Collection context
Summary
- Title:
- Enriqueta Andazola collection
- Dates:
- ca. 1898-2020
- Extent:
- 1 Linear Feet (2 manuscript boxes, 1 oversized folder, artifacts)
- Language:
- English Spanish; Castilian
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item and/or item number], [box and folder number], Enriqueta Andazola collection, MS0219, Center for Sacramento History.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
The collection documents Enriqueta Andazola's many accomplishments and endeavors to bring together Sacramento's Mexican American community and honor their cultural traditions and war veterans. It includes papers, photographs, and artifacts dating from around 1898 to 2020. The collection focuses on three main areas: Andazola and her family; El Centro Mexicano community center and Mexican American community events in Sacramento; and Mexican War Mothers and El Soldado / California Mexican American Veterans Memorial.
The collection includes materials in Spanish and English that were created and collected by Andazola and her family, with later items collected by her granddaughter and the donor of this collection, Diana Salgado Zuniga.
Materials about Andazola and her family include photographs from her childhood and her children's childhood; photographs of her alone and with her adult children; photos and materials related to her children individually, including where they worked and their war service; correspondence, primarily from governors and other dignitaries to Andazola and her family; obituaries; family trees; and articles about Andazola.
El Centro Mexicano and community events are documented through photographs of events and groups; event fliers and programs; portraits of Fiestas Patrias queens; performance scripts; and newspaper clippings. These date from the 1920s into the 1970s. There are also records related to the relocation of the center's dedication plaque in 2011.
Mexican War Mothers are represented through photographs, papers, and artifacts documenting their activities and work, especially their work to erect El Soldado monument in 1951. The monument is heavily documented in this collection, including photographs and clippings from when it was erected, and records related to its 1975 move to Capitol Park, 1985 expansion, and 2017 refurbishment and rededication.
The collection also includes several issues of the bilingual local newspaper El Hispano from the 1970s and 1980s, correspondence related to Ken Burns' documentary The War and other documentaries about Mexican American veterans, and several color slides of Royal Chicano Air Force posters.
- Biographical / historical:
-
Enriqueta Andazola was born June 17, 1898, in Pino Altos, Chihuahua, Mexico. Though she was unable to attend public school as a child, she was educated by private tutors, and after her schooling, she became a teacher. She married Ignacio Ramirez in 1914, and they had two children while living in Mexico, Amelia (1914-1997) and José Ignacio (also known as Joe, 1915-1978). The family fled their home in 1917 during the United States' military operation against Pancho Villa during the Mexican Revolution. They stayed for a short time in El Paso, Texas, then came to Sacramento, where the couple had four more children: Hernan (1919-1920), Paul Joseph (1921-2000), Edgardo Lincoln (1924-2000), and John Joseph (b. 1926).
In Sacramento, Andazola's husband worked for Southern Pacific, while she worked at Sacramento Wool Company, and for 25 years at California Packing Corporation/Del Monte cannery. Andazola and her husband divorced sometime in the late 1920s or early 1930s and she raised her children as a single mother. The family lived for a long time at 1120 Dixieanne Avenue in North Sacramento. The children attended Grant Union High School. Daughter Amelia also worked for Sacramento Wool Company.
Upon arriving in Sacramento in 1917, Andazola saw that the men of the Mexican community had many clubs, but the women did not, so she formed several, beginning with Las Amigas del Hogar in 1920. Soon after arriving, she also began organizing dances, fiestas, and other events for the Mexican American community, including celebrations that honored Mexican traditions and days of importance, and the Fiestas Patrias with its queen selected from the community. Andazola formed another women's club, Union Femenie, in 1939.
