Hollister’s Maria Lezama just might be the neighborhood mom.
Lezama, 65, never got a formal education in reading or writing. As the oldest of 12 kids growing up in Mexico, though, she received an education in how to love. Now, Lezama has been selected as the Mexican-American Committee on Education of San Benito County’s woman of the year.
From her Hollister home, Lezama has run Dia del Niño—Spanish for “Day of the Child”—celebrations along with Christmas and Mother’s Day gatherings.
She celebrates with the neighborhood to keep the Mexican traditions alive for youth and to give friends and neighbors a chance to have fun in a way she never could as a child.
The oldest among siblings growing up in Mexico, Lezama started working two jobs at the tender age of eight.
“I didn’t have the opportunity to have fun,” she said in Spanish.
Lezama, whose daughter Veronica is president of the group offering her the award, didn’t expect she’d take home the top prize.
“I didn’t believe it,” Lezama said. “I didn’t believe it because there’s other people that do more for the community.”
When Lezama organizes a Mother’s Day celebration, it’s a community affair. In Mexico, people celebrate May 10 as Mother’s Day by honoring grandmothers and moms just as they do in the United States. Lezama’s celebration of the event is a neighborhood party that includes no alcohol—just water, sodas and Mexican fresh fruit juice concoctions called “agua fresca.”
“We try to remember our place, our land, our Mexico,” she said.
The upcoming Día del Niño—Spanish for the “Day of the Child”—celebrates youth and is another event that draws the community together.
“Most of the neighbors get involved in that,” said her daughter, Maria. “And kids come over from the neighborhood, and at each home they give popcorn or nachos or my mom normally does corn on the cob.”
And then there’s the Christmas holiday, which Lezama has celebrated in Hollister with about 19 years of posadas—or dramatizations of Mary and Joseph’s search for lodging in the Mexican tradition—along with special rosary prayers in honor of the Virgin Mary leading up to these events, said her daughter.
“She’s always cooking,” she said.
Once, Lezama was out of town for Christmas and the neighborhood kids noticed, said her daughter. Every time she went out to get the mail, the youth asked when Lezama was coming back.
“I do this—in the first place—so we don’t forget our traditions,” Lezama said. But she also likes to see the children happy and attending events with their parents and grandparents, she said.
For the younger Maria, her mom was “very loving, very patient, very wise, even though she didn’t have much schooling.” The older Lezama only completed school through about second grade but, said her daughter, “She’s better at math than all of us put together.”
“We always felt the love that she has for us. For all of us,” she said. “Now that I’m older and I talk to my friends—It’s funny, that not every mother is like that.”
Mostly, the younger Maria is just glad that her mother is gaining the recognition.
“We’re just very proud of her,” she said. “There’s six of us and she’s always been there for each and every one of us.”
Details on the MACE event
More information: The Mexican-American Committee on Education of San Benito County will hold its 45th annual Cinco de Mayo Scholarship Dinner & Dance on Saturday, May 2, at the Elks Lodge located at 351 Astro Drive in Hollister. Tickets are $45 per person. For further details, call Veronica Lezama, MACE president, at (831) 245-6371; Mickie Luna, treasurer, at (831) 673-2009; or George Munoz, vice president, at (831) 801-4598.
