Aunt Mary's Family History

The history of our family starts with the birth of my dad, Melchor Rodríguez Garcia in Alhama de Almeria, Spain on March 6, 1907. Mel was to be the oldest of three siblings. His younger brother was named Paco and we believe he was born on February 29, 1908 (it had to have been a leap year.) His younger sister was named Maria Teresa.


Uncle Mel's Father, Melchor Rodríguez Garcia	Uncle Mel's Mother, Maria Teresa Garcia Picón

Do any of these names ring a bell? (For Another Picture of Uncle Mel's Parents, Click Here)

On October 27, 1920, Melchor was sent off to boarding school in France when he was 13 years old. He went to the Lycee de Foix for 2 years. We still have his report cards and school books from the experience.

In 1926, at the age of 19, he took a boat, the __________________, to New York. He was met at the gate at Ellis Island by his cousin Manuel Leiva Ortega, known affectionately as "El Lico". The two were to remain close for almost 60 years.

On December 23, 1925, Mel was drafted into the Spanish Navy. He was scheduled to be inducted the first Sunday in May, 1926. Instead, he came to America. In fact, I have a book from the Spanish Navy that he had to present to the Spanish Consulate in New York every year from December 1927 to March 1937 to prove that he was living out of the country.

Mel changed jobs a lot. In 1927, he worked at Borden's Dairy. He worked at Child's Restaurant, at DuBrows, Janssen's Hofbrau Haus, and others. He was very proud of saying that he never missed a day of work during the Depression.

He went back to Spain for the first time in 1933. On his Spanish passport, dated 1/28/33 he was listed as single. He took the S.S. Rochambeau of the French Line in March of 1933. While in Spain, he received his green card from the US Consulate in Malaga on September 14, 1933. His green card says he arrived back in New York, November 13, 1933. Apparently, back then, if you travelled internationally, it was not a short trip.

When he went back to Spain two years later, on his new Spanish passport dated June 28, 1935 his marital status changed from Single to Married. He arrived in Spain on August 13, 1935 in Barcelona and returned to New York ten months later on July 3, 1936 (a mere 13 days before the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War.)

I could use some help on this previous marriage. Here's what I've gathered: He married a Polish woman named Anna Liverupski* , possibly a waitress from upstate New York. They had a son and named him Melchor. She left Mel and moved upstate with the first little Mel. The baby somehow drowned. On March 27, 1939, Mel had the marriage annulled in Manhattan on the basis of abandonment.

(* this spelling is probably incorrect. I can't find any phone listings for people with the name Liverupski in the US today and I can't find any Ellis Island records for people entering the country with this name.)

Did all of this happen before the long 1935 trip to Spain? Did she go with him? I've looked for marriage certificates, divorce papers, or photos but still no luck. (What I've got comes from a 1984 Spanish translation of my parent's marriage license and from Maria's interviewing cousin Lola in Sacramento.)

On July 19, 1936, the Spanish Civil War broke out. The Spanish Army fought to overthrow the government with the help of the Fascist powers, Germany and Italy. The Spanish Navy and Air Force remained loyal to the government. In 1937, Mel decided to train to become a pilot. His flying career was cut short after he went into a stall during a lesson and barely escaped with his life.

In 1936, on a summer day at Coney Island, two teen aged girls were playing catch and Mel was struck by the ball. (Mary had gone to the beach with her friend Josephine Carbonelli and Casilda Rodriguez.) When Josephine asked for the ball back, Mel refused to give it to her because she was Italian. She introduced her friend, Mary, who was Spanish. It turned out that Mary's family was from the same tiny town in Spain, Alhama de Almeria.


What Mary Saw in Mel, Coney Island, 1936	Mel saved these tickets from their first date

Aunt Mary
Mary was born on December 10, 1921 in her parents' house at 33 Troy Avenue in Brooklyn. Later they moved to 24 St. Mark's Avenue in Brooklyn. Her parents ran a boarding house for Spanish immigrants. The tenants were primarily men from Spain who would work and save and send money home to their families until they had enough to bring their families to America.

