There may be life off the ranch, but any Fremont County farmer or rancher will tell you – The #aglife is “the good life!” #Aglife is a County 10 series, brought to you by Wyoming Community Bank, that pulls the curtain back on farm and ranch life in Fremont County.
(Fremont County, WY) – American agriculture and American industry rely heavily on migrant workers. In 1980, a young family man left his home and family in Chihuahua, Mexico to venture north to the unknown world of Central Wyoming. This is the story of that young man, his wife, and children and the legacy that young couple has left on Fremont County, Wyoming and the United States.
He started working when he was just 12 years old, for 200 Pesos a month on a ranch near his home. Those 200 Pesos in 1966 were worth $25 American at the time, about $221 today. Adult life began early for Jose Chavez Sr.
“My boss asked my uncle if that little boy can work,” Jose said. “He said he could. I had a job but had to pay for my food.”
Jose worked on ranches near El Terraro in the Mexican state of Chihuahua.
At 16, his life changed when he met 13-year-old Bertha Medina.
“I met him, but I wasn’t thinking of a boyfriend,” Bertha said.
Much to the chagrin of the local Catholic priest, the couple was married in 1973. Jose was 19, Bertha 16.
“The priest told us not to get married, we were too young,” Bertha said. “He told us that marriages fail with couples as young as we were. I went back a few years ago, found the priest and told him we were still together. He was very happy.”
Despite the priest’s admonition, Jose and Bertha eloped.
“We had a church wedding a few years later,” Jose said. “She wanted one.”
Their oldest son, Uriel was born a year later in April 1974. In quick succession, three more children arrived. Ivonne, Lorena and Jose Jr. were all born in Chihuahua.
In April 1980, Jose took a work visa and headed to Lysite.
“It was my dream to come to Wyoming,” Jose said.
“Jim and Rob Hendry asked my uncle if he had other family that wanted to work,” Ivonne said. “That’s how dad found out about the job.”
Bertha’s sister Lidia and her husband Octavio Villegas were already in Lysite and Octavio was working for Hendry.
Jose was hired by Jim and Robert Hendry as a ranch hand on their operation near Lysite.
“It was my first job in America,” Jose said. “I came here with twenty dollars in my pocket. They gave me a two-week trial; if I worked out, I could stay on. I stayed for three-and-a-half years.”
A few months after arriving, Rob asked Jose if he had a family in Mexico. Jose said yes.
“Hendry paid every two weeks,” Jose said. “He asked me if I had any family that wanted to work. He gave me $600 to get them here.”
“I didn’t want to come,” Bertha said. But she took Uriel, Ivonne, Lorena and Jose and drove to El Paso.
“We flew from El Paso to Albuquerque, then to Denver and Casper,” Bertha said.
They found a home in the Lysite, Lost Cabin area. As the children reached school age, they took the bus 20 miles one way to elementary school in Shoshoni. It was a good fit for the young family, and soon, their youngest daughter Connie arrived.
“Connie was born in Douglas,” Lorena said. “Mom wanted a Spanish speaking doctor and the only one she could find was in Douglas.”
Bertha grew homesick after three years in Fremont County and wanted to go back home.
Jose’s work visa covered his family’s residency in Wyoming, but the couple wanted to do things correctly when they traveled back to Chihuahua.
“We paid a lawyer in El Paso $700 to draw up papers for us to return to the states from Mexico,” Bertha said. “The papers were no good.”
The attorney was later prosecuted for fraud in Texas and went to prison.
In Mexico, it wasn’t quite what Bertha remembered.
“We went back for a month and the kids didn’t like the schools,” Bertha said. “They liked their school in Shoshoni.”
They started to go back to Wyoming, but without proper authorization, they were stuck, and considered illegal immigrants. They hired a guide, a “Coyote” as they’re often called, to get them across the Rio Grande and back in America.
The family came across the river under the Paso del Norte Bridge that connects El Paso with Juarez.
Uriel was a big eight-year-old and waded the river by himself as did six-year-old Ivonne. One of Jose’s friends carried Lorena, Jose carried Jose Jr, and Bertha carried the toddler, Connie.
Once across, they took an airline flight from El Paso to Albuquerque where Bertha’s brother lived.
“We had left a car with my brother,” Bertha said.
After a few months, the family returned to Lysite, but Jose didn’t have a job.
“Robert said he was sorry, but didn’t know if I would be coming back and hired somebody else,” Jose said.
A good, honest worker will always find a job, and Jose found one with Bill Spratt on his large ranching operation in Eastern Fremont County.
“He told me I had five months,” Jose said. “Then he said I had a job forever. I worked for the Spratts for 24 years.”
Jose worked cattle, put up hay, fixed fence and did all the hundreds of other jobs it takes to keep a ranch in operation.
The boys, Uriel and Jose, worked in the summers on the ranch as well.
“Uriel stayed up at the bunkhouse next to Spratt’s most of his high school years. At a very young age he worked at the ranch too, that was his summer job,” Ivonne said.
Bertha began cleaning offices in Lost Cabin.
“I started with Monsanto and the company kept changing hands,” Bertha said. “I ended up working for Conoco.”
She eventually took a position as a cook with Hazel Schaefer at the Shoshoni School Cafeteria, a position she held for 16 years.
