"Roots"

One of our favorite movies from way back was Roots. It is about Alex Haley retracing his family heritage to Africa and the first to land in North America as a slave, Kunta Kinte. Over the years I have come to affectionately regard my side the family as the "Kuntas."

I never met my grandfathers. They had both passed by the time I was born. My dad, Alfred G. Lopez, was born in Tucson, Arizona - son of Anastasio Lopez and Carmen (Carmelita) Gamboa. My mom, Pastora Almazan Lopez, was born in Oquitoa, Sonora, Mexico - daughter of Reymundo Almazan and Josefina ("Fina") Sandoval.

I used to visit Oquitoa (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oquitoa) pretty regularly especially in my younger years before I got super distracted with my sports schedules. Oquitoa as a very small town... almost literally two streets that intersected... the main street and the cross street that my nana Fina's house was on that headed up the church on the hill (http://www.nps.gov/archive/tuma/Oquitoa.html). The church was actually part of the series of "mission" churches built by Father Kino - who built many churches in Mexico, Arizona, and California. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eusebio_Kino) The town didn't have indoor plumbing or electricity until well into my teenage years. As a kid I used to prefer to go down to the 'rio' to bath vs. the galvinized tub in the house. We'd draw water from a couple of main wells in town. Judy knows that even in the late 70s indoor plumbing was a luxury. It was a simple but nice life. My relatives down there made most of there living agriculturally and most lived fairly modestly.

My nana Fina's house was across the street from the grade school that my mom went to.... but I don't think she ever finished. The cousin I spent most of my time with down there was Jesus Maria Chaira de Almazan (that's the way names are strung together in Mexico.) We played ball games, we explored the outskirts of town, at one point he had a motorcycle we rode, rode horses on "el dia de San Juan" (a celebration that for some reason included horse back riding and races), and basically hung out. We played alot of baseball and I guess I was the gringo ringer..... Jesus Maria would pitch and I would catch (w/o any catcher's gear - not even a mask) and play locally and even challenge the town team from the next town, Atil. I can't remember our team ever losing. We were very close growing up. He died a couple of years ago in a construction accident.

My nana Carmelita lived right next door to us in Tucson with a couple of my uncles. My uncle Rudy and my uncle Gilbert.... every once in a while my uncle Carlos lived there too. Uncle Rudy was special and close to me growing up. He worked at the Air Force Base. He had a stroke when he wasn't that old, don't remember exactly when, but he became disabled. When he stopped working we'd spend alot of time together. He loved to tell me stories - especially hunting stories. I remember having some great laughs with Uncle Rudy. "Llego bien!"