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Our Family: From Rodriguez to Nava

Salvador Rodriguez was born in 1688 on the island of Tenerife in the Canary Island chain, a Spanish archipelago of seven islands off the coast of northern Saharan Africa. Salvador’s parents were Francisco Rodriguez, also of Tenerife, and Isabela Delos Reyes, of the island of Lanzarote, also in the Canary Islands chain. Salvador was described as having an athletic build, green eyes, and a broad face, with a dark complexion, graying black hair, and a thick beard. In the Canary Islands, he made his living as a cheese maker.

Salvador married the former Maria Perez Cabrera, also born in 1688, on Lanzarote, to parents, Domingo Cabrera and Maria Perez. Maria Perez Cabrera was described as attractive, with a long face and thin nose. She had a dark complexion with light-gray eyes and black hair. The couple married young and lived on the island of Lanzarote.

By 1715, the couple had a son, Patricio Rodriguez. Patricio was fifteen when the family left on their journey to New Spain. He was described as being of medium height, slender build, with a thin face, a dark complexion, and light-brown eyes with chestnut-colored hair.

In 1741, Patricio married Josefa Granado. Josefa was a member of the fourteenth registered Canary Island family who also journeyed from Lanzarote to their new home in New Spain. Patricio was killed on August 9, 1748, by Apache warriors during the campaigns of Pedro de Rabago y Teran against frontier Indian incursions. Josefa never remarried.

Josefa Granado was born Josefa Rodriguez Granadillo, in 1720, the daughter of Juan Rodriguez Granadillo and Maria Rodriguez-Provayna, on the island of Lanzarote. She was about ten years old when her family began the journey to New Spain. She was described as having a full face with a reddish flat nose and chestnut hair. Her father, Juan, died shortly after arriving at Vera Cruz on May 5, 1730. Tropical fever had been rampant throughout the area, and several people had been afflicted and perished, including another fellow Isleño Lucas Delgado, who died shortly after Juan. Both men were buried in Vera Cruz. Josefa’s mother, also known as María Robaina de Bethéncourt, her maiden name, or simply María Granado, passed away on January 26, 1779, in La Villa de San Fernando de Béxar.

Josefa herself died on August 5, 1796, also in La Villa de San Fernando de Béxar. Patricio and Josefa had four children before his death. They were María Expectacia, Brigida Tomasa, Patricio Antonio, and Salvador II. His oldest was a daughter, Josefa Rosalia, born sometime between 1731 and 1736. It is possible that her mother was not Josefa Granado; nevertheless, she was raised by her.

Josefa Rosalia, called by her middle name Rosalia, was married three times during her life. The first was in 1752 to Jose de Castro, the great-grandson of Juan de Castro, one of the original soldiers of the 1716 Ramon expedition to the area.34

Rosalia’s second marriage was in 1773 to Blas Maldonado from the Punta de Lampasos, an outpost of Nuevo León built for defense against the natives of the North. Her third marriage was in 1775 to Juan Jose Sánches, a soldier.

María Expectacia was born sometime between 1741 and 1745. She married Domingo Castelo on June 2, 1760. Domingo was from the presidio of San Luis de las Amarillas and was the son of Domingo and the former Antonia Nuñez. He was born around 1725–1745, in Lugo, a city in the northwestern region of Spain called Galicia. The couple had one daughter, María Trinidad, born 1763. He died on September 22, 1766. Maria then married Manuel Jose Salinas, born in 1722, in Rio Grande, in Coahuila, New Spain.35

Brigida Tomasa was born in 1746, but it is unknown if she ever married. Young Patricio Antonio Rodriguez was born on November 22, 1748. He married Ana María de la Fuente on April 3, 1780. The couple bought a lot of land on Calle Real from Juan Manuel Ruiz in the summer of 1782. In 1796, he then acquired the property of his sister, Rosalia, part of his parents’ land holdings east of those belonging to Salvador Rodriguez.

