Cuentos de Juan Padilla: A Puerto de Luna Teacher and Merchant

By Daniel B. Flores

Cuentos de Juan Padilla, Stories of Juan Padilla, is a series of vignettes and reminisces about my grandfather, Adecacio Juan Padilla. Adecacio Juan Padilla was also known as A. J. Padilla, but he preferred to be called Juan. However, to most residents of Puerto de Luna he was Don Juan. He was a member of the Jose Dolores Padilla family, a pioneer family in the Puerto de Luna area. My grandmother, Leticia, was also a member of a pioneer family in Puerto de Luna. Her father, Alexander came to Puerto de Luna in 1873 and opened a mercantile store. Juan and Leticia lived their entire lives in Puerto de Luna. In 1955 my grandfather wrote and self-published a nineteen page booklet about the history of Puerto de Luna. He titled his "book" Pioneer Story. I have included a facsimile copy of his Pioneer Story in Cuentos de Juan Padilla. His Pioneer Story provides interesting reminisces that my grandfather had about Puerto de Luna and its residents. My grandfather had two older brothers that were merchants by trade, Benigno and Francisco. As a young boy and as a young man Juan worked for Benigno in his mercantile store, then the largest mercantile store in the Puerto de Luna area. After he got married Juan became a public school teacher and taught school in several Puerto de Luna area schools. After he retired as a school teacher in the mid 1940s, he opened his own business and for several years his combination store and filling station were the only ones in Puerto de Luna. The Padilla family experienced several tragedies during his lifetime. There are several vignettes about those events included in Cuentos de Juan Padilla. Cuentos de Juan Padilla also provides an insight into the life of rural Puerto de Luna during his lifetime.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1515148211
• ISBN13: 9781515148210
• Release Date: July 2015
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 130 Pages
• Weight: 0.77 lbs.
• Dimensions: 10.0" x 0.3" x 8.0"