Rodarte Family of Southside
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In 1924, Severiano Vargas Rodarte came to Arizona from Zacatecas, Mexico, with his mother, Simona, older sister Demetria, and Demetria’s husband, Jesus Ortiz. They moved to the Mesa area. Severiano’s father, Blas Rodarte, had arrived earlier in the United States with his oldest son, Jose, who did not stay.
Maria Ayala was born in 1917 in Jerez, Zacatecas, and her parents, Pablo and Antonia, ran a general store in a small town, El Marecito. Pablo traveled the neighboring towns, purchasing merchandise and bartering with eggs and other goods while Maria’s mother Antonia tended the store. Maria had a happy life in Mexico with her brothers, but remembers when men on horses came pounding on the door and entering their house to search for weapons, cash or men of fighting age. This occurred during the Cristero Rebellion (1926-1929), a regional uprising of radical followers of the Catholic Church against the Mexican government.
This social upheaval brought the Ayala family permanently to the United States in 1928, and they traveled by bus to Mesa where Maria’s uncle, Maximino lived. Because he owned an automobile, the Ayala family sent Severiano Rodarte to pick up the family at the bus station. Here, Severiano and Maria met for the first time. The Ayala and Rodarte families worked in the fields; their children went to school and learned English; and they suffered through the years of the Great Depression. They moved to different places in the Valley.
Severiano Vargas Rodarte and Maria Ayala Rodarte married in 1932 (he was 17, and she was 14) and settled in Chandler to raise their family. They lived in a home on East Morelos Street. Eventually, they would have five children: Mary Esther, Margaret, Severiano, Lucia and Rosa. The entire family lived nearby: Severiano’s sister Demetria and husband Jesus, and his mother Simona lived next door; Maria’s brother David Ayala and his family lived two houses away; Maria’s mother (Antonia Perez Ayala) lived down the street in her own little house, next to the oldest, Jesus Ayala.
Severiano Jr. and Lucia
Rodarte
Maria’s youngest brother, Feliciano, was killed in Luzon, in the Philippines in 1945. After World War II, the family worked in the cotton fields to support the family. During the off-season, Severiano worked as a caddy at San Marcos Hotel where Maria also worked as a maid. In the 1950s, Severiano became a farm labor contractor and was a familiar sight in the barrio, loading workers into his big truck.
Over the years, the Rodarte family worked at many Chandler area farms, such as the Neely, Willis, Riggs, Schnepf, Lewis, Escobedo and Bogle Farms. When machines began replacing manual workers in the mid- to late 1960s, Severiano became a custodian at Cleveland School, and later, at J.C. Penney’s at Tri-City Mall, until he retired. Maria worked at the San Marcos Hotel, Arizona State University, and Williams Air Force Base as a maid. In the late 1960s, she worked at Rosarita’s Mexican Food in Mesa in food preparation and became involved in anti-discrimination issues.
Severiano passed away in 1987; Maria passed away November 22, 2008, at the age of 91. They had five children and many grandchildren. Maria Esther, the oldest, was a scholar at Chandler High School who became a city magistrate. Margaret also graduated from Chandler High and worked for many years downtown, as a legal secretary and at Saba’s. Sev, Lucia and Rosa graduated from Seton. Sev became the first lawyer to come out of Seton High School. He graduated from Loyola University in Los Angeles, served in the Air Force, and later, graduated from the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University. He still has his own law firm. Sev was very active in community service and was one of the people responsible for the LULAC housing project in Chandler. Lucia was student body president at Seton, attended Girls State and earned a scholarship to Saint Mary’s College, where she earned a BA in 1972. She also was offered a fellowship at the University of Notre Dame, where she earned a Master’s degree and taught two years of Spanish. She worked at Chicanos Por La Causa as public relations director before beginning a distinguished career in broadcasting. She received many awards for her community service. Rosa graduated from Arizona State University, and then, taught business at Chandler High School before moving to Colorado.
Maria had a vivid memory and often spoke of changes she saw in Chandler over the years, especially when Chandler was nothing more than an agricultural town. She wistfully remembers raising her family on Morelos Street at a time when the Mexican-American neighborhood was closely knit, with relatives and friends living within walking distance.