Valentin Obregón Photographs

Valentin Flores Obregón was born to Ricardo Obregón and Margarita Flores in San Miguel, Sonora, Mexico on February 14, 1900. He emigrated to the United States in April of 1908 and settled in El Paso, Texas, where he married Pilar Chavez. The couple had two children, Luis Eduardo (1925-1997) and Jose Valentin (1927-2008). Valentin Obregón served in the U.S. Army during the 1920s. Valentin and Pilar Obregón divorced sometime between 1927 and 1930.

While Valentin Obregón was stationed at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, he met Maria Gregoria Estrada (1908-1970), who was then working as a maid. The couple married in 1933 and had two children, Margarita (Obregón) Pagan (1934-) and Socorro (Obregón) Warner (1935-1992). After his younger daughter was born, Valentin Obregón got a job as a yardboy with the Southern Pacific Railroad and began rehabilitating properties to earn money. Both Valentin and Maria Obregón believed that a good education would help their daughters advance in life. Margarita Obregón was an unusually bright student who skipped several grades and attended Steven F. Austin High School in the Anglo section of town rather than the less academically rigorous Bowie High School in the Mexican section of town. The family converted to Mormonism in 1948 and both girls graduated from Brigham Young University. Valentin Obregón died on March 26, 1967.

After graduation, Margarita Obregón went to California to train with Sears. Here, she met Daniel Pagan, who she married on February 14, 1956. The couple settled in Phoenix, where Margarita Pagan worked for Sears until just before her first child, Daniel, was born in 1957. The couple had three more children, Ricardo (1958-1987), Eduardo (1960-), and Cynthia (1962-). Margarita Pagan returned to school at Arizona State University to work toward her Masters degree in Spanish in 1964. She held a number of positions at ASU, including payroll clerk (1969-1972), administrative assistant in the graduate school of Social Service Administration (1972-1973), and teaching assistant in the Foreign Language Department (1974-1975). She went on to work part time in the Maricopa Community Colleges' Foreign Language and History Departments, coordinate Mesa Community College's Bilingual Teacher Aide Program, direct Mesa Community College's Bilingual Instruction Aide Program, and coordinate the Revlon Project program. Daniel Pagan, who suffered from a debilitating genetic muscular disease, retired from the Post Office in 1967 and took care of the Pagan home and children while his wife continued her studies. His worsening physical condition forced him into a wheelchair in 1978. He died of the condition in 1985.

Socorro Obregón became a teacher and worked on Army bases around the world before marrying Clinton Warner on November 15, 1967 after a brief courtship. The couple had at least two daughters, Coco and Shannon. Socorro Warner died in 1992.