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Forced to Flee

Chapel a Haven for Persecuted Priests

By Maggie Garcia

At 101 years of age, Paulita Cano could boast of being the oldest living parishioner at St. Isidore's Catholic Church in Los Alamitos. The soft-spoken matriarch of a tightly knit community of Latino Catholics, Paulita had lived in Los Alamitos for most of her life. Paulita's life in Orange County spanned the time from when the orange groves that give the county its name still scented the air, to the time when planned communities and endless development predominated.

Before she died late last summer, Paulita had spoken with me about the diocese of Orange's plans to close down St. Isidore's church and move the parishioners to St. Hedwig's. Adamantly opposed to the move, Paulita spoke of the importance of the chapel in the life of the parish. "All during the [late] '20s and '30s we harbored priests who were fleeing Mexico because of the persecution of the Catholic Church there," she said. "The priests would live in the little house across the street from me and each day celebrate Mass at St. Isidore's."

Paulita said she cared for a paralyzed priest, Father Delfino Gadriby, for 29 years. Paulita's sister-in-law, Irene Torres, remembered Father Gadriby: "he was here a long time. For a while he was at the sanitarium built by the Carmelites in Duarte."

"There were two other priests here who came from Mexico during this time -- Fathers Gutierrez and Velos," said Torres. "Father Velos loved music and he started a choir here at St. Isidore's. I was in that choir." Torres said that Father Velos and Father Gutierrez were later transferred to a church in East Los Angeles (then called Belvedere), Our Lady of Guadalupe, established in 1923. The original church was in a small house on Fisher Street. Later the parish moved to it's present home on Hammel Street. "I used to go up to Los Angeles to visit my aunts who lived near the church. Father Velos would ask me to sing for him as he accompanied me on the piano."

The priests that came to St. Isidore were fleeing persecution of the Catholic Church in Mexico that began with the anti-clerical 1917 Mexican Constitution. In spite of the prohibitions against religion in the constitution, Mexican families would practice their faith. During the 1920's, Plutarco Calles, Mexico's president, unleashed a persecution of the Church. Many of the faithful, priests and religious were forced to flee the country. Because of the large Mexican population in the Los Angeles area, many Mexicans came to the greater Los Angeles area during this time. Los Alamitos was one community where refugee priests found a home.

Dr. Tim Matovina, assistant professor of theological studies at Loyola Marymount University said that the Mexican communities in the United States benefitted from having persecuted Mexican priests and bishops come to their parishes. "They came with an exile mentality," said Mantovina, "and were lying in wait in order to return [to Mexico]. The Mexican priests and bishops that came from Mexico helped form the local parishes. Before this, [the Mexican people] didn't have their own priests; all of a sudden there was an influx of Spanish speaking priests. It was a big boost to the people."

Professor Matovina said that before the influx of Mexican priests into the Mexican communities in the United States, the people had kept their devotions to Our Lady of Guadalupe and other Mexican feast days, private. With the surge in Mexican priests, "by the 20's, they had huge processions in the streets." Dr. Matovina also said that one layman, Jose David Orozco, organized the East Los Angeles procession in honor of the Virgin of Guadalupe. In addition, he also started a Holy Name Society.

Paulita spoke fondly of Madre Margarita Maria whom she regarded as a "great help" to her while caring for Father Gadriby. Madre Margarita, the late superior of the Carmelite Sisters of the Most Sacred Heart in Duarte, herself was a refugee who fled the persecution in Mexico. Sister Patrocina, of the Carmelite Sisters of the Most Sacred Heart remembered "going to a little house in Los Alamitos with Mother Margarita Maria to visit Father Gadriby," she said.

Joe Gomez, Paulita's nephew who cared for her until her death, recalled that St. Isidore's was the only church around at the time that had Spanish-speaking priests. "I remember Father Gadriby saying Mass in a wheelchair," said Gomez. "Father got special permission from Bishop McIntyre to say Mass at my aunt's house..."

A visit with Mejilla and Torres provided much lively conversation about the history of St. Isidore's and the Mexican community that comprised most of Los Alamitos. According to Mejilla and Torres, "Los Alamitos mostly [consisted of] Mexicans at the time. We worked in the sugar cane fields and the [processing] plant. There where a few Germans but most of us were Mexican. I can't even recognize Los Alamitos anymore. I get lost going around here." Even today, however, the most notable thing about the community at St. Isidore's is how they all seem to know each other and refer to each other as copadre and comadre (The Spanish words used for the godparents of one's child).

Paulita said that the Bixby family had given their Mexican workers the land on which they built their church. They named their little chapel San Isidro after the patron saint of farmers. The original chapel fell down during the 1933 Long Beach earthquake, according to Torres. She said that her mother was in the chapel praying when the earthquake hit -- "had the wall fallen the opposite way, my mother would have been killed in the earthquake." Torres said that the parishioners then rebuilt the church themselves.

Soon after St. Isidore's was closed, it was temporarily reopened -- for Paulita's requiem mass. Paulita's house is scheduled to be razed to make way for a parking lot.

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