{"id":53254,"date":"2020-06-17T00:46:14","date_gmt":"2020-06-17T06:46:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/covid-19-cant-stop-josefita-herreras-106th-birthday-bash\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:03:26","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T10:03:26","slug":"covid-19-cant-stop-josefita-herreras-106th-birthday-bash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/covid-19-cant-stop-josefita-herreras-106th-birthday-bash\/","title":{"rendered":"COVID-19 can\u2019t stop Josefita Herrera\u2019s 106th birthday bash"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Family
Family and friends surprised Josefita Herrera with a drive-by parade and outdoor birthday party for her 106th birthday Sunday.<\/span>Patrick Armijo\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Even with 106 years under her belt, Josefita Herrera still turns out the fluffiest, freshest tortillas in Durango. Occasionally, a batch of red chile or a fresh apple or cherry pie also come from her kitchen.<\/p>\n

On Sunday afternoon, family and friends participated in a parade, with about 30 vehicles decked out in posters, flowers and balloons, to celebrate Josefita\u2019s 106th birthday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWorking the dough is good for my hands,\u201d Josefita said, noting arthritis in her hand has slowed her some in the kitchen.<\/p>\n

Tony Gallegos of Ignacio, who was raised by Josefita for several years, said he especially prizes Josefita\u2019s bizcochitos.<\/p>\n

When Gallegos\u2019 mother was pregnant with him, she was in ill health and doctors were not sure if he or his mother would survive childbirth. Josefita was his mother\u2019s best friend and helped her through the difficult pregnancy.<\/p>\n

Gallegos lived with Josefita off and on for years after his birth, at a time when parents who were struggling to make ends meet would have other family members or good friends help raise some of the children.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s my second mom. She\u2019s an inspiration,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"A
A procession of some 30 cars decked out with posters, balloons and flowers parade down east Third Street on Sunday in honor of Josefita Herrera&#x2019;s 106th birthday.<\/span>Patrick Armijo\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Carmella Olguin, a great-great-great niece (the family has lost track of how many \u201cgreats\u201d should go in front of their relations with Josefita) is Josefita\u2019s caregiver.<\/p>\n

She credits Josefita\u2019s cooking with keeping her in good spirits and active.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe likes to feed everybody, the family, all the neighbors, and she loves her plants. She gardens and loves flowers,\u201d Olguin said.<\/p>\n

Carmella added sweet rice to the dishes Josefita often turns out.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything\u2019s made from scratch, just authentic, good cooking. I think it\u2019s what really helps her,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Josefita was quite the quilter as well, until failing eyesight forced her to stop, Carmella said.<\/p>\n

Carmella, who works full time at Walmart, says her big day with Josefita is Wednesdays, when she spends the full day with her great-great-great aunt, running errands, going on joyrides in the car and taking walks.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe makes caregiving easy,\u201d Carmella said.<\/p>\n

To help build strength in her hands, Carmella said, Josefita will still wash her socks and smaller clothing items by hand so she can wring out the water and build her muscles in her hands.<\/p>\n

Every day except Wednesday, Carmella calls Josefita.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe talk for 40 minutes, until \u2018Wheel of Fortune\u2019 comes on, then she tells me she has to watch her program.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Great-great-great
Great-great-great niece Toni Jean Herrera greets Josefita Herrera and presents her with a present at her birthday celebration and parade held Sunday on east Third Street in Durango.<\/span>Patrick Armijo\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The drive-by parade and outdoor birthday party was the idea of Rebecca Atencio, a cousin of Josefita\u2019s, who noted it was popular for children during the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

The idea was adopted for Josefita, who sat in a folding chair under an awning umbrella, a glass of red wine in hand, to watch the procession.<\/p>\n

Since Josefita turned 100, the family has celebrated her birthday at the Oxford Grange, and Carmella said Sunday\u2019s birthday party kept the celebrity vibe going.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople come from all over for Josefita\u2019s birthday \u2013 Arizona, Utah, Chimay\u00f3, Denver \u2013 they come from all over. This was just like at the grange, minus the music,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

parmijo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Drive-by parade and outdoor festivities replace centenarian\u2019s normal party at Oxford Grange<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":53255,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29,2346],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-53254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-people-profiles"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53254"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53254\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88250,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53254\/revisions\/88250"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53254"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=53254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}