Baldomero Jauregui

I only had the opportunity to go to school until 5th grade. You have the opportunity, so keep going. Stay in school.

Baldomero Jauregui

Hello everyone, my name is Baldomero Jauregui. I am from Mexico, from northeast Guadalajara. I grew up in a small village similar to here in a nice place with my family. I am one of four children in my family, three boys and one girl. We also grew up with our four cousins as one big family.

My father was a very hard worker and a very nice man. He gave his family whatever he had and he did not care much about money. He only cared about his family. My mother was very strict but also very nice. In the summer she liked to cook corn and we would blend the corn to make tamales. Our favorite foods were tamales and pozole, which is a soup, made of pork and hominy. My family was farmers and we worked with mules. We did not have tractors like here. We had to be responsible to get up early to help on the farm. My mom used to make breakfast and I would walk for 30 minutes to take it to my dad. We had to bring the cow’s home and milk them. We used to keep bees for the honey.

Once a week our family would ride to the river on donkeys. We would have a picnic, go fishing, and wash our clothes in the river by hand. My parents never bought toys. We made toy cows and bulls out of dirt and stones. My favorite memory from Mexico is when I was about ten years old I dedicated a song to my mother at a school dance for Mother’s Day. The name of the song was Pescadores de Ensenada and it was about fishermen from Ensenada, Mexico.

In my village school was only offered up to 5th grade. There was no high school. There were only two classrooms for my whole village. There were 150 kids in two rooms with only two teachers. I enjoyed reading at school and I really liked playing baseball and marbles. Sometimes I would go to help my dad instead of going to school. Many people moved out of my village when they grew up. When I was 17 years old I moved to California for a better life and for more opportunities. It was very sad to move because I had to leave my parents, my friends and everything behind. My first job was a dishwasher. I was not speaking English and I hardly understood anything.

Then I begin to learn English. I went back and forth and visited my parents in Mexico. I supported my parents by sending them money from when I was 17 until I was married at age 30. In Mexico it is our custom for parents to support their children until they about 17 and then the children pay them back.
I lived in California about 20 years. We lived near a lot of family and I really liked the mountains and running on the beaches. We moved to Door County because I have a brother who lives here and my wife came here for vacation one summer and she really liked it. We have been in Door County for ten years and we are very happy living here.

We don’t really enjoy the winter because it’s colder than Guadalajara but it’s still a nice place to live. I have three kids: Baldomero, Eddie, and Chantal, 7 yrs old. Eddie and Chantal go to Gibraltar School. My oldest child, Baldomero, is in college in California. I am very happy and proud of him because he is going to college.

I cook for Julie’s Café and the Cookery. I like to run at the YMCA. My favorite celebration is my children’s birthdays and my favorite holiday is the Fourth of July! Because I’m an American citizen and this is my country. One of my sisters still lives in our family house in Mexico and this is where we go when we go on vacation. It is a beautiful house.