Mary loved to read and to listen to the stories told by the men. She also loved to spend time with her grandmother, Maria Mazo Rodriguez. She would frequently stay over her grandmother's apartment on Bergen Street in Brooklyn (between 4th and 5th Avenues) and go to the movies together at places like the Terminal Theater on 4th Avenue. Her grandmother spoke no English, and Mary would translate for her. (She was shushed by the other moviegoers.)

Mary still talks about when her grandmother died of stomach cancer in 1936. She was laid out in Abuelica's house for the wake. Mary refused to go into the room for years afterwards.

Mary & Her Grandmother in the 1920's

Mary attended Saint Augustine's Elementary School and Bishop McDonnell High School. Neither school exists today. Until she went to Hunter College for the first time in 1940, she had never crossed the Hudson River to Manhattan.

Mary & Mel
Needless to say, our grandparents were a little concerned about the budding romance between 14 year old Mary and 28 year old Mel. Until they were married, they were never without a chaperone. So conditioned were they to this that on their honeymoon, they sent for Aunt Nancy, aged 10, because it just didn't seem right without her.

Mel was a Mason, and the Freemasons had philosphical differences with the Spanish Catholic church. When Mel and Mary were married, on June 23, 1940, they had two ceremonies. One was held in a Baptist Church and the other was a Masonic ceremony.

After getting married, they lived in a small apartment at One Lincoln Place. Within a year, they moved to an apartment across from her parents 15 Saint Mark's Avenue.

Mary attended Hunter College in Manhattan while Mel worked. After a year and a half of marriage, Pearl Harbor was bombed and their world was turned upside down.

Their First Thanksgiving, with Grandma, Grandpa & Uncle Mac

Mel enlisted in the army. Because of his age, he was not sent overseas. He served as a cook in Army hospitals in upstate New York, notably Camp Upton. He became a sergeant. He was able to take advantage of his position to help send supplies home to Mary and her family. This helped with the wartime rationing.

Mary lied about her age and signed up to be a censor, reading the mail being sent to Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries. On May 1, 1944, she was promoted to re-examiner, reviewing the work of other censors in her department. To this day (7/2004), she remains friends with the surviving members of her department at the Office of Censorship.

When the war ended, Mary and Mel did what everyone else did. They started a family. On May 28, 1946, they had a son whom they named Melchor. Little Mel, the first grandchild in the family was the apple of everyone's eye. Two years later, they had my sister, Maria Teresa on October 31, 1948. Still, none of the uncles and aunts were married and my brother and sister had them all to themselves.

Oh yes, Mary graduated from Hunter College in February, 1946. She was quite pregnant at the time. In 1947 she taught French at the Escuela Salmeron and in 1950 she worked as a census taker.

In 1951, at the invitation of her friend Maria Aguilera LoFrumento, Mary went to work at Hunter College High School teaching Spanish and French. (Over the years, she also taught World History, Economic Geography, and Latin.) She worked at Hunter continuously (except when hospitalized) until January 1984. (She is still friends with Maria LoFrumento, my sister's Godmother.)

After the war, Mel tried his hand at retailing, running a grocery store in Brooklyn named Royal Farms Supermarket. Mary did the bookkeeping. Mel decided that this wasn't for him and sold the store. (Click here for pictures.) Then, Mel entered a jobs training program to learn carpentry just in time for the largest home building boom in the nation's history. (Click here for pictures.) The program was written up in the newspaper. Somehow that didn't suit Mel either. Mel went back to what he knew best: restaurants.

In the Summer of 1954, Mel and Mary moved to an English Tudor style house at 114-40 127th St. in Ozone Park, Queens. Maria writes:

"We moved sometime in the summer. We went to Sound Beach first then moving day came and we went back to the city. By the time we got to Queens, it was dark. I had nothing to do being an incompetent six year old. Across the street there was a young girl about my age watching us move. We became fast friends. Barbara Rosa, her parents Ene and Ernie Rosa and our folks became fast friends. I was baptized that summer (so was Mel, after a long battle with mom). If you want I can dig that info up. I was baptized at Our Lady of Guadalupe on 14th street by Padre Lobo, the only priest Papa ever respected.

