Maternal Grandfather: Jose Briones

Maria de los Aneles Briones gave birth to my maternal grandfather, Jose Refugio Tobias, in San Francisco del Yugo, Nuevo Leon, Mexico on July 4th, 1932. Jose has six siblings named Jesus, Paulina, Lucita, Manuel, Castulo and Ernestina. Even though his family struggled, Manuel Tobias, Jose’s father, did everything he could to provide for his family. Mr. Tobias worked long hours as a laborer and owned a little family store.
Throughout his childhood, Tobias dedicated most his time working for his family, because school was not available in the area they lived. He and his older brother, Manuel, used to help his father in their family store. He was the one in charge of counting the merchandise and making sure that nothing was missing. He also
As a bracero, Tobias was all around South Texas, he never stayed on the same farm for a long period time; the most they would stay was for about three to four months. There were about four hundred braceros working on each farm. When they arrived to a new location, the braceros were guided to the place they were going to stay, each bracero had a small bed to sleep on. Then, the owner of the farm would explain the braceros how he wanted the job to be done. After a few months of working, Tobias would go back to Matehuala to spend time with his
There Tobias was working on building irrigation canals and courts. He earned about two hundred to three hundred pesos per week. The Tobias family rarely went hungry, their diet consisted of eggs, chicken, beans, soups, and goat and cow milk, depending on their budget. Tobias was offered a job in Cardonal, Hidalgo, which was about 30 minutes away from Ixmiquilpan. He would work on road construction and sewerage system. He and his family stayed there for about a year because, unfortunately, there were no more jobs