LATHROP – Henrietta Anguiano, a widow and a great-great-grandmother who is well known for her volunteer work at her church and in the community, was one of three women in San Joaquin County who was inducted into the2010 Adelita Awards of the Mexican Heritage Center in Stockton Saturday night.
The award honors women of Mexican descent in San Joaquin County who “have shown great courage, strength and perseverance throughout their lives,” said Nellie Zavala of Lathrop who was part of the panel that selected this year’s awardees.
Zavala, who is a former Manteca Unified Board of Trustee and a board of director with the Mexican Heritage Center and Gallery, said Anguiano went through a lot of adversity in life and handled all those challenges and pressures with a lot of grace.
“Her husband died and she managed to survive that. She went back to work (at Eckerdt Storage in Manteca) to support her family. I understand one of her sons was killed in an automobile accident,” Zavala said.
“But throughout that whole time, she always volunteered – at our Lady of Guadalupe Church and in the community,” she said.
For 16 years, Anguiano sold the most number of tickets to the church’s crab-feed fund-raiser benefiting the parish building fund, Zavala said, mentioning just one of the many ways that the Adelita awardee has volunteered her time and service at her parish.
Outside of her church volunteer work, Anguiano extends a helping hand to anyone in the community who is in need of a ride to their doctor’s appointment or to the store.
“She’s my hero,” Zavala said of Anguiano whom she has known “for years and years and years” and is familiar with all the adversities that the newly minted great-great-grandmother has overcome.
“Through all the adversity, she always managed to pick herself up and kept on going with a smile. When you say, ‘how are you doing today?’ she’d always say, ‘I’m blessed.’ It makes you in awe of her as a person – always pleasant, always cheerful,” Zavala said.
In addition to losing her husband in 1985 followed by the death of her third son two years later at age 27 in a car accident in which he was a passenger, Anguiano is a cancer survivor. She had a cancerous tumor in one of her kidneys. In 2003, the cancerous kidney was removed. The surgery was successful.
“I thought I was going to die but, I’m lucky,” said Anguiano who had eight children with six surviving – three girls and three boys – who all live in the Lathrop and Manteca area. One of her daughters died in infancy.
Anguiano is the grandmother of 15 and the great-grandmother of 14.
She said the Adelita Award “was a surprise” and did not know about it until she was informed by Zavala a few days before the award ceremonies held at the Mexican Heritage Center and Gallery at 30 East Acacia Street in Stockton.
“I’m being blessed. I never expected to win anything. I just do the work of the Lord wherever he needs me,” the 75-year-old Anguiano said.
Zavala said the Adelita Award was named after the women during the Mexican revolution, who ranged from “the very poor” to those with no education to the well educated and wealthy, who contributed to the war effort. Some of them helped by washing the clothes for the soldiers, others supported the cause by hiding the weapons in their homes. Some of the women “actually went out to fight,” Zavala said.
“How they managed to survive and live their lives and do what is right and never giving up” is the essence of the Adelita Awards, explained Zavala.
The other two women inducted into the 2010 Adelita Awards were nurse Mary Hope Lopez Adame who has been a health care provider for more than four decades, and Arlene Galindo who earned three bachelor’s degrees and a master’s degree while raising a child and being active in many community organizations and events such as the Mexican Heritage Center and the Stockton Symphony.
The award honors women of Mexican descent in San Joaquin County who “have shown great courage, strength and perseverance throughout their lives,” said Nellie Zavala of Lathrop who was part of the panel that selected this year’s awardees.
Zavala, who is a former Manteca Unified Board of Trustee and a board of director with the Mexican Heritage Center and Gallery, said Anguiano went through a lot of adversity in life and handled all those challenges and pressures with a lot of grace.
“Her husband died and she managed to survive that. She went back to work (at Eckerdt Storage in Manteca) to support her family. I understand one of her sons was killed in an automobile accident,” Zavala said.
“But throughout that whole time, she always volunteered – at our Lady of Guadalupe Church and in the community,” she said.
For 16 years, Anguiano sold the most number of tickets to the church’s crab-feed fund-raiser benefiting the parish building fund, Zavala said, mentioning just one of the many ways that the Adelita awardee has volunteered her time and service at her parish.
Outside of her church volunteer work, Anguiano extends a helping hand to anyone in the community who is in need of a ride to their doctor’s appointment or to the store.
“She’s my hero,” Zavala said of Anguiano whom she has known “for years and years and years” and is familiar with all the adversities that the newly minted great-great-grandmother has overcome.
“Through all the adversity, she always managed to pick herself up and kept on going with a smile. When you say, ‘how are you doing today?’ she’d always say, ‘I’m blessed.’ It makes you in awe of her as a person – always pleasant, always cheerful,” Zavala said.
In addition to losing her husband in 1985 followed by the death of her third son two years later at age 27 in a car accident in which he was a passenger, Anguiano is a cancer survivor. She had a cancerous tumor in one of her kidneys. In 2003, the cancerous kidney was removed. The surgery was successful.
“I thought I was going to die but, I’m lucky,” said Anguiano who had eight children with six surviving – three girls and three boys – who all live in the Lathrop and Manteca area. One of her daughters died in infancy.
Anguiano is the grandmother of 15 and the great-grandmother of 14.
She said the Adelita Award “was a surprise” and did not know about it until she was informed by Zavala a few days before the award ceremonies held at the Mexican Heritage Center and Gallery at 30 East Acacia Street in Stockton.
“I’m being blessed. I never expected to win anything. I just do the work of the Lord wherever he needs me,” the 75-year-old Anguiano said.
Zavala said the Adelita Award was named after the women during the Mexican revolution, who ranged from “the very poor” to those with no education to the well educated and wealthy, who contributed to the war effort. Some of them helped by washing the clothes for the soldiers, others supported the cause by hiding the weapons in their homes. Some of the women “actually went out to fight,” Zavala said.
“How they managed to survive and live their lives and do what is right and never giving up” is the essence of the Adelita Awards, explained Zavala.
The other two women inducted into the 2010 Adelita Awards were nurse Mary Hope Lopez Adame who has been a health care provider for more than four decades, and Arlene Galindo who earned three bachelor’s degrees and a master’s degree while raising a child and being active in many community organizations and events such as the Mexican Heritage Center and the Stockton Symphony.
