León Family
Merced and Nieves, undated framed photograph (Courtesy Alberto León)
Merced León (1868–1925)
Merced León was born on July 28, 1868 in Puruándiro, Michoacán de Campo, Mexico. Merced León married Maria Nieves Ines De La Natividad Chávez and had four sons and four daughters between 1893 and 1910: Antonio, Natividad, Pedro, Maria, Gennaro (“Jerry”), Alfonso, Amelia, who died at age twelve, and Angela, who died at the age of 10 months in 1902.
Family recollections also suggest Merced may have had three daughters with a woman named Julia, though little is known.
Merced first migrated to the United States in 1909 at the age of 27, but returned to Mexico before returning to the U.S. in 1920, crossing at El Paso, Texas. On this second journey, he brought his children, Gennaro, Amelia, and Alfonso. Around the same time, after the death of her grandfather and in the face of her grandmother’s declining health, Merced’s daughter Maria also left Mexico and settled in Oxnard. Merced’s wife, Nieves Ines Chavez León, came to the U.S. later with their youngest son, Alfonso, and settled in Missouri.
Tragedy struck on June 29, 1925, when Merced died as a result of injuries from Santa Barbara’s devastating earthquake. Only after his death did Nieves and Alfonso move to Santa Barbara.
Many of Merced’s descendants settled in Santa Barbara, Oxnard, and Los Angeles, with other branches of the family choosing to live in Missouri and the broader Southwest. At a 2023 family reunion, descendants organized themselves into six major branches:
- León – descendants of Merced’s son, Antonio
- Muñoz – descendants of Merced’s granddaughter Irene (daughter of Antonio)
- Montoya – descendants of Merced’s granddaughter Petra (