La Familia Gutierrez Pavia

This weekend, we celebrated the life of my beloved, late cousin, Joseph Chavez, at Lima Memorial Chapel.  It was a time of closure, sadness, joy, and unity.  I am so grateful to have been able to go. 

After we left the service, we returned to what had been Joe's home for 25 years for a bite to eat and visit with family we hadn't seen for quite some time.  As people were leaving, we decided to go to the cemetery where a large number of our family is buried, Santa Clara Mission Cemetery, to pay our respects to our progenitors.  It was there we decided to take photographs at the gravesite.

We first visited the mausoleum crypts of Joe's mother's parents, Manuel and Ann (Silveira) Machado.  It was then time to visit the grave of our mutual grandmother, Clara "Rayo" Gutierrez Chavez and her father, Sostenes Gutierrez.  With us were two of my second cousin's daughters, Charlotte and Sophia, ages 5 and 3 respectively.  They are both energetic, beautiful children who are abundantly full of life.  As we were there, I decided to take a picture of these wee ones sitting on the grave of their great-great-great grandfather, born in 1845 and great-great grandmother born in 1901.

It wasn't until I got home that I recognized just how deeply poignant that moment was at a variety of levels.

First, here were children, born 160 years after their 3rd great grandfather, visiting him and learning his name for the first time.  "Sostenes," I pronounced several times for their benefit.  They didn't know he had come from Parral, Chihuahua, Mexico.  They couldn't have realized that his wife died in 1908 in El Paso leaving him with eight children, four of whom were still at home. They weren't aware that he had come to Santa Clara in the 1910s via El Paso, Texas. They had no idea about any of it.  All they knew was that they were with family.  They seemed contented with that security.

Second, I realized that my work with genealogy records dating back to the 18th Century was being shared with little people... our little people... who may see the 22nd Century if we're lucky and modern medicine continues on the path it's going.

Third, the photograph we took of the girls at the gravesite, and recorded on various websites and e-mails, will likely exists for generations to come.  When these precious little girls, who were about the same age as my grandmother, Rayo, the little girl standing front and center in the photo to the right, share this visual record with their children or grandchildren, the span of our family will likely reach 200 years by then.

The feelings about the continuity of life are very strong when confronted with little girls sitting on familial concrete.  This is especially true when one looks at Sophia's face and recognizes baby Rayo's face in the center front of this sepia photo.  Will she carry the traits of her 2nd great grandmother... or her 3rd or 4th great grandmothers, who are also in the center top and middle, respectively.

From the time our senior grandmother was born in approximately 1820 until today is nearly 200 years.  Our little Sophia and Charlotte are living proof of our tenacity to survive as a family.  They represent our future.  In the same way as they know their Grandma Caroline, who was born in the 1920's, and present in the photos from this weekend, the eldest grandmother in the photo likely knew her grandmother from 50 years before in 1770.  The Gutierrez-Pavia line, from which these girls descend as part of a much larger tree, lives on in their faces, genes, history, and now memories.

So, as Joe begins his journey home to be with the God in whom he most fervently believed, he also becomes a catalyst for family learning, growth, unity, and love... as usual.  What a powerful day to remember how death is a part of life, and that even after someone is gone, they live on in the memories of their families by the grace of God.

Seven generations of love and history.

Señor y Señora Gutierrez (1810s) - Señor y Señora Pavia (circa 1820's)

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Sostenes (1844-1933) y Maria Teresa (1856-1908)

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Clara "Rayo" (1901-1942) y Angel (1887-1931)

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Joaquin and Caroline

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Robert and Barbara 

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Cynthia and Rye

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Charlotte and Sophia