Esperanza Arreola Damian

1929 - 2022

Esperanza Arreola Damian
November 12, 1929 - July 21, 2022
Sacramento, California - Our beloved mother, Esperanza Arreola Damian, 92, passed away peacefully on July 21, 2022, with her loving family by her side. Esperanza was born in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico on November 12, 1929, to Guadalupe and Juan Arreola. Raised in Mexico City, she met and married her husband Jose Luis Damian. She had her first two children in Mexico, immigrated to the United States in 1952, and settled in Sacramento, CA, with her new family. Her family grew throughout the years to fifteen children, making her a proud caregiver and homemaker her entire life.
Furthermore, she was active in her community through her church, especially for 50 years in the Third Order of the Catholic Franciscan Community and its works of mercy, and the Catholic "Cursillo" Movement which advocated Christian Action. Our mother taught religious education Catechism classes as well, to children at Our Lady of Guadalupe and Saint Anne's Catholic Churches. Needless to say, she was the inspiration for our deep faith in God.
She was also active in the farmworker movement, working together with our dear friend and community activist, the Rev., Father Keith Kenny of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, who was a member of Cesar Chavez's support team. In 1966, she walked with Cesar Chavez on the last leg of his pilgrimage from Delano to Sacramento, California. She was also part of the committee of church members that organized to provide housing and meals for the many farmworkers who marched to the Capital. She, herself, welcomed several families into her home. She did all this while raising her many children, a formidable task in itself.
Some of her many skills were cooking delicious authentic Mexican food, sewing by hand, and frugal budgeting, considering the size of her family. She loved many genres of music such as spiritual, classical, Big Band, mariachi, boleros and Spanish coplas, and she also loved to dance. She was the mother of 15, grandmother of 29, great-grandmother of 28, great-great-grandmother of 5, mother-in-law, aunt and God-mother to many. She was preceded in death by her son, Sergio, her parents, her husband, her only sister Laura Flores and numerous other loving family members. We will miss her profoundly, but are joyful that our Lord in heaven has welcomed her with open arms.
There will be a Rosary, at St. Mary Catholic Cemetery and Chapel, 6509 Fruitridge Rd., Sacramento, at 6:00 pm on Tuesday, August 16th, 2022, and a Mass of Christian Burial at St. Francis Catholic Church, 1066 26th Street, Sacramento, at 9:30 am on Wednesday, August 17th, for the repose of her soul. Burial following the Mass at St. Mary Cemetery.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in our mother's name to (the Alzheimer's Association, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Shriner's Children's Hospital, Loaves and Fishes, the Sacramento Food Bank,) or to a charity of your choice.