the tortilla. I was about 7 or 8 years old then. I remember these women very well. They were large women with dark skin and strong Indian features. They sang when they work and I remember how happy I was to be around them. I worked with them, picked up the masa and made tortillas by hand. I remember much from these women - they taught me all about how to prepare and process the corn and gave me my first lesson for the tortillería business. My father was very smart. I remember at this time my father bought a washing machine. This was a new one with a copper bowl and a place below it for a fire to heat the water. My mother thought she was getting her first washing machine. Instead, my father used it for the business to fry corn tortillas to make tostada shells. Oh, how disappointed my mother was. While, we were running El Metate, my father decided to open another soda factory called "Gay-Ola Bottling Works" in Mexicali across the border. He had the right idea. He thought he could sell the soda like the "Coca-Cola" brand. He would go back and forth between the two businesses. In Mexicalli, my father and mother sent me to the church to attend catechism and prepare for my first holy communion. There I remember this prayer: Luego resemos, lo que veremos la Iglesia Romana
nos muestra credo, manemiento oraciones y sacramentos bien pronunciado
decimos asi.
When I was about 13 years
old my father decided to move to Hurley, New Mexico to help her mother
(Mama Chonita) run a restaurant she owned in town. It was a nice
place and was visited much by the miners in the area. My grandmother
In the morning, I went to school with my cousin Guillermo Wright. Guillermo is the son of my father's sister María and her husband Orion Wright (an American). Guillermo was a brother to me. We were very close friends. I remember coming home from school with Guillermo in the winter afternoons in Hurley. It was cold, snowy, and miserable. Always on the way in, Mama Chonita had us stop at her friend's house to have a warm glass of milk – "vaso de leche ordenada." Oh, I remember how good it made us feel! I learned much from my grandmother. I was very close to her. She had a good sense of humor and was great around the kitchen. She inspired my love for cooking. We stayed in Hurley and helped with the restaurant through 1921. In 1923 we stayed a year with my mother's family in El Paso Texas. My mother's father was named Felix Briones, born July 9th 1855 and her mother was named Anastacia Najera, born April 15th 1871. I didn't know my grandfather too well - he died when I was seven years old on January 6th 1917. I am told he was not born in Mexico but was from Europe. The orginal spelling of Briones is Brionesse. He had sharp green buldging eyes with no chin. My mother's family was big! My grandmother - we called her Mama Tacha - raised 13 children. Here are the names of mother's brothers and sisters: Daniel, Fernando, Felix, Lisandro, Marina, Guadalupe, Jesus, Celia, Luisa, Manuel, Francisco, and Anatasia. The next year after we stayed in El Paso, my father decided to move to Arizona and settle in Miami - a mining town. My father decided to open up a restaurant for the miners. He called it "El Original Chile Colorado". At that time, the conditions for the miners were bad. Many of the miners were often sick. Tuberculosis was common. My father decided to make menudo. The menudo was a big hit and the miners loved it! Like chicken soup, menudo has special nutrients that soothes the lungs and made the sick miners feel better. I remember the miners asking for my father to personally thank him for the menudo and telling him how better their lungs felt after eating the menudo. It was in Miami that I fell in love with a young boy named Antonio Enriques - he was a minor and was from Chihauhau Mexico. He wanted to marry me. I was only 15 years old then. He sent for his mother in Chihuahua to come to Miami with the desire to ask my father's permission for my hand in marriage. When my father heard about this he was furious. My father was strongly against the marriage because he felt I was too young. My father was so mad that he decided to close up the restaurant, pack everything and move away - without telling anyone where he was going. We moved to Phoenix Arizona. My father was very protective of me. Soon after, I wrote letters to Antonio and he wrote back. My father found out about the letters. He sternly told me to never see the boy again! But in spite of my father's anger, Antonio still wanted to marry me. He asked me to elope with him. He wanted to come by my window, sneak out, and take me away to be married. In my heart I wanted to go with him and I prayed to God on what I should do. But in the end, I believed that it was not right to go against my father's wishes. God says to respect your father and mother and I believe I did the right thing by staying. Around 1925, my father decided to open another tortilleria business. He called this "El Metate" after his first tortillería. It was located on 5th street & Madison, in Phoenix. At that time, no one sold tortillas or corn masa. This was the first tortilleria in Phoenix, Arizona! People thought my father was crazy to open a tortilla business in a growing city like Phoenix - especially downtown. The corn tortilla business was looked down upon, it was considered food for the poor. But, the business was a hit and soon after the business grew too big for the location. My father decided to move to another place on 4th Street & Jefferson. He also changed the name of the business to "El Superior Tortillas and Tamales". My father changed the name to El Superior because the kids on 5th street wouldn't pronounce "El Metate" correctly. They would call my father: "el viejo del mitote" (old man trouble maker)! El Superior had the first machine to make tortillas. You turn a handle on the machine which would flatten the doe and then you grab the tortilla and placed it on the comal (flat griddle). We also had a coffee grounder which was popular. The comal was on most of the day which kept the place very hot. The place had no coolers, just a fan. I remember during this time, a couple of my father's relatives passed on. In those days, when someone died in the family we wore black. It seemed that so many of our relatives died that we were wearing black for the whole year! Can you imagine how hot we were in our black dresses and working in the shop! We sure sweated a lot. In 1928 when I was 18 years old, I decided to attend beautician school and enter the beauty culture! When I applied to the school they would not accept me because I didn't know English very well. So I decided to improve my English; and when I did, I was accepted and passed all my courses. I've always had a very good memory - which I am very proud of! When I was preparing for the beautician certification exam, I memorized all the concepts, terms, and definitions. I passed the exam with an almost perfect score! But the examiners thought I cheated. They thought I was dumb because I didn't speak English very well. They accused me of copying the answers in the test. I was so mad! When I recited the answers orally they were amazed I knew so much! It was at the school
when I was sharpening my English an American women in my class taught me
this poem:
God Above . . . I do believe that God above,
After I passed my state board certification, I wanted to open up a beautician business. When I applied for my license they said I was too young. I was 19 years old then. I met a gentleman named Mr. Converse who gave me a good recommendation. He owned a beauty supply business across the street from a place I wanted to buy. I bought the beauty salon from Betsy Redberry - she use to have all the customers from Goldwaters. I called my shop "Katie's Beauty Knook" and the address was 141 N. First Street. I did marcels, spiral perms, and manicures. I even did ectric facial treatments - which was popular with my customers. Here, I would hook up the customer's wrist and face to an electrical device and pass the electricity through the person which gave small shocks to the customer's face. Soon after my business got started, I had to sell the place to the city and I moved to a smaller place nearby. It was during this time
when I was working at my beauty shop that I got acquainted with Efrain
Quihuis. We knew the Quihuis family as they've lived nearby the ranch
off of 32st street and Madison. Sometimes, Efrain would give me a ride
in his car to my beauty shop. He used to work at the White House
store in downtown
Over the next two years,
Efrain and I grew closer. We got married on July 30, 1936.
We were married at Immaculate Heart Church at 6:00 am in the morning.
At that time, the weddings were held in the mornings. Now, at our
wedding, Efrain's best friend was a person named Frank Cota. After
the mass, as we were going back to our cars, Frank Cota grabbed me and
picked me up and put me in his car. He took off and every time he
saw someone he screamed: "I stole the bride of my best friend!"
I didn't know what he was doing. I was scared for my life – I thought
he was going to take me away. It turns out that everyone knew he
was doing this. Efrain and Frank had planned this along as a joke.
I eventurally sold my beaty shop and Efrain and I opened a tortilla shop together. We called it Azteca Tamale Shop. It was located on 625 E. Van Buren (across from the high school). We sold this place to a women who wanted to open a resturant and move to another location at 721 E. Washington. Eventually I bought a place that would be La Tolteca Tortilleria at 609 E. Washington. La Tolteca was very successful.
I was very proud of the business. I worked very hard. It was
not uncommon for me to work 18 hour days. Sometimes I would go to
work at 3 or 4 am in the morning . Christmas was the busiest time of the
year. During this time, I would make a 100 dozen tamales in one day.
And I made my tamales all the same size. I remember the health inspector
would always compliment my workI In La Tolteca we made tamales, chorizo,
masa, tortillas and burritos. I would sell the tamales and burritos
to the chuck wagons. The chuck
I enjoy cooking very much. I think I get this quality from my Mama Chonita. I've written special receipe's for my family in this book. I am so proud of my children:
Maria Elena, Concepcion Elvira, Efrain Manuel, and Luz Maria. All
of them are very successful. I know I haven't been
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