Getting to Know You: Pat Morales

a column dedicated to the folks in the pews

Written by Dale Buchanan

Pat’s family has lived for six generations in Watsonville. Her ancestors—the  Chumash and the Salinan people—have lived a thousand years along the Central Coast of California. When the Europeans first arrived, the Spanish immediately enslaved these ancient people to build their churches and farm the land that had once belonged to them. When the Americans took over, their first governor, Peter Burnett, declared a war of extermination (genocide) on these Native American people. Some of them survived by hiding in plain sight. They took Spanish surnames and thus became invisible to their American conquerors. A Native American with roots along California’s Central Coast going back at least 13,000 years should make us consider Pat a national treasure.

Pat’s grandmother was born in Watsonville in 1892 and her mother was born in Aptos in 1915.

Born and raised in Watsonville, Pat managed to evade my question about her birthdate.

Pat’s dad Anthony Espinoza died when Pat was only seven years old. Only faint memories remain. She does remember going into the woods with him where he cut firewood to sell as a source of extra income. She has a photo of herself as a small child sitting on a log watching her daddy saw and split the firewood. Her mother Agnes evoked strong and emotional memories revolving around the work ethic and independent spirit she taught her children. She lived to be 102. When she passed she left instructions to sing Frank Sinatra’s, “I Did It My Way.”

When I asked for a favorite mother memory, Pat smiled and said, “I remember as a teenager standing over the ironing board crying because I had to iron when I wanted to run around with my girl friends.”

At age 15 ½ Pat went to work for National Dollar store advancing from clerk to bookkeeper in ten years. From there she worked ten years in a bank, and then there was a coffee shop just down the street from Big Red, and today a thrift store just across the street. It is more than obvious that Mother Agnes passed on that powerful work ethic.

Married twice and twice widowed, Pat is the mother of two, the grandmother of seven and the great-grandmother of seven. And so the progeny of a people who have lived and prospered along the Pacific coast of California for thousands of years carries on for more generations.

When I sat down with Pat I had a notion to separate what she does as a member “from the pew” from her work as the staff Caretaker. As we talked it became obvious that the two have merged. She has a part-time job and a full-time labor of love. She said, “Sometimes I complete my chores, go to bed, and fall asleep. Around 2 or 3 a.m. I awake with a start. Did I lock that front gate? I assure myself, yes, and try to go back to sleep. It is then that my mother’s words  urgently come to mind that a job worth doing is worth doing right. I get up, get dressed, and go check that gate.”  

When Pat came to Big Red Church twelve years ago, they embraced her and she embraced them. She carries in her heart of hearts a fierce protective love for the Big Red Church. This reporter takes great comfort in realizing that while I am sleeping she is very likely walking the darkened corridors and across that midnight campus to make sure the gates are locked, the lights are off, and the alarm is on.

Dale Buchanan is a member of FCCF with a passion for stories and writing. In between penning his own memoirs, he is helping us get to know our members, one pew at a time.

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