In the beginning, there were 5 brothers and one sister. Quirino, Bartolo, Julio, Catarino, Juan and Candelaria. There were two other sisters but both died in infancy. Two of the brothers married two sisters from the Loredo family. Julio (1895-1982) married Eustolia (1891-1985) and Bartolo (1886-1981) married Diega (1891-1935), Bartolo and Diega being our grandparents. One of the other sisters, Gabina, married Porfirio Castillo. Even though Porfirio was not part of our DNA tribe, he was nonetheless a Castillo except he was from one of the other ranchos in the same area. And Porfirio’s brother, Lorenzo (Lencho) wound up marrying Lorenza Loredo. I have no idea who Guadalupe settled down with.
We all share the same great grandmother, Nicolasa Cuevas, or Mama Gasa, as she was affectionately known. She lived out her final years in Long Beach and thankfully was part of our lives when many of us were young kids. All of the Castillo’s and Loredo’s were raised in the area of the Rincon del Refugio in San Luis Potosí, and this is where our ancestors have lived since who knows how long back in history. However, I think that possibly the Loredo clan may be from the area known as Armadillo de los Infante. Its close by, and I think this because they had several events conducted in this area. But its just a guess.
Of the 5 brothers, the offspring of Bartolo and Julio wound up settling in CA, with the offspring of Julio and Eustolia producing a huge amount of Castillo’s that probably number in the hundreds and are too numerous to know all of them. Juan and Quirino remained in the Rincón where they lived out their remaining years. Catarino settled in Laredo, Texas. Additionally, some of Julio and Eustolia’s offspring married into some of the Zamarripa family whose roots are tied into a rancho named Temescal, which is not too far from the rancho, La Sequedad. So we wind up having quite a number of relatives through marriage to whom many of us are close to. Two of my Mom’s brothers, Fidel and Teofilo, wound up settling in Wisconsin. My Mom’s other brother, Bartolo, would eventually settle down in Laredo, Texas. And of course, Mom’s two other brothers, Gabriel and Norberto, settled in Cali. So our clans are spread out around the country. One of Bartolo’s brothers, Quirino, wound up having one of his Grandaughters, Loma, settle down in Illinois, so we have a number of family in that part of the country as well.
Abuelo and Abuela moved to Texas in 1935,most likely to work the cotton fields, when the kids were quite young. Tío Beto recalls that Abuela became very ill and since they were in a remote area there was no medical help available. Tío seems to recall that Abuela died from pneumonia at the age of 44. She is buried in the town of Asa, not too far from Waco, Texas. After Abuela’s passing, Abuelo moved the family back to San Luis Potosí about 1937
Mom (1913-2001) and Dad (1892-1974) wound up settling down in Valley Mills, Texas, in 1938 and remained there with Carmen and Licha being born Texans. Not entirely sure of the year, but around the early 40’s, Mom and Dad wound up moving to Long Beach, CA where they lived for a few years at 22438 Alameda St., until they moved and settled down in Hawaiian Gardens.
In researching our many family ties, I constructed family trees for the Rios-Castillo clan, one for the Gallardo (Tia Paula’s family), another for the Lara (Tia Juanita’s family, one for the Perez (out cousins from Colton) and one for the Padilla (Tia Teresa’s family). What was very surprising was how the families married into relatively close clans from other ranchos that shared family ties already. Some of Tia Paula’s ancestors are from the Cuevas from Lagunillas, the same Cuevas that gave us our great grandmother, Mama Gasa. Her family also has ties to another Castillo clan from Lagunillas. Her Tia Maria married Quirino Castillo. One of his children was Hilario Castillo who married Mom’s 1st cousin, Conrada Castillo. And one of their daughters, Patricia, married one of Tia Juanita’s brothers, Julio. Tia Paula also has a Vigil ancestor in her tree, and that is related to our great great grandmother Irenea Vigil, Margarito’s wife. Tia Juanita;s family also is connected through marriage through ranchos La Sequedad and Temescal. And our connections to the Perez go back about 200 years. The Rios lived in Hacienda de Bocas and the Perez mostly from the neighboring hacienda, Bocas. I found one of the Perez had married one of the Saucedo in the early 1800’s, and the Saucedo were Dad’s grandmother’s last name. Dad’s sister, Lázara, had a daugher, Eulogia, that married Pomposo Perez and that began our blood relation to the Perez clan. Dad’s sister, Melquiades, married Santos Caldera, and that is how we became related to the Calderas from Coahuila/Chihuahua. The Rios and Perez families lived in the haciendas until the Spanish began to make some harsh changes and the families moved out of that area and they wound up settling down in the the town of Mexquitic de Carmona, San Luis Potosi. From there some moved to Coahuila after marriages and some of the Rios and Perez moved to Cali, and a lot of them settled next to each other in Colton, CA. Some of the Perez still live in the area and only a couple of the Rios live there now
Rios-Castillo Family History 