Rosales Family of Southside

        Photo TBA—please put photo box

In the year 1900, it cost 16-year-old Augustin Rosales three cents to cross the border from Mexico into the United States. Born in Penjamo, Guanajuato, Mexico in 1884, Augustin began working in Chandler in 1911, clearing mesquite trees from the land on which the San Marcos would be built. He married his first wife, Leonicia, in Phoenix, and they had a daughter named Augustina. When Augustina was eight years old, Leonicia passed away. In January of 1919, Augustin married his second wife, Trinidad Centeno, at St. Mary’s Catholic Church. Augustin had to pay a car to go to Tempe to pick up a priest to perform ceremony; the reception was held at the Koch Family home, where services for St. Mary’s began before the church was built. Angel Navarrete and Ofelia Rios were the witnesses.

In the next decade, Augustin began working for the railroad in Chandler as a water boy, carrying water to the railroad workers; he worked his way up to foreman. His first daughter, Augustina, passed away as a result of leukemia at the age of 16.

In 1935, the Rosales Family purchased Lot 5 on Hidalgo Street for $25. There, they lived in a shack until they purchased a house from the Gila River Relocation Center, which was disbanded after World War II. Augustin and Trinidad had 11 children: Helen, Susan, Rudy, Peter, Rosa, Josephine, Cisco, Margaret, Augustine, Lupe and Gilbert. All attended St. Mary’s Parish School and Chandler High School. Susan, Lupe, and Rosa attended the Winn School on Saragosa Street when they were young.

Augustin passed away in his home on Hidalgo Street on September 17, 1958.