Passed Away On: February 13, 2022
Alta G. “Grace” Treviño, a comrade of nature who spent most of her adult life working and living in Hollister, died Feb. 13 2022, in San José in the company of family. She was 89.
She had been ill for years but was active until recently.
A descendent of farmers from central Mexico she began working as a nanny in Mexico City mansions when she was 15 years old. Following the crops in a route that included Michigan, Ohio, Idaho, Texas and Arizona, Treviño arrived in California in the late 1950s, first in southern Santa Clara County near the current site of Casa de Fruta where her first husband Pedro Hernandez, worked on a fruit ranch. During her time the fields, the short-handled hoe, outlawed in California in 1975, prevailed.
“Alta was from another era, a farmworker, housewife and mother,” says world-renowned grower Andy Mariani whose popular Morgan Hill tastings were favorites of Treviño. “I grew up with folks like her and have a deep respect and affection for them.”
When her oldest children were in grade school Treviño moved her family to Hollister where she worked in local canneries, her primary employers for 20 years. She was also a housekeeper and caregiver and for about seven years performed custodial tasks at McDonald’s, a job she enjoyed immensely and with pride.
Civic minded and a supporter of multiple causes, she was a regular volunteer at the annual (now defunct) Nopales festival in Santa Cruz. There she gave demonstrations on cultivating and cleaning prickly pear cactus and helped out where needed. Pre pandemic she was an active member of the Jovenes De Antano senior center and relished its cultural, social and educational components. At home she grew rare citrus, subtropicals and other fruits as well as culinary and medicinal herbs, succulents, and flowers. Yields from her crops were coveted and served by celebrated chefs of the Monterey Peninsula and beyond.
She maintained her rural roots on the animal front also, taking great joy in wildlife and the livestock creatures of her country environment.
Altagracia Barrientos Goméz was born Aug. 14, 1932 in a village in Guanajuato, Mexico to Miguel and Cirila Barrientos, the third eldest of 14 children. She is survived by five children: Guadalupe Barrientos of Zephyr Cove, Nev.; Laramie Treviño of Palo Alto; Michael Barrientos of Hollister; Caroline Barrientos (Tim Gellings) of Hollister, and Kathy Garcia (Norman) of Salinas. She leaves five grandchildren: Elisha Ramos, Ashley and Allysen Garcia of Salinas; LaShea Dailey of Sacramento, and Ty Dailey of Hollister, and five great-grandchildren. Two siblings: Maria de la Luz Barrientos Goméz of Leon, Guanjuato and Enriqueta Barrientos Goméz of Dolores Hidalgo, Guanajuato also survive. And she leaves Jackson, her beloved rescue mutt dog/companion of the past six years. Her second husband, Ramón Treviño, preceded her in death.
Although she was bereft of formal schooling, she taught herself to read and until her death was a faithful newspaper reader/subscriber.
Visitation is from 2:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Feb. 24 at Black-Cooper-Sander Funeral Home, 363 Seventh St., Hollister with rosary at 6:00 p.m. also at the mortuary. Mass will be at 11:00 a.m. Feb. 25, at Sacred Heart Church, 520 College St. followed by burial at Hollister Calvary Cemetery. Donations in her memory may be made to Pet Friends and Rescue, P.O. Box 1191, Hollister, California, 95024, www.petfriends.org or Friends of Master Gardeners of Santa Clara County, www.friendsofmastergardeners.org