"I had two wonderful years of freedom and growth in Queens, even though the planes from Idlewild seemed to land on our roof."

"We bought a car, a Chevy two toned, kind of orangey on the bottom with a cream top. The color combo was called cocoa-cream. So Mel and I called the car cocoacream and it stuck. I remember picking up the car at the showroom. We drove it out the front door, literally. Oh, it was a 1954 Chevy. It must have been early spring time."

On November 4, 1956, the family had a terrible car accident in Wading River on Long Island. Maria writes:

"The accident was Sunday, November 4, 1956, the weekend after my birthday. We went out to Long Island to see Abuela and Abuelo. Did you know that was the first time Mel treated me as an equal and not a snivelling, whining little sister? We went down to the beach and collected feathers and shells.

"It was my turn to ride in the front seat. Mel asked to take my turn. Because he had been nice to me that day, I let him. And he died for it and I'm alive. God, what a story."

Little Mel was killed instantly and Abuelico succumbed to his injuries in the hospital. Mary was in a coma for six weeks and came out of it with amnesia, speaking only French. She did not learn of the death of her son even after she returned to Aunt Nancy's home months later. Finally, Aunt Gloria broke the news to Mary, sharing all of the sympathy cards with her. Mary was devastated.

Things were not back to some state of normalcy until I was born on May 21, 1959. (I'm writing this. I can say what I want.) By this time we were living at 483 Dean Street, Brooklyn 17, NY, had no car and my Dad was working at the 60 East Club in Manhattan. We would go out to Long Island on the railroad, leaving from the Atlantic Avenue terminal.

The 1960's.

We started the 60's out living in the small apartment on Dean Street with my sister and me sharing a room. Except for Uncle Mac, all of the other aunts and uncles lived in Brooklyn too in the early 60's.

In June 1961, Mel returned to Spain for the first time since the Spanish Civil War. He was promptly arrested and imprisoned by the Guardia Civil in Madrid. He had been tried and convicted in absentia of the crime of "Masonry". Now a US citizen, he was released after an appeal by the American Embassy. I can remember going to the airport to see him return (to everyone's great relief) on a Pan Am flight.

In 1963, the lawsuits from the accident ended. My parents bought a two family house at 3889 Pratt Avenue in the Bronx, and they also bought a bungalow at 28 Waterville Drive, behind the big house in Sound Beach. (Finally, Mel would not have to live with Abuelica....) They also bought their first car since the 50's, a 1963 Dodge Dart 270 with a push button transmission.

Maria Teresa went to Saint Augustine's in Brooklyn just like my mom, and then to Hunter College High School in 9th grade. She was not thrilled about being in my Mom's school. Mercifully, they were never in the same class except one day that Mom substituted in Maria's class. Even still, Maria's Spanish teacher, Miss Jacqueline Wahl ratted out my sister whenever she messed up. Maria graduated in 1966, and went to City College of New York.

Check Out the Neck Brace

The 60's really got into gear when my sister went to College. You can imagine what it was like during the era of the hippies, the Vietnam War and the Generation Gap. Things came to a head when my mother returned from Greece with her now famous broken neck, and Maria moved out to take care of somebody's cats. Boy, did I hear about this for years to come.

During the 60's, Belen and I became inseparable. While spending Christmas vacation over Aunt Nancy's house in 1964, Uncle Manny bought me a bag of peppermint candies with a small toy elf attached. The candies were forgetable, but the elf became Elfy, king of Elfland. Belen and I created this magical kingdom (bordered by Mogueland, where they do the Moguey dance). All of the male characters lived in the Bronx with me (they now all reside in Baltimore), and all of the female characters lived in Ridgefield Park. Elfy has accompanied me on every major event of my life. (It's a good thing that Uncle Manny didn't get me something bigger.)

My Dad got a job with TWA around 1966, and my family started to travel a lot. They took me to California in 1967, Greece in 1969 and Spain in 1969. The rest of the time they went places without me, shipping me off to Aunt Nancy's and Aunt Gloria's houses primarily. I also spent time in Schenectady with Uncle Mac and in the Big House with Aunt Millie and Uncle Chris. These were very special times.

