Tucsonan Carlotta Parra RodrÃguez Sotomayor, who was featured in the book "Beloved Land: An Oral History of Mexican Americans in Southern Arizona", has died at age 97.
Sotomayor died at Northwest Medical Center July 26 of natural causes, said her son Ernest R. Sotomayor.
Carlotta Parra RodrÃguez was born Nov. 4, 1914, on her parents' cattle ranch near what is now East River Road and North Campbell Avenue.
"She was the ninth of 13 children, and the last surviving sibling of her family," said Ernest Sotomayor. "When she was young, she worked as a bookbinder for several companies around town, and she also worked as a seamstress."
In 1938, Carlotta married Roberto Padilla Sotomayor, whose family came from Mexico in the mid-1800s and homesteaded hundreds of acres on what is now Tucson's northwest side. The Sotomayor land was roughly within the boundaries of Ina Road to Rillito River and Shannon Road to La Cholla Boulevard.
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"After she married, she spent her life raising her children and teaching them how to live their lives with strong work ethics," said her son.
The lives of Carlotta and Roberto Sotomayor, who had 10 children, are chronicled in "Beloved Land" through stories written by award-winning author Patricia Preciado Martin. The book includes historical family photographs along with photos taken by Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist José Galvez. It was published in 2004 by University of Arizona Press.
The Sotomayor family stories include the planting and harvesting of corn, chile, tomatoes, squash and watermelons that were sold to Chinese grocers in downtown Tucson.
Carlotta recalled stories of women doing laundry on washboards, vaqueros rounding up cattle in the Santa Catalina Mountains, and her family collecting firewood near the Silver Bell Mine and selling it on a horse-drawn wagon.
There also were the fiestas on the Sotomayor ranch that attracted several hundred people to a feast on barbecued beef, tortillas, salsa and beans. Families would gather for weddings, baptisms and holiday celebrations that featured Carlotta's tamales, menudo and posole cooked over wood fires.
As family members sold parcels of the land over the years, Carlotta Sotomayor made an agreement with the developers who bought the last of her property on Oracle Jaynes Station Road - that a subdivision be named Rancho Sotomayor.
Major streets in the development are named after Roberto Sotomayor, who died in 1992, and his parents and grandparents, said Ernest Sotomayor.
In addition to Ernest Sotomayor, of New York City, Carlotta is survived by sons Robert, Rene and Daniel, all of Tucson; daughters Cecilia Medina, Aida Sotomayor, both of Tucson, and Lillian Becker, of Las Vegas, Nev.; 16 grandchildren and 15 great grandchildren.
Services are Friday at St. Augustine Cathedral, 192 S. Stone Ave., with a 9 a.m. viewing and a 10 a.m. rosary followed by a funeral Mass. Burial will be at Holy Hope Cemetery, 3555 N. Oracle Road.
Contact reporter Carmen Duarte at cduarte@azstarnet.com or 573-4104.
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