Juana (Feldman) Arvizu (1867 - 1950)

Born 24 Jun 1867 in Pima County, Arizona Territory

Ancestors

Wife of Miguel de Jesús Carrillo — married about 1892 (to about 1892) in Tucson, Pima, Arizona, United States

Descendants

Died 14 Nov 1950 at age 83 in Pima County, Arizona

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Biography

Juana was born in 1867, the daughter of Robert Feldman and Estefana Chavez, in Pima County, Arizona Territory, where she was raised by her single mother until around 1875 when she was adopted by Estevan Ochoa and his wife Altagracia (Salazar) Ochoa. Juana's adopted parents had money. They gave her a good home and made sure she received a good education. She would live most of her life thereafter in the Tuscon, Arizona, area.

In around 1891, when she was 24 years old, she met Miguel Carrillo and in 1892 a son, Federico Chavez Carrillo (1892-1949) was born out of wedlock.

In 1893 Juana married Mariano G. Samaniego and they had a son and a daughter:

Raul Chavez Samaniego (1894-1959)

Alicia Samaniego (1899-1926)

Evidently Juana and Mariano divorced shortly after the birth of their daughter.

In around 1901 Juana married her second husband, Francisco Arvizu, and they would have three children:

Anna Maria (Arvizu) Aguilar (1902- )

Teresa Arvizu (1906- )

Ernesto Arvizu (1909-2005)

Juana worked hard to help support her children. In the 1900 US Census she was a washerwoman attesting to the labor it took to raise her kids.

Juana lived until 1950 when she passed at 83 years of age. Her body is buried next to her son Raul's in the Holy Hope Cemetery and Mausoleum in Tucson, Pima County, Arizona.

From Daniel Gallardo:

Juana or Juanita Chavez Feldman, was the mother of my grandfather, Federico Chavez Carrillo. Juanita, or Mama Nina, as my mother, Tillie Carrillo Gallardo calls her, was the adopted daughter of Estevan Ochoa and his wife Altagracia Salazar. I don’t know where the adoption took place or if Juanita was actually sold to the Ochoa couple, but Juanita was eight years old when she was given away by her parents. I have found nothing about Juanita’s birth father, Robert Feldman. I heard a story that he was a blacksmith and merchant of goods for the US forts and trading posts from Missouri to Tucson. Juanita was born in either Fort Thomas, New Mexico or Fort Grant in Arizona. In the US census, Juanita replied to her birth place as these two Forts.

Estevan Ochoa saw to it that Juanita would be educated and so she was tutored privately, as I don’t think there was a school in the small town of Tucson in those days. Juanita’s son, my maternal grandfather, Federico C. Carrillo, was in WWI, and on a ship on the way to France, when he met his future brother in law, Perfecto Sotomayor. After the war Federico married Perfecto's sister, Guadalupe Sotomayor, in 1925.

Sources

• Personal Recollections of Juana's Great Grandson, Daniel Gallardo of Tuscon, Arizona, December 5, 2022.

• Feldman Family Trees - Profile on Juana Chavez Feldman [1]

• "United States Census, 1880," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MH2H-DLB : 13 January 2022), S. Ochoa in household of E. Ochoa, Tucson, Pima, Arizona Territory, United States; citing enumeration district , sheet , NARA microfilm publication T9 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), FHL microfilm .

• Find a Grave Memorial for Juanita Chavez Arvizu [2]

• From the Old Pueblo, Federico and Perfecto's story of war, friendship and family love, By Daniel Gallardo. Published in the Arizona Daily Star on November 10, 2018. [3]