During WWII, Andazola's three oldest sons, along with daughter Amelia's husband, Abraham "Abe" Salgado, enlisted or were drafted and served in battle. With her sons in the war, she was inspired to form the Mexican War Mothers (Madres Mexicanas de Guerra) in 1942 to support Mexican American service members and their families, and honor Mexican Americans' involvement in WWII. Amelia was also involved in the group. The Mexican War Mothers visited wounded soldiers in nearby hospitals, sent letters and care packages to soldiers overseas, worked with the USO on local events and made homecooked Mexican meals, raised funds for local veterans associations, and welcomed soldiers home. They also gave support to grieving families who had lost their sons in battle.
Andazola's sons were stationed all over the world during the war. Joe had written a letter to the local armed forces offices asking to be allowed to enlist even though he was a Mexican citizen. He was stationed in the Aleutian Islands then in Italy, where he was shot multiple times and received a Purple Heart. Paul was stationed in Germany and was at the Battle of the Bulge. He was reported as missing in action for several months before turning up injured and with temporary amnesia at a hospital in New Jersey. The collection includes the telegram Andazola received telling her Paul was no longer MIA. Edgardo was stationed in England, while son-in-law Abe was stationed in the Aleutian Islands and Australia. Youngest son John later served in the Korean War.
Upon returning from the war, Paul and Edgardo worked at McClellan, and Paul was also a North Sacramento volunteer firefighter. Joe, who had become blind, operated a concession stand at the county courthouse, later the county administrative building, for many years.
In 1948, Sacramento's Mexican community erected Centro Mexicano, or the Mexican Center, at 2216-20 6th Street near W Street. The Mexican community had raised funds to purchase the land for the center in the 1930s, but the building itself was not erected until 1948, after more funds were raised through the selling of shares. Centro Mexicano functioned as a cultural and community center, giving Sacramento's Mexican community a place to gather with people who shared their culture, language, and traditions. Many of the events Andazola and her groups organized were held there, as were dances, weddings, baptisms, quinces, and celebrations.
After the war, Andazola and the Mexican War Mothers raised funds to erect a statue, El Soldado, in 1951 in front of Centro Mexicano to honor Mexican American men of the Sacramento area who died in WWII. The statue, based off the likeness of Andazola's son Joe, was made of marble and carved in Italy. When Centro Mexicano closed and the building was sold in 1975, Andazola lobbied Governor Jerry Brown to have the statue moved to Capitol Park, and it was that same year.
After Centro Mexicano closed, the dedication plaque that was donated to the center by Southern Pacific was removed and given to Sacramento veteran Nemesio Tony Ortiz. He lobbied to have it moved to Southside Park, where it was relocated and rededicated in 2011, across the street from where El Centro Mexicano had stood.
The Mexican War Mothers dissolved after the creation of a splinter group in 1967, called Mexican American War Mothers. The 1975 relocation of El Soldado was one of Andazola's last major acts of service to her community after more than 60 years in Sacramento. She died on July 21, 1980, in Sacramento and is buried at St. Mary's Cemetery.
In 1985, the area around El Soldado was expanded to include a larger memorial to California's Mexican American veterans of all wars and a list of Mexican American Medal of Honor recipients. The memorial with El Soldado is now called the California Mexican Americans Veterans Memorial, and in 2017, it was refurbished and rededicated.
- Acquisition information:
- Donated by Diana Salgado Zuniga in 1985 and 2025 (accessions 1985/006 and 2025/050).
- Processing information:
-
Processed by Kim Hayden, 2026.
- Rules or conventions:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
About this collection guide
- Date Encoded:
- This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2026-03-19 15:04:37 +0000 .
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
The collection is open for research.
- Terms of access:
-
All requests to publish or quote from private manuscripts held by the Center for Sacramento History (CSH) must be submitted in writing to csh@cityofsacramento.org. Permission for publication is given on behalf of CSH as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the patron. No permission is necessary to publish or quote from public records.
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item and/or item number], [box and folder number], Enriqueta Andazola collection, MS0219, Center for Sacramento History.
- Location of this collection:
-
551 Sequoia Pacific Blvd.Sacramento, CA 95811, US
- Contact:
- (916) 808-7072