While reviewing the birth registrations of David Negrete and Concepción I came up with some interesting questions regarding the logistics of those two events and questions on the logistics on how Maria del Pilar and Serafin Garza met and got married. The chances of Maria del Pilar and Serafin meeting would be very small given that Mexico City, where she lived with Bruno, San Luis Potosí, where Serafin lived and Guadalajara where both she and possibly Bruno were from, are mutually separated by about 500 kilometers from each other. I have found no evidence of a family connection between the two and the chances of those three people socializing outside a work environment is almost nonexistent. They may not have known each other, but by inference one has to assume that Bruno Negrete and Serafin Garza were both in similar businesses, or at least operated in the same social circles, that allowed their mutual friends to introduce Serafin to Pilar.
Maria del Pilar Garza was living in Mexico City when David Negrete was born on the 19th of December 1920. Her first husband, Bruno Negrete died sometime after March 1920 and before September 26, 1923 when she registered David in the Civil Registry in Mexico City. Since he was registered almost three years after his birth, there is a possibility that he might have been born somewhere else. It is only known that she was living in Mexico City when she registered David. The two witnesses at this registration, Mr. Reyes and Mr. Arenas confirmed that information. Three years after this event, Concepción Garza was born on December 9, 1923 in San Luis Potosí. That implies that Maria del Pilar was 7 months pregnant with Concepción when David was registered in Mexico City. Now, assuming that Maria del Pilar and Serafin were married before Concepción was "conceived," that means that they had to have been married on or before November of 1922. Furthermore, assuming that Maria del Pilar kept a year of "mourning," after the death of her husband, that means that she and Serafin did not become "involved" until late in year in 1921. Of course, these dates are based on what might have been socially acceptable behavior in the 1920s in Mexico.
The big question is: What possible scenario can explain the meeting of those two, their marriage and the fact that she was in Mexico City, seven months pregnant, on December of 1923 registering her three year old son when the evidence indicates that their residence was in San Luis Potosí? Moreover, in another bit of mystery, at David's registration, she presented herself as the widow of Negrete, not the wife of Garza. That might be explained, but a pregnant 27 year-old widow, registering a three-year-old child, would have brought up some questions.
So the question remains: How did two people, living 500 Km apart, meet, got married, had a child and in the process travelled to Mexico City (another 500 Km away) to register a child by a previous marriage two months before their first child was born?
How did people in Mexico in the 1920s meet? The most common places to meet would have been at the church, at weddings, at the "Plaza" usually in the center of town, at work, but not too many women worked in an office environment at that time. There certainly were not many (if any al all) socially acceptable places like bars where people went to have a drink or meet. This leads to the first theory that Bruno Negrete was a businessman and that he and Serafin Garza worked in similar, if not the same type of business. It is possible that Maria del Pilar and Serafin were introduced through friends in the same line of work before or possibly after Bruno died. By extension of this theory, would mean that, being in the same business, meant that Bruno, and by implication, Maria del Pilar, were in the same social circles. Those connections would have allowed them to meet in some social or business related function. Although that is a possibility, it is also a little bit of a stretch to be a credible venue.
The second theory, includes the possibility that they were introduced through family connections. Possibly at a family-related function such as a wedding, a birthday function or a church-related activity. However, as I indicated before, I have not found a family link and the fact that their families were from Guadalajara and San Luis Potosí, separated by 500 Km, makes this possibility a little less likely. Of course, there are many other ways that they could have met, possibly a chance meeting, or, possibly that Maria del Pilar tied to carry out Bruno's business functions after he died and in the process met Serafin. What makes this more difficult is not knowing what type of business Serafin was in. If Bruno was a businessman, was he in the same type of business as Serafin?
Of the two theories, the first one seems more likely, an introduction of the two through a business connection. However, if that is the case, what was Serafin doing in Mexico City or Pilar in San Luis Potosí, or both of them in Guadalajara since those were the three possible locations where they might have met. At the age that they met, I suspect that both of them were good-looking people. I have a Photograph of Serafin at about that time period, and if one looks at his skin, his smooth manicured hands and matter of dress (cufflinks and a polished wool suit), it is clear that Serafin was not a laborer. and I suspect that Maria del Pilar was also an attractive woman (bases on some older pictures of her) although I don't have a picture of her when she was young.
I have not been able to find any documentation of their marriage, although that would simply mean that it was lost, not scanned into a file, or the records have been misplaced through an error in the system. Traditionally, a wedding would have been held at her parents' home in Guadalajara, or in his house in San Luis Potosí, but both her parents, Fabian and Refugio were dead. The possibility also exists that Serafin was living in Mexico City in 1921-1923 timeframe, that they met and got married there and then decided to move back to San Luis Potosí before Concepción was born. Stretching that line of thinking a bit, what if Maria del Pilar was pregnant with Concepción and they decided to have a small quiet marriage ceremony. That would resolve some of the logistical questions. I guess we will never know what really happened, at least not until I track down some additional records.
Unfortunately, this will remain a mystery for a while because I cannot find the marriage records or the birth and church records online for Maria Del Pilar or her siblings. Serafin was about 30 years of age when he married Maria del Pilar y she was about 26. I suppose that we will never know what happened, at least not until I find additional marriage or birth registrations
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