Mary Dojaquez Jimenez

Mary Eloisa (Hortense) Dojaquez Jimenez was born on September 27, 1920 in Benson, Arizona. She died on February 24, 2005. She relates that her father, Miguel (Mike) Dojaquez, came to work as a cowboy on the Empire in 1926, from the Boquillas Cattle Company in the St. David/Benson area. Mike Dojaquez worked for the Vail Company, for Dink Parker on the Gardner Ranch, and for the Boice’s Chiracahua Cattle Company. When the Dojaquez family first came to work for the Vail Company they lived on the Hilton Ranch near Elgin. Mike Dojaquez always had a “truck” garden wherever the family lived; he died in 1939. Mary notes: “I think dad was happy wherever he worked.”

Mary’s husband Angel (“Shorty”) Jimenez was a cowboy and a foreman for Frank Brophy’s Babocomari ranch for thirteen years. Mary and Angel had three daughters and two sons. Mary’s first cousin was Eva Ferra Jimenez who grew up and worked on the Empire Ranch. Mary recalls her trip by wagon at age six to the Empire with seven of her eleven brothers and sisters. She describes growing up in the Gardner Canyon area; going to school at the Sonoita school; her life with her husband and children for thirteen years on the Babocomari Ranch; living on the Cornwall Ranch in Elgin; and the difficult life during the drought in the 1950s. Her grandfather, Francisco Escalante also worked for the Vails. Two of her Escalante uncles founded and ran a store in Helvetia, AZ.

Full transcript available upon request:

Date of Interview: September 14, 2002
Interviewer: Paul Chadwick and Diana Hadley