“We are lucky, we have a lot of people who like us,” Bertha said. “Bill gave Jose a job while we raised our kids. He was a good boss.”
Also working for Bill Spratt were Zane Fross and his wife, Ginger.
“Zane and Ginger were the first people we met,” Bertha said. “I love Ginger like my sister. They helped us a lot.”
It was Zane who asked Bill if he’d hire Jose.
Jose and Bertha are amazing people, and they raised five children who excelled at Shoshoni in academics, activities and athletics.
Jose’s work ethic, and Bertha’s determination spread to their children. Bertha showed a bit of that determination in 1995 when she studied and earned a GED.
“I decided I didn’t want to depend on other people,” Bertha said. “I learned English and got a driver’s license.”
The five children all say that Mom’s English improves greatly when she’s mad. When Bertha is angry or excited, her English becomes crystal clear.
“I remember laughing at Mom as she was learning English, I remember her asking for mustard on her hotdog and said mustache,” Ivonne said.
Jose and Bertha began the process of becoming permanent residents prior to becoming naturalized American citizens.
Ginger helped Bertha with her English, and Jose helped Zane learn Spanish.
“When we were approved for permanent resident, they asked us to prove we didn’t have any felonies,” Bertha said. “I went to the county clerk and they asked if I had a record, I said no. I had Lorena with me, she said yes you do Mom. You were driving illegal because you didn’t have a license.”
In the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan began an amnesty program that allowed Mexican immigrants, both legal and illegal to become American citizens.
“Mom and Dad didn’t know if it was a trap,” Lorena said.
During the process the couple and the children were interviewed by government agents, they had to make many trips to Casper and had to produce school records, employment records and get letters of recommendation.
“When I naturalized, I was married, I naturalized with Sharp, my birth certificate said Chavez-Medina,” Ivonne said. “Now when you naturalize, they encourage you to drop the hyphenated. I asked mom, she said we dropped the Medina when we naturalized. Uriel moved Medina to his middle name since he didn’t have one.”
All the effort was worth it. The family became permanent residents.
” I naturalized with my uncle,” Ivonne said. “We didn’t realize were going to both naturalize on the same day in Casper. “
They soon began the process of becoming American citizens.
“We all became citizens, all at different times,” Lorena said.
Jose, Bertha and Lorena all took the citizenship exam together.
“It was $750 for each test,” Bertha said. “It cost us $27,000 total to become permanent residents and then citizens.”
The five Chavez children have made their mark in the world, each is a leader in their chosen field.
Uriel is an operator working in the oilfield industry in North Dakota. Jose is a Petroleum Engineering Tech and recently left private industry to work as a Bureau of Land Management inspector in Casper.
All three girls earned college degrees.
Connie is an Area Manager in Division II Vocational Rehabilitation and earned a master’s degree. Lorena is a program analyst for the Wyoming Department of Family Services and has a BA in Social Services.
Ivonne has a BA in Human Services with a Minor in Spanish. 20 years in the non-profit sector. She recently pivoted to the for-profit sector as an Account Manager-Employee Benefits for HUB International Mountain States Limited. She has a side business as a qualified Spanish/English interpreter.
“The reason we did everything was for our children,” Bertha said. “We wanted them all to have a better life than we did. We had cows, horses, chickens and a little money in the bank in Mexico. We gave up a lot.”
The couple holds dual citizenship in Mexico and the United States.
“We went back two years ago,” Jose said. “Mexico is terrible now with the cartels and crime.”
They still own land in Mexico.
“If you don’t mess with them, they won’t mess with you,” Bertha said. “But my kids are safe here.”
“When they go, they go to the real Mexico, not the border or resorts,” Lorena said.
Jose injured his back and retired from ranch work a few years ago.
“I like Wyoming and the ranches,” Jose said.
Zane and Ginger and their children traveled to Mexico one year with the Chavez family.
“I’m glad for my kids,” Bertha said. “I used to go back to Mexico every year, but mom is gone and I don’t feel like going anymore. Here is my life now. I’ve lived here a lot more years than in Mexico.”
The five Chavez children are a prime example of how hard work meets opportunity in the United States. They excelled as students in Shoshoni, all have prosperous families of their own and are making a difference in the world.
“I’m very proud of my children,” Bertha said.
”I feel fortunate I have the gift to be bilingual. It’s helped my career and education,” Ivonne said. “One of the things that we were very fortunate for is that all of us girls are in positions of service. That is due to the community we grew up in, the support we had and how we were embraced by the community. Our school community, I feel like I’ve been fortunate not to experience racism at even a minor level.”
The Lysite and Shoshoni communities were welcoming to the Chavez family from the start. Kathy McCoy, the kids’ bus driver to Shoshoni and back every day, was a close family friend and remains so.
“Annabelle Brown really embraced our family,” Ivonne said. “She took my mom under wing. That is a gift that we’ve been blessed with, when you can see people as people.”
The legacy of a young couple who ventured into the unknown for the betterment of their children is quintessentially American.
“My parents’ courage was extreme. The blind faith they had for their kids to have an opportunity,” Ivonne said. “They really advocated for us, they made sure we had everything we needed and more. Education has always been a priority for my parents.”