Wow that makes a bunch of us that could have crossed paths as children:
Me, Alicia, Emilie, John, Kitty. I was notorious for biting when I was a
little kid. . .good thing we might have not been friends back then or
you might have grown up to hate me. (not that I was mean I just think I
was curious about how people tasted).

I just sent out an email to a cousin asking her to ask my 90 year old
uncle Manuel Puentes if he remembers the Chiono family. His memory is
not what it used to be so we'll see.

the migration went like this:

The Puente(s) family started back in Zacatecas, Zacatecas back in 1749
and went to Sombrerete, Zac. and then to ranchos close to Villanueva,
Zac and then to ranchos close to Santa Maria de Los Angeles, Jalisco
where they hung for several generations before starting their migration
with the Diaz family to Chihuahua. Then my grandfather Julio and his
brother Concepcion made it into the US working in mines in and around
Globe and Miami Arizona right around 1911 while the main group of family
was in the Chihuahua, Chihuahua area or maybe in Santa Barbara,
Chihuahua. Then as Julio my grandfather was going back home he somehow
found out that Virginia Diaz and family were in El Paso and he never
again went back to Mexico. He stayed with them and eventually married
Virginia. They moved to the Limonera Ranch in Santa Paula where they
worked and started a family. They eventually bought a little
bar/restaurant and then in the late 40's early 50's started Puentes
Bros. Tortillas in SJ, CA The store wasn't orginally on 10th but I think
somewhere on Almaden (not positive).

My dad was the first to go dying Oct. 5, 1974 and then we found out that
the brothers were good at starting a business but not at sustaining a
business. They basically has it set up so that the last surviving
brother would "take all." So my mom was left with an insufficient
insurnace policy settlement that didn't last until she passed in 1992.

I was born in 1953 and moved from CA in 1979 and lived in MD until 1998.
My wife Figen and I married in 1995 (no children) and we moved to our
current location very close to Durham, NC where I'm a Postal Worker for
the Durham Post Office.

if you look here: http://www.nuestrosranchos.org/node/14718 you'll see
what the Puentes Bros Tortilla package used to look like. On the back
are 6 guys that were the 6 brothers. The guy sitting peeling husks with
glasses was my Dad, Antonio Puentes dob: 1914 Santa Paula, CA.

joseph

kitty_cortez wrote:

>What a small world, My parents owned the Warburton's Tamales and Enchilada Shop in Santa Clara and bought about 500 tortillas weekly from Puentes Bros. They used to make their own tortillas while the shop was in Santa Clara, but when they bought a restaurant in Mountain View, they took to buying their tortillas from Puentes Bros. That would have been the mid 50s. I just talked to my Mom and she remembers either your Mother or Aunt's birthday being on St. Patrick's Day. My brother took over the Tamale business in the early 80's and I am not sure where he was buying the tortillas then. Warburton's is now closed but my twin and I still get together and make the tamales and enchiladas. To celebrate the business's 100th anniversary, in 2004, Mom gave out the recipe to all our cousins. My parents were Bud and Aileen Chiono in case your family remembers them.
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>Kitty Chiono Cortez
>Rocklin, CA
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