Road Trip Amigos.

My mom, Aurora C. Garcia, with her eight-year-old chihuahua, Chibi (a gift for her 86th birthday), relax during a break as we drove around Ventura County. She was 94 years old and would pass away nine months later. She couldn’t drive herself any longer, but she enjoyed getting out and shopping or visiting her family. It gave me an opportunity to take her to some of the different cities across Ventura County. She reminisced growing up in Oxnard and watching horse-pulled carts conduct business. Mom would share historical tidbits about businesses and sites that are still there today, such as Santa Clara Church, Plaza Park Pagoda, Asahi Market, the Woolworth building, Vogue theater, and Cristo Rey (Christ the King) Church (the latter had history as Senator Robert F. Kennedy visited there to pray three days before his 1968 assassination) . She grew up in the La Colonia area and lived there until the late 1950’s when her family moved to the newly expanded north-west side of Oxnard. She had fond memories of everybody knowing everybody in that barrio (sometimes I would go on a newspaper photo assignment and would meet someone who not only grew up in the La Colonia area but was familiar with someone from my mothers’ family). Her proudest moment growing up in La Colonia was knowing her father, Miguel Castanon, helped in the construction of Cristo Rey Church. Lots of good memories, always enjoyable getting to spend that time with mom and her three-and-a-half-pound rat chihuahua.