Sofia’s Life

by:Lucas C. Jasso

This is a true story about one of the earliest settlers of McAllen, Texas located in the lower part of South Texas known as the Rio Grande Valley.

 

Lucas Jasso pays tribute to the strong hands that nurtured him in his formative years. Those hands belonged to a pioneer. They worked through major developments in Texan and American history but never resorted to the frontier way of solving problems through violence.

 

Sofia Gutierrez, Jasso’s great-grandmother, guided him with firm hands. The discipline would serve him well in his adult life. She married a Rodriguez yet never used her husband’s name because “he [did not] father her.” This proud woman was a rock to many of her family and friends in problematic times. She was a genuine heroine to many but never let it in the way of living. By choice, she lived a hard life in the service of those who needed her. This, too, is the story of Jasso’s lineage, a family that gave its sons and their strength to the creation of the modern American state.