The youngest son of Patricio and Josefa was Salvador Rodriguez II. He was born in La Villa de San Fernando de Béxar in 1749. Salvador II married Maria Gertrudis de la Pena. The couple had six children: José Ignacio, José Manuel, Jose Francisco, Maria Zaragoza, Mariana, Maria Antonia, and Mauricia. His first wife having died on October 6, 1782, Salvador II married Maria Luisa Guerrero in 1786; she was the daughter of Mathias Guerrero and Luisa Angulo. Maria Luisa was born January 12, 1748. With his second wife, Salvador II had two children: José Maria and Maria Josefa.

A daughter from his first marriage, Maria Antonia Rodriguez, was born in 1774. She married José Antonio Flores de Abrego, son of the famed José Joaquin Flores de Abrego, Texas rancher and patriot of the American Revolution as declared by the Sons of the American Revolution in 1996. José Joaquin had gathered Texas longhorn cattle and furnished them to General Bernardo de Galvez in Louisiana to help feed his five thousand troops locked in battle with British forces near Baton Rouge and Manchac.

Maria Antonia and José Antonio Flores had a total of ten children. Their daughter, Maria Gertrudis Eusevia Flores, married the famed Colonel Juan N. Seguin, a hero of the Texas Revolution and namesake of the city of Seguin. Their son, Jose Maria Victoriano, married Seguin’s sister, Maria Lionides Seguin. Four of Maria Antonia’s sons also fought for Texas independence alongside Colonel Seguin: Manuel Flores, Salvador Flores, Nepomuceno Flores, and Jose Flores.

Salvador II and Maria Gertrudis’s son, Jose Francisco de Jesus Rodriguez, was born in 1782. He married a woman named Maria Antonia Ruiz, born 1771. Salvador II, having died in 1804, never had the chance to meet his one grandson from the couple, Crecencio Rodriguez, born in 1814. Up until at least 1860, Crecencio lived in San Antonio and Bexar County. However, sometime after that point, he moved, leaving the city his family helped to found. Crecencio moved to Pleasanton and married Rosario Robles. Their daughter, Maria de Jesus Rodriguez, known as Jesusa, was born on September 15, 1870.

Jesusa met Celso Eugenio Nava, a Mexican immigrant ten years her senior, and the couple fell in love. It is unknown if the couple met in Rockport or just decided to live there, but it was Rockport where they settled. Celso, known as Eugenio, worked his entire life at a meat market in Rockport that was owned by the Roe family. The pair had eight children over the years, six of whom were born while the couple had yet to be wed.

On October 31, 1904, Eugenio and Jesusa were married in a small ceremony at the Aransas County Courthouse. Thus began the Rodriguez-Nava family branch.

The oldest child was Juan Nava, born May 6, 1896. He died young at only twenty-one years of age on August 25, 1917. The oldest daughter, Tomasa, or Tomasita as she was known while young, was born the following year on September 17, 1897. She married Antonio Rinche, seventeen years her senior, and the couple raised a family. Antonio passed away in 1955, but Tomasa lived a long life, passing away on April 2, 1982, at the age of eighty-four.

Then came Josefa in 1898, Medarda in 1900, Virginia in 1901, Eugenio Jr. in 1903, Hortencia in 1905, and George in 1908.

Medarda, or Lola as she was known, was born June 4, 1900. She appeared different than her siblings. She was tall and light skinned, having more of a European look. It became known, though not widely, that her birth father was not Eugenio. As Jesusa and Eugenio were not married, she had seen another man at least on one occasion during those early years. Her father was a Rockport native, and his identity was generally known at the time, though his name had been lost to the years. Regardless, Lola was raised as the natural-born daughter of Eugenio.

Eugenio Jr. was born September 28, 1903, and lived as a local fisherman for all his life. He died young, on his twenty-sixth birthday, September 28, 1929, at home. His younger brother George found his body. The death certificate listed him as succumbing to consumption, which we know now as tuberculosis.

Hortencia, or Tencha, was born on June 1, 1905. In 1922, she married Gavino Tapia Garza, a truck driver. The couple had three sons—Osvaldo “Nito,” born 1923; Frank, born 1931; and Joe Henry, born 1942—and three daughters—Susie, born 1925; Esther, born 1926; and Beatriz, born 1936.

George Nava, the youngest of Eugenio and Jesusa’s children, was born July 17, 1908. He was married twice, the first to a woman named Francis and then, in 1945, to Helen Dominguez. Tragically, George committed suicide early in the morning on July 14, 1966. He shot himself in the temple with a .38-caliber revolver.

On February 13, 1925, the family’s matriarch, Jesusa, passed away. Eugenio would never remarry and spent the rest of his life in Rockport surrounded by his children and their families. He would die tragically on January 4, 1951, having been struck by a truck while crossing Highway 35 to visit the home of his eldest daughter, Tomasa. He was ninety years old.

When her mother passed, Lola went to live with her sister, Hortencia, and her husband, Gavino Garza. She soon met an older man named Cecilio Mondragon. The pair dated, and Lola got pregnant. On February 1, 1926, Medarda gave birth to Cecilio Rodolfo Nava, named after Mondragon, though everyone called him Rudy.

Medarda got pregnant with her son shortly after moving in with her sister’s family. Though she was seeing Mondragon, she was actually impregnated by her brother-in-law, Gavino Garza. Growing up, this soon became apparent to everyone else as Gavino’s sons—Osvaldo, Francisco, and Henry—all looked similar in appearance to Rudy. However, since Medarda was already in a relationship with plans to marry Mondragon, it was decided to tell him the child was his.

When young Rudy was two years old, Medarda and Cecilio Mondragon got married in Aransas County. The couple and child moved to Victoria, Texas. By 1930, however, Medarda’s relationship with Cecilio became strained. Eventually growing tired of Cecilio’s violent outbursts, she called her father, Eugenio, to pick her up; she was leaving. Medarda moved back in with her father in Rockport.

Rudy grew up in Rockport, worked hard, and met the young Clara Munoz. After distinguished service in World War II, fighting in Europe, the young couple had six children and settled in Alice, later returning to Rockport around 1950. They raised their children, who, in turn, each built their own families, making the Nava family eventually one of the largest in Rockport.

Hortencia’s family grew large, and everyone affectionately knew her as Tia Tencha. Gavino died on June 6, 1975, but Hortencia lived on until January 24, 1984, passing at the age of seventy-eight. Her older sister, Virginia, or Tia Nina, had a large family as well. She married young in 1919 to Gregorio Solis and had five sons and two daughters. Gregorio passed in 1964, but Virginia stayed with us longer, passing on September 8, 1986, at the age of eighty-five.

Medarda passed away on October 3, 1986, having been known and loved by her seven grandchildren, sixteen great-grandchildren, and, at the time, one great-great grandson, all in attendance for her memorial service. The home she lived in for over sixty years was moved, intact, to the land located directly behind the home of her son, Rudy.

Later in life, Rudy suffered heart problems and grew ill. His wife of sixty-four years, Clara, devoted her time to caring for him. However, it was Clara who passed first in 2007. Heartbroken and surrounded by family, Rudy passed the following year, joining his beloved Clara, whom Rudy had fondly nicknamed Miss Ellie, after the matriarch of the popular television series Dallas. After the passing of Rudy and Clara Nava, the family began to disperse, some relocating to San Antonio. However, the Navas remain a presence in the Rockport area.

Halloween, c. 1890s, Maria de Jesus Rodriguez (1870–1925), far right, dressed as a gypsy, with friends.

Nava home, Rockport, 1910. (L-to-R) George, Celso Eugenio, Medarda, Juan, Josefa, and a neighbor.

Nava sisters, Rockport, 1912. (L-to-R) Hortencia, 7; Medarda, 12; Virginia, 11; and Josefina, 14.

Medarda “Lola” Nava.

Cecilio Rodolfo “Rudy” Nava, as a young boy.

Cecilio Mondragon believed he was the father of Rudy Nava.

Clara Munoz, age 1.

Enrique Munoz, holding baby Clara, c. 1927.