Guillermo Hernandez

We will start with Guillermo Hernandez Sr., both because he is the father of my mother, and because his story was very interesting, once we found out what it was.

Guillermo was born 21 Jun 1914, in Mexico. He married Petra Gonzales (date unknown) and they had four children; Gloria born 1942, Guillermo Jr. born 1943, Cecilia born in 1945, and Gilberto born in 1947. Cecilia died in 1946, at age 15 months from meningitis in Harris County.

One story was that Guillermo worked at a construction site, and died from a fall at work at a young age. Another story said he was killed in a fall at a chemical plant, where he worked as a tank cleaner. One also said he died from alcoholism. The real cause of death of Guillermo Sr., though was pulmonary tuberculosis. He died in Houston on 6 Nov 1946 at age 32. We found this out from his death certificate, and from the funeral home log from 1946 at Hollywood Cemetery in Houston, where he is buried.

Of interest is that when Guillermo died, Petra was pregnant with Gilbert. And 3 months later, she lost her daughter, Cecilia. She had it really hard at that time.

Guillermo's parents were Rafael Hernandez, born 1884 in Mexico, and Antonia Estrada, born 1895. She and Rafael had two other children, Quirino and Rafaela (birth unknown at this time). Antonia then married Edwardo Palomares, and had more children with his name. These children are step uncles and aunts to my mother, Gloria Hernandez Rodriguez. The photo of Guillermo above was never seen by my mother until 2010, when her brother Gilbert showed it to her. Neither she nor any of Guillermo's kids had seen photos of their father, he died so young.