I went to a progression of schools. King Tot Nursury School (1 yr), St. Joseph's Montessori School (3 yrs), Westchester Montessori School (1 yr.), PS 68 (1/2 yr.), PS 103 (1 1/2 yrs) and finally in the Fall of 1970, Mount Saint Michael (6 yrs.)

In 1969, my Dad bought a 1968 Chevrolet Impala from a neighbor's widow in the Bronx. What a great car that was. We had the Impala until the 1980's, when we bought Aunt Gloria's Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme. The Cutlass would be the last car Mel would ever own.

The 1970's

During the 1970's Maria moved to Hackensack, New Jersey and lived with a roommate, Lorraine Brenner. Lorraine became a part of the family. In fact, when my Mom organized a trip to Amsterdam & Paris in 197_, Lorraine came with Mom, Cousin Gloria, and me. We had a blast, but my Mom would run us ragged with site seeing every day. Maria and Lorraine were roomates until my sister moved to California June 1, 1979.

Maria and Lorraine and their hippy friends would come to visit us in Long Island. She is fond of telling the story of the day they were playing frisbee on the Big House lawn and I burst out of the hedge in full military garb with helmet, and knocked the frisbee out of the air. I then proceded to shoot the downed frisbee at point blank range with my BB gun and ran away. Damned hippies...

Maria (in cool daishiki), Lorraine, Mom & Cousin Gloria, 1977

My Dad retired from TWA in 1974. At age 67, he had had enough of work. He did take advantage of his time with the airline to go to as many places as he could whenever he had time off, even when my Mom was still working. He went to Israel (1972) & Egypt (1973) , Japan (1972), Argentina (1970), Germany (1971), Italy, Alaska (1972).

Real Men Eat Migas: Sound Beach circa 1975

You can't write about my Dad without talking about food. Years in the restaurants gave him a wealth of wonderful recipes, and I hope as I go through his things that I can find some of them. We've been working at recreating his famous Pollo al Ajillo. We also were very fond of his Migas con Gazpacho, Hungarian Goulash, Sausage Chow Mein, Grilled Skirt Steak, Sausage Stuffing, Natillas, Arroz con Leche...... you get the picture.

He also went repeatedly to Spain to see his family and plan for a possible retirement in the town where he was born. Unfortunately, he had a falling out with his brother, and his sister somehow managed to wangle her way to possession of most of the family's extensive property holdings. Next, he had a falling out with her.

During the summer of 1976, after graduating High School, I went to study in Madrid with Villanova University. At the end of the month, I met up with my family in Granada, and went with them in my father's new yellow Simca to Alhama. Was I ever bored! (It did not help that I had fallen in love (again) with an American girl in Madrid. I got a ride back to Madrid from Guillermo Rozas, Mom's cousin and left my folks in Alhama with the relatives. I'm sure that my Dad was not pleased.

Mel and I had trouble communicating. It was tough bridging a gap of 52 years--for both of us. He was very proud of me and my academic achievements, but he had trouble saying it. I acted like a typical teen age dolt, and refused to spend time with him. I still regret this.

The 1980's
Maria, on the other hand would find love on the West Coast:

"My father said I would never marry. I believed him. When I moved to San Francisco, mom said I would never meet someone marriageable. I didn’t believe her. Did I prove them wrong!

"I came to California June 1, 1979.

"Avelino and I met Easter Sunday of 1980. Mom and Dad came for Easter week that year. They flew into San Francisco. After touring the bay area we went to Sacramento to visit Antonia and Lico. Manny, Lola’s son, had borrowed Uncle Joe’s truck and needed to return it and pick up his tiny sports car. I went with him. Ave was alone at the house with the dog, Sultan. He said he had been invited to Joe Jr.’s house for Easter dinner and invited us. At the time Joe was married to Barbara who had four sisters. I think Ave was glad I agreed because the family was always trying to fix him up with the sisters or cousins or whatever. We went there and had a good time. I remember that I was put in charge of the alcohol. So I proceeded find food coloring and color the drinks Easter pastels. We got home late and Manny and I got yelled at.

"Barbara and Joe invited me to come visit them that summer to see the place they were having built. I did. Ave stopped by to borrow something, probably a rototiller. He had just moved into his new home. Needless to say, we hit it off. We started dating around Labor day, he proposed the weekend before Thanksgiving and we were married the following year, the Saturday after Easter, 1981.(April 25, 1981)"

Mel aged quickly after retiring. His hair quickly went grey. He started forgetting things. My parents bought a neighbor's house in Sound Beach expecting it to be their retirement home.

Maria's son Michael was born June 26, 1982. My Dad got to see his first grandson both in California and in New York. The only video images we have of Mel were taken on his visit to the West Coast.

After Thanksgiving, in 1983, Mel had a massive stroke alone in Sound Beach. He was discovered by men coming to deliver an appliance. He was rushed to the hospital and stabilized. He was in terrible shape.

Melchor Rodriguez and Nicolas Rodriguez

For three months, he lingered. My Mom accelerated her retirement so she could be with him. If there was a silver lining, it was that I came home frequently and spent a lot of time with him in the hospital, just talking (in Spanish). He couldn't speak, except with his eyes. At 2:15 PM, on March 4, 1984, just two days short of his 77th birthday, he died.

My Fall semester grades had gone to hell while Mel was in the hospital. After he died, he came to me in my dreams, every single night, with a single message, "Study". I ended up pulling straight A's in my final semester. In the greatest of ironies, the guest speakers at my graduation were the King and Queen of Spain. Along with my godparents Aunt Gloria and Uncle Pepe, Mom and I went up to shake their hands. Mom said, "Your father would have loved to have been here." I replied, "He was."

Maria's second son Peter was born May 1, 1985. Michael now had someone to boss around.

After working for over 30 years, Mary was retired, but alone. I lived at home the summer after graduation, but then moved out again for good. I would come to visit on week ends, and a few times she came to visit me at the apartment in Manhattan that Uncle Chris helped me find. Two summers later, on July 26, 1986, I married Tina and moved to Boston.

Faced with life in Sound Beach, Mom did what she knew best--she went traveling. She went to Spain, France, Portugal, Italy, Alaska, Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii, you name it. She went to Elder Hostels all over the US. She may not have had Mel, but she still had life.

In January 1989, Tina and I moved to Baltimore from Brookline, Massachusetts. On November 29, 1989, Mila was born. Here's Mila at 8 weeks with our first daughter, Cupie. The cat is not sure what to make of the small human.

Cupie, the smartest feline ever to walk the planet, died in a house fire near Philadelphia in 1992 after waking up the man who was taking care of her, and saving his life.

The 1990's
On February 14, 1990, I got fired from my job with the Seiler Corporation, the company that had moved us to Baltimore. Tina and I started our company, SAGE, in May 1990. New city, new baby, big house, mortgage--there weren't a lot of choices. Fate smiled on us (as did the effect of a lot of hard work) and the company thrived. So did our family. The 1990's were the era of the growing family and the growing company. After Mila, we had Julia in 1991, Michelle in 1993 and Christopher in 1995.

The 2000's
To celebrate the begining of the millenium, we took the kids to Spain. It was their first trip overseas and they had a great time. We rented apartments in Madrid and Sevilla, shopped in supermarkets, and lived like Spaniards. We were very very sad to leave. (I probably most of all.) In 2001, we went to Poland. In 2002, we went to Great Britain and France. In 2003, we went to Italy and saw the Pope. In 2005, we went to Mexico. In each place, we followed the same routine, renting an apartment and learning what it meant to live elsewhere.

Madrid 1999: Tina and the kids the night we got off the plane...
...Michelle is not pleased.

As time went on, Mom got progressively older and less able to take care of her house in Long Island. She found neighbors to do the chores and to take her places. It was clear that someday, she would have to move. In February, 2002 she moved to Roland Park Place, an Independent Living Community in Baltimore less than a mile from my house.