Margarita Loera Cano

Margarita Loera was born to Bartolo Loera and Carlota Loera de Salinas on October 20th 1935 in Hungerford, Texas. Her parents had traveled there from Mexico where her father had found work on the railroad just south of the Houston area. They stayed there for several years and her parents would give birth to two more children, Ezequiel+ and Lydia. At the age of seven, Margarita and her parents moved back to their homeland of Mexico, and she attended school in the farming village of El Realito, Tamulipas. At the age of 16, she was asked to choose her citizenship between Mexico and the United States. Life was hard in El Realito and Margarita knew that she could make money and send it home to help her parents and her siblings. She moved to Weslaco where she had family and lived with Simon and Benita Hernandez. She found work at a local drug store, Modelo, where she would meet the love of her life, Agustin. They traveled to El Realito on dirt roads that took (what would now be an hour’s drive) four hours to get to. There, they would be given her parent’s blessing to marry. With the help of so many, a small wedding was planned and on October 14, 1961 at 6:30 in the morning, Father Castellanos married them at St. Joan of Arc Catholic church in Weslaco. Agustin joined the Army and two years later on December 31, 1963, Margarita delivered a healthy baby girl-Nancy. A second daughter, Sandra was born on October 19, 1965. Shortly after Sandra’s birth, they bought an acre of land just outside the Weslaco city limits and eventually built the home they would live in for 40 years. Agustin ran a plumbing business with his father. Sometimes people would pay him with money, but most times, they would pay him with goods or whatever they had to barter. Margarita would earn extra money sewing clothes or doing alterations for people. Her quality work certainly earned her a reputation and soon she would have more work than she could keep up with. Despite the struggles, they always managed and provided for their two daughters. Margarita made all of their clothes and made sure that her daughters always looked nice. A favorite quote of hers that still resonates in our ears is “una cose es ser pobre otra cosa es ser dejado” (it’s one thing to be poor and another to be lazy). It was important to her that we always be clean and well groomed.
Once her daughters were of school age, Margarita found work at a local manufacturing warehouse Dickies, as a seamstress. When Haggar’s Manufacturing opened in Weslaco, she went to work for them. She worked ten hour days, four days a week. Her quality work and attention to detail earned her recognition and she was chosen to sew a suit for Frank Sinatra.
Margarita and Agustin, faithful parishioners of St. Pius the X, soon became involved in the Parish Activities Commission where they not only served the community of St. Pius but made some lifelong friends. They planned many celebrations and meals and had fun along the way with the Masso’s, the Abrigos, the Rocha’s and the Vos’s. In 1987, her daughter Nancy graduated from nursing school at Incarnate Word College in San Antonio. It was one of Margarita’s fondest memories that her parents were able to travel to San Antonio for the occasion and sneak a trip up to the Tower of the Americas, Hemisphere tower. In 1988, Nancy married Adrian Reyes of San Antonio and in 1992, Margarita’s first grandchild was born, Ryan Joseph Reyes. He became the second love of her life. She would also begin her battle with Cancer. Margarita had every reason to live and every reason to fight to live. She was a survivor! She lost her mother to cancer in 1994 and welcomed her second grandchild Amanda Kathryn Reyes. Rebekah Erin Reyes would follow in 1995. She continued working at Haggar’s and spoiled her grandchildren with nice clothes (not toys) and often slipped a twenty in their hands when their parents weren’t looking. Ten years after her first bout with breast cancer, she would be faced with the same challenge once again. While the rest of us all fell apart, Margarita stayed strong and faithful believing that she would beat this disease again and she did! Margarita retired from Haggar’s 29 years later at the age of 65 and began to travel with Agustin. They both enjoyed traveling the east coast as well at the west coast and up into Vancouver, British Columbia. They also enjoyed their trips to New Mexico to visit Agustin’s cousin in Albuquerque. Some of her fondest memories were in the Texas Hill Country, Leakey, Texas at the Frio Pecan Farms where many Easter as well as Thanksgiving memories were made. She traveled with a group from St. Pius to the Holy Land and on another occasion to France, Spain, and Portugal. Recently in July, she traveled to Santa Maria, California where six of her eight living siblings gathered to celebrate the 60th wedding anniversary of her sister Lydia and her brother-in-law Frank. She was determined to walk everywhere and even danced a dance with her love Agustin. Her niece, Leticia, pointed out a bench, “Tia Mague, there’s a bench to sit on if you get tired!” Tia Mague laughed and replied, “YOU can sit on the bench if you want to!”
There were many a family gatherings on the Cano side as well as the Loera side and Tia Mague’s easy nature and acceptance of all made her a favorite ‘Tia.’ All her life Tia Mague was best known for her unconditional love to all of her family. Much like her father Bartolo, she was logical in her thinking and never shied away from a problem. Though she never earned a six figure salary, she was blessed with the riches of our Lord God. If you were hungry, she would feed you and with some of the best flour tortillas in the world! If you were worried, she would pray with you. If you wanted the truth, she would give it to you! Margarita, Tia Mague, Mague, Mrs. Cano as she was called, affectionately loved God, Agustin, and her family. She was very proud of her grandchildren and the wonderful young adults that she was seeing them become. She spent three consecutive Christmas seasons teaching Amanda and Bekah how to make tamales. She enjoyed making food for her grandkids and sending Ryan care packages of tortillas. She always stayed true to her commitment to her parents being the matriarch of the Loera family – a large family of ten siblings; they all loved and honored her.
Margarita taught us many things about life. Mostly to work hard and do the best that you can do, but also to love each other. She understood the importance of family whether you were blood related or not, she treated you like family. This is the legacy that our dear mother, Margarita left us.