Anna Galarza

Anna Mantilla Galarza, 69, passed away quietly on June 28, 2025 at the hospital in the company of her youngest daughter Iasha (Leesh) Greene by her bedside.

Born and raised in the city of Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, she was the eldest daughter in the Mantilla family and the 2nd child of 5. She set out to start a new life in New York City at the age of 12 with plans to live with an aunt she could babysit for while she attends school. She eventually fell in love and migrated down to Philadelphia.

While relishing the city of brotherly love, she discovered a passion for cosmetology and quickly cultivated an affinity for beauty as a professional hairdresser. She would continue to make beautiful things, her two daughters Ruby and Iasha being among her best. Her masterpiece of a family, however, wouldn't be complete until two children later, when her sons Leonardo (Lenny) and Jordan (Baybaso) Galarza came into the picture. Her professional life would be decorated with countless appointments, hair shows, working at home and at numerous salons, capped off by the ownership and management of her very own salon.

Anna was a woman driven by curiosity, passion, and hospitality. Very much the holy trinity of human enjoyment, she was the embodiment of coolness, a person genuinely charming, polite, and delightful, with insanely contagious laughter. Quick-witted and good-natured, she was a master at making people feel special. To her, everyone she met was deserving of love, forgiveness, and the chance to be heard.

She always saw the bright side of bad people and the good opportunities in dire circumstances. After all, she made her living by making timeless beauty out of something temporarily ugly. It now falls on us to find the timeless beauty of her life in the temporary ugliness of her absence.

Anna is predeceased by her father, Felix Mantilla, and sister, Maria Mantilla. She is graciously survived by her Mother, Santa Matias; her siblings, Victor (Choco) Mantilla Sr., Felipe (Pipo) Mantilla, Olga Iris Matias; Her children, Ruby Schwartzberg, Iasha Greene, Leonardo Galarza, and Jordan Galarza; her grandchildren, Luis, Noah, Dominic, and Luciana Maria, as well as numerous nieces, nephews, and cousins.

Relatives and friends are invited to attend her welcoming service on July 16, 2025 at 9:30am-10am followed by the funeral mass at 10:00am-11am at the Resurrection of Our Lord Catholic Church, located at 2000 Shelmire Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19152.