Juan Villagran

Juan Villagran es, is my cousin, mi primo, who I met, que conoci como ninos, when we were both children living, viviendo en el DF, in Mexico City.

LIfe was hard in Mexico in the 1950s, so my father, Gilberto Villagran, the brother of Antonio, Juan's father, moved our family of Graciela, my mom, and four younger sisters and I to the U.S.
We came to San Jose because my father had cousins here, and they helped my father find a job. We rented a garage from cousin Rigoberto Galvan on N. 7th St. After picking pears all summer along the road to Alviso, my father's next job was to dig ditches for PG%E to put gas pipes into the sprawling city.
Eventually, by working at least two jobs all his life, my father raised our family in Santa Clara.
Juan, came to visit us here, en el valle de Santa Clara, and decided to settle here as a good place to raise his family, and we were happy to have another Villagran nearby. Juanito, as we always called him, worked just as hard as my father, and I always admired him for that, as well as his devotion for his family.
With growing families, and lots of work to provide for them, we did not see each other as often as we should, but I recall with fondness attending when Juanito and his wife, Carmen, renewed their marriage vows in San Jose, and was happy to see the photos of the event during the memorial service for my well-loved primo, Juanito.

Juanito, dale mis besos y saludos a mi Papi Gilberto, a mi Mamita Graciela, nuestra Abuelita Esthercita, a tu Mamita Victoria que queriamos mucho, y todos nuestros antepasados que yo se al fin viven al lado Dios.

--Gil (Beto) Villagran

Lo vamos ah extrañar mucho Don Juan!