Marriage portrait of Juan Lago Lopez and Juana Alvarez-Alvarez.
They were married in La Iglesia de San Vicente de Trasmano, Galicia, Spain in 1920.
Juan Lago-Lopez: born Rande, Pontevedra, Spain on September 29, 1882 and died in Galveston, Texas on November 14, 1937.
Juana Alvarez-Alvarez: born near Rande, near Redondela, Spain on December 5, 1894 and died in Galveston, Texas on April 15, 1967.
Part of Naval discharge document after Juan Lago Lopez completed his national service in 1901. He then left for Cuba where he lived and sailed on cargo ships with cargoes of sugar and fruit in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico before immigrating to Galveston, Texas.
Original certificate of U. S. citizenship for John Lago Lopez executed in Galveston, Texas on June 5, 1912. The Lopez family should have been the Lago family. U.S. Immigration officers not familiar with Spanish tradition of using paternal and maternal names assumed that Lago was John Lago Lopez's middle name. Not realizing Lago was his father's family name and the name to pass to his children, Lopez which was his mother's name was substituted as his surname. Della said he was unhappy with this mistake but thought it would be too much trouble to try and correct or change things and so just legally accepted Lopez as the family name. But he always told the children that they were Lago.
Daniel Sheppard in his early 50's about the time of the marriage of his daughter, Emily Elizabeth, to Peter S. Traverso, Jr. He was a member of the Brotherhood of Cotton Screwmen that eventually became the second oldest union in Texas. Screwmen were stevedores who loaded cotton bales onto ships in the port of Galveston. Their screws compressed the bales so more could be compactly stored in the holds of ships. He and his wife, Mary, had five children.
Della's grandmother Josefa Lopez with her grandson, Severino, the son of her daughter Dolfina.
Della's mother Xoana ( Juana ) and her younger sister and only sybling, Asuncion, and their father, Della's grandfather, Juan Alvarez Masquera in Andalucia, Spain about 1900.
Della's parents Xoana Alvarez and Juan Lago Lopez with infant Josephine in Galveston, Texas, 1921.
The Lopez children of Juan and Xoana Lopez, from left to right: Henry Lopez, Maria - Mary Fullen, Josephine Oblander, Jaime Lopez, Raymond Lopez, Johnny Lopez, and Della Traverso. Photo during a family reunion in the 1960's at the Lopez house at 5503 Ave. Q 1/2 in Galveston.
Christmas during the late1950's at Grandma Lopez's house. Johnny Lopez, Xoana, Henry Lopez.
Deaths - From the Galveston News
Damage wallet photo of Josephine Lopez in uniform during W W II. Josie served in the Women's Army Air Corp.
Grandma Lopez on Galveston Beach with Daniel Traverso, III during the summer of 1947.
Xoana Alvarez, "Grandma Lopez" in her living room with her youngest son, Henry Patrick Lopez, during the Christmas Season of 1953.
Mrs Juan Lago Lopez enjoying a joke in April 1953.
Henry Lopez, far left, sits on the Acropolis in Athens, Greece with other merchant mariners from his ship.
The picture on the left is of Mary Lopez in her teens during high school. Maria "Mary" Lopez was the youngest of the Juan Lago Lopez and Xoana Alvarez children.
Picture on the right is: Maria "Mary" Lopez with husband Robert Fullen in 1957.
Della's first cousin, Peregrina Lago Lago, with Della's grandchildren, Diana and David Traverso, in her house in Trasmañó Cabanas, Spain in July, 2013. Peregrina is 91 years old at the time. Several of Juan Lago Lopez and Xoana Alvarez's nephews and nieces are still living in Spain.
Della's first cousin, Maria Soto Alvarez, Daniel III with son, David, and daughter, Diana Traverso, in Spain in 2001. Maria Soto was the niece of Xoana Alvarez's ( Grandma Lopez )- daughter of her sister, Asunción. Maria Soto Alvarez died in December, 2011.
Della Traverso, Peregrina Lago, and Mary Fullen. In April 1997 Peregrina came to Texas for a two week visit. Peregrina was two years older than Della and remembered playing with Della and her older sister, Josie, in Spain in the late 1920's as children. Peregrina is the daughter of Juan Lago Lopez's brother, Serafin. This picture was taken in Della's kitchen in the house on Zyle Road in Travis County, Texas. Della and Grina corresponded regularly until Della's death in November of 2003.
U. S. Passport issued to John L. Lopez and his family August 5, 1924 It lists the names of his wife, Juana, and children Josefina, John L. and baby, Adelaida, John Lago Lopez listed his occupation as "dairyman". When Della was a child her parents had several milk cows. Her father hitched one of his horses to a wagon and sold milk, butter and ice cream to neighbors on the "West End of Galveston". He later owned a bar but continued to keep milk cows until his death. The passport has one photo of the entire family. Della was born on May 16, 1924 and an three months old when the family left for Spain in the summer of 1924. The family would reside in Rande near Redondela, Spain unti their return in 1929. Jaime was born in Vigo on October 23, 1925. When Daniel Traverso III visited Spain in 1978 some older residents of Rande remembered playing with Della and her older sister and brother as children. They remembered that John Lago Lopez had a small store and owned the first automobile in the village, a Model T Ford. Della said they went to Spain and returned Galveston by ship stopping both voyages for a while in Cuba where her father visited good friends from his years of residence in Cuba.
Cover letter attached to Juan Alvarez Alvarez's visa or travel permit to the U. S. in 1920. She had recently married Juan Lago Lopez, officially known as John L. Lopez since becoming a naturalized U. S. citizen in 1912, and says she was born in Redondela, Pontevedra ( Province ), Spain and is in Spain with her husband who had his home in: Redondela, Pontevedra, Spain but where he resides in: Galveston, Texas, United States of America.
This document appears to be a visa or permit for Juana Alvarez Alvarez described at bottom as "Mistress of John L. Lopez" to accompany him as his wife to the United States. It says "name of country - Spain" and "object of visit - Awaiting Embarkation to the United States." Note the document is "Good only for three months from date and not to be renewed". The document is executed in Madrid and dated March 12, 1920.
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