Maria F Chavez

She was the first of ten children, and like the heir to a royal throne, Chalá was thus anointed to become the reigning matriarch of a wide-spanning family tree, which included her nine siblings, her four daughters, and numerous grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and even great-great-grandchildren she would live to see, hold, and love, as well as the many, many nieces, nephews, and in-laws she would also embrace.

In her early 30s, after a severe drought depleted the land and economy of her hometown, Chalá made the brave and dangerous decision to take her daughters and leave her mother and homeland behind and make her way to El Norte.

She first arrived in Monterrey and then Ciudad Juarez in the late 1940s. There, she would use her visitor passport to work as a housekeeper in El Paso.

Chalá found herself deported back to Mexico more than once, but through a series of adventures that could fill volumes of books, and thanks to her work ethic, resourcefulness, sheer determination, and, in her own words, “mi padre Dios,” Chalá found a way to plant new roots in El Paso, Texas. Around 1950, the family whose house she cleaned offered to sponsor her U.S. residency. (She eventually became a U.S. citizen in 1983.) She then found a job as a seamstress, a craft she perfected early on and practiced well into her 90s, and by 1955, she had saved enough money to buy her home on East Yandell, forever cementing her children and descendants into a new homeland.

On Friday, October 7, 2022, Mamá Chalá passed away peacefully in her home, surrounded by family and love. She was 105 years old.

Mamá Chalá is survived by her four daughters, Alicia Ochoa, Irma Martinez, Odelva Chávez, and Olga Chávez, her grandchildren, Norma Nava (David), Osvaldo Ochoa Jr. (Lupe), Soraya Duran (Pete), Yasmin Ochoa, Doris Shuey (Louis), Gonzalo Martinez Jr., Rose Sias (Rey), Fernando Cisneros, Zaira Crisafulli (Joe), and numerous great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren.

She is also survived by her brother, Juan Pablo Corchado (Herlinda), and many nephews and nieces.

She is preceded in death by her brothers, Alfonso, Edmundo, Eutimio, Audolio, Delfino, and her sisters, Carmelina, Luisa, and Lina.

Mamá Chalá’s memorial service will be held at Hillcrest Funeral Home (1060 North Carolina Drive) on Friday, October 14, 2022, from 5:00-9:00 p.m. Rosary service will take place at 7:00 p.m.

The funeral mass will take place on Saturday, October 15, 2022, at 10:00 a.m. at Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church (7712 Rosedale Street), and her burial will follow at 11:30 a.m. at Mount Carmel Cemetery.

Con mucho, mucho, mucho cariño, le decimos, “Hasta luego, Mamá Chalá.”