SRA. LOLA ROMERO
Recorded by Romelia Gomez, Field Reporter

The parents of Dona Lola’s husband were some of the first residents in Bisbee, for they had come here a long time before she did in 1898. Their first residence was a little house where the post-office now is. This family was very active and did many different kinds of jobs, for while their chief occupation was that of “leneros”, supplying wood for the smelter, they also were contracted for building brick houses and also for hauling ore. They had many burros and many helpers in filling these contracts. They also built several apartment houses high up on Chihuahua Hill, one of which Sra. Romero now occupies. She used to tell her father-in-law that he should have built these houses further down the hill, so that she would now be living closer to town. These old folks died quite a while back and Sra. Romero’s husband has also died.

Dona Lola came to Bisbee in 1898 from Sonora, with her mother, a sister and a brother, as a young girl of fourteen, when another brother, already living in Bisbee and working in the smelter, sent for the rest of the family. Her other brother started working in the smelter right away, as there was much industry in Bisbee then. Most of those working in the smelter were Mexicans, for the work underground was done only by American miners. The highest wages the Mexican smelter-workers were paid were $2.50 daily. Others were paid $2.00 or less. But even at these low wages it was easy to make a living, for the necessities of life were so much cheaper than they are today. For example, materials for dresses cost five and ten cents a yard.
Mrs. Romero knows no English at all, never having attended school in the U.S. Her younger sister was the only one of the family to attend school on the arrival of the family in Bisbee. She went to Central School, then a little adobe building which was later torn down to make way for the larger brick building of today. There was no compulsion in the attendance of the children at school, so her sister, like most of the Mexican children going to school then, only went when she felt like it.

Nearly every Sunday the Camachos of Tombstone Canyon gave gay house-parties, to which many friends from Bisbee were invited. Dona Lola’s family enjoyed walking way up there with the crowd of young people who never missed these good times. They would also walk all the way back home when the parties were over. They couldn’t afford a carriage and besides, they would rather walk, anyway. Other enjoyable times were had at the dances and plays given at “La Opera” on Opera Drive. The plays were given by actors from Mexico and were very good.

Sra. Romero attended the little Catholic church on Chihuahua Hill, as did most of the Mexicans living here. Her family has always been Catholic and they go to the Sacred Heart Church nearly every Sunday.

The patriotic celebrations were at first held at the “Opera-House”, for the City Park was not built yet; that place was occupied by the cemetery.

During the great fire of Chihuahua Hill, in 1907, Sra. Romero was away, visiting relatives in Mexico, so she didn’t get to see it, but was told the fire approached the porch of her house before being put out. Water with which to put out the blaze was quite scarce, so dynamite was employed to blow up the houses which had caught on fire. The place certainly looked terrible to Dona Lola when she came back to Bisbee; hardly any ruins at all were left of the many houses which had been crowded on Chihuahua Hill.

Dona Lola’s married sister lived in the house right above her own. One day while this sister was playing cards at Dona Lola’s house her small son came in and upon saying he was hungry was sent up to his house to get something to eat, which he did. While busily eating he saw a lady enter the next room and called out to her, thinking it was his mother, asking her if she had already returned, but received no answer. When, after having eaten, he returned to his aunt’s house he saw his mother still playing cards and asked if she hadn’t just been home. She said no, she hadn’t even moved from the place. Still the son insisted he had seen her there, in a white dress like the one she was wearing. His mother then recalled that many people living in that house before had seen this apparition of a lady dressed in white and told her son it was a ghost he had seen. Sra. Romero, however, says she’s never seen a ghost herself, so doesn’t believe in them.

She is 55 years of age and lives with an unmarried daughter, who does house-work for their support. She also rents some rooms of her large house and lives in the others. She is no relation to Dona Matilde Romero.