Josefina Arechiga Mejia
April 27, 1933 — March 11, 2015
From an early age, Josefina was forced to work for her room and board. She loved school and was especially bright, but was kept from attending regularly in order to work at her aunt's store, harvesting honey and tending to the chickens. By the third grade she had fallen so far behind that she stopped going rather than face the taunts of her schoolmates who called her "burro" for class dunce.
Josefina's life was difficult to bear and when things got too painful she sought comfort from her great grandmother, Angelita. It was Angelita who would share her meager food with the desperate little girl and tell her stories about her own young life in the village. She encouraged Josefina to dream of better things. "One day, you will leave this place and start a family of your own and you will be happy. I know this will happen for you. Just stay strong and believe in the power of God." Thanks to this kindness, Josefina persevered. She gained the strength to face her trials. Just before her 13th year, she was taken to Mexico City to work as a nanny in charge of three children not much younger than she was.
Josefina worked hard, she made friends and she gained the knowledge she needed to succeed as a housemaid in San Angel, an upper class neighborhood in the Federal district of Mexico City. She dutifully continued sending money back home to her hard-hearted aunt until one day when her employer, la Se ora Nono, told her that she didn't owe her aunt anything and that she should save her pesos for her own future.
It didn't take long for her aunt to come to Mexico City to contest this decision. It was a turning point in Josefina's life as she respectfully refused to pay out any more of her wages to her aunt. After a heated argument, a secret was revealed. Her mother was not dead and was in fact very much alive in the very village where Josefina was raised. The shock and dismay upon hearing this news weighed heavily upon her young shoulders. She wondered why she had been abandoned by her mother and why no one had revealed this to her until now. She begged her aunt for more information but none was forthcoming.
Josefina fell into deep doubt and began to question everything. Why had God allowed her to suffer like this? What had she done to deserve this? She sought the guidance of her priest but even he could not console her. Shortly after that, the one person who had always provided comfort and shelter to her, her great grandmother Angelita, died suddenly and Josefina was not able to go to her funeral. The sadness and remorse on top of the shock and dismay overwhelmed her and she fainted while walking home from the market on the cobblestone streets of San Angel in the pouring rain. She suffered what is now known as Bell's palsy, a paralysis of one side of the facial muscles that caused her eyelid to be slightly drooped.
After her recovery, she determined that she would create the one thing that she truly wanted, a family of her own making. At the age of 17 Josefina got a job working for the Del Rio family and she renewed her faith in God by becoming heavily involved with the Catholic Youth Organization for Women. It was during this time that she noticed a young man, himself the president of the men's CYO, giving her the eye. She discovered that this handsome man, ten years her senior, was named Angel Mejia and worked across the street from her as a chauffeur for a wealthy family. He was the brother of another servant in the Del Rio household, Lina Guerrero, a young widow.
Lina introduced the two of them and they began a courtship that lasted 10 years. Lina and Josefina became great friends. Knowing that Josefina was hungry for the love of a mother, Lina took her friend home to meet her own mother, Ramona. The two of them became very close and Josefina asked many questions of Ramona concerning Angel.
When the time came for Angel to pop the question, Josefina accepted without hesitation. What she found difficult was the decision made by her fianc to take a job offer from a Pharmaceutical company in California. Angel promised her that if she stayed betrothed to him, he would make enough money for them to live and start a family and she would not have to work for anyone again.
They were married in San Angel on the 13th of June in 1959 and moved to southern California. Not long after the newlyweds settled in, the pharmaceutical company went out of business, leaving Angel desperate to find a new job so he wouldn't have to spend his hard-earned savings. Josefina could see he was troubled and although she didn't speak much English, she picked up the newspaper from the kitchen table while he was taking a shower. Out of his earshot, she scanned the want ads and called the only ad she could read. "Se habla espa ol" said the ad for an agency that was hiring servants for well-to-do families. By the time Angel was out of the shower, a very excited Josefina told him that the next day they would be going on a job interview in "Very Nice." Angel, however, was not very happy. "What are you doing? I told you that I would provide for you and that you would never have to work for anyone again! And where is ?Very Nice'?" Josefina was not deterred. "Remember one thing, we are a couple, we are a team and we will work together to make things better for our family."
The next day, Angel and Josefina drove to their interview in ?Van Nuys.' As luck would have it, Eve Arden, the star of the Our Miss Brooks television show, took one look at the beautiful young couple and hired them on the spot to be her gardener and housemaid for their ranch house. It was a great relief for Angel who was told that the original interview was going to be for a job tending livestock on Alan Ladd's goose farm!
Angel and Josefina worked at the peaceful ranch in Newbury Park from 1959 to 1964. Josefina had her first child, Maria, in April of 1960. During that time, Eve arranged for Josefina to do a screen test for a Downy fabric softener commercial. The commercial that was eventually made featured Josefina changing her firstborn daughter's diapers!
When Josefina and Angel made the decision to have a second child, they decided it was best to leave the ranch and move to Long Beach, CA. Angel got a job as a Jaguar mechanic and Josefina had two more children, Joyce in 1964 and Angel Jr. in 1966. They eventually moved to the city of Lakewood and at Josefina's insistence bought a home.
Angel and Josefina spent many happy years together and made many friends along the way. They had been married for 35 years when Angel passed away from liver cancer in 1994. Josefina became the matriarch of her family and of the block where she lived. All of her neighbors called on her for advice and conversation. She had four grandchildren that she adored and realized the dream she had always sought, a family of her own made from love.
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