Roger Cruz

Roger Cruz, was born on March 13, 1938. In a time when the Westminster Township was still an unincorporated area of Huntington Beach, California. In the oldest Colonia in Westminster, the Olive Street Colonia. He was born to a hardworking Musician and Insurance Salesman, from Penjamo, Guanajuato, Pablo Cruz Sr., And a loving and hard-working Homemaker in Marcella Delgadillo from Teocaltiche, Jalisco. Who had both emigrated to the US in and around 1915. He grew up at a time when the schools were segregated and remembered pebble rock fights with the white kids. He remembered hunting for crawdads that you could catch in the small waterways that ran between all the orange groves. He would tell stories how he and his friends would cut through Westminster Cemetery before it had a fence at night, and sometimes he and his friends would go there to drink. Only to be chased out by the security guards. Or how on very foggy nights when his father would go for a drive, his oldest Paul would sit on the hood of the car waving his hands to either move right or left. Because they couldn’t see the ditches on the sides of roads. His cousin Catalina who at the time was not married but dating the man she would marry Andy Vasquez. Shared a story about how she would pay my grandpa to be a lookout so she would not get caught by her Uncle Pablo canoodling with a boy as she said. He once spoke of how he became a musician, how he asked his father to teach him. And only would do so if he was serious and would practice. He became very accomplished performing all over Orange County and other places.

Even though they had some very tough times, as he put it, they were not rich in money but they were rich in family. He was surrounded by the family they all lived around him. From his cousins the Riveras, Palominos, and Martinez’s. They were all cousins all related to his Grandfather Lalo and his wife Delores. Roger would then meet the love of his life, Jessica Jordan, who remembered Roger as the cute boy that would not give her the time of day. She would walk by the auto mechanics shop every day just to get his attention. But when she grew out of her as she said her baby fat, then Roger went from the pursued to the pursuer. He remembered asking my her father for permission to take his daughter out on a date. They dated off and on for a number of years before getting married on Dec 25th, 1958 and started their own family. They Had eight children, Laura, Roger, Robert, Jessica, David, Melissa, Christopher, Randy and they adopted two of his grandchildren Monique and Jessica. He had a total of 16 grandchildren and 19 greatgrandchildren. Roger was married for 41 years before his beautiful wife Jessica passing in 2000.

Roger was all about values, the main one was family and hard work. He worked many years for Chrysler a job he held for over 20 years. When he was let go due to the sale of the auto dealership, he was unsure of what to do. He found his place working in the Environmental Service Department at Saint Joseph’s Hospital, a job he worked out for over 30 years and happily okay reluctantly retired from. He found joy in his Garden and his yard. He was a man full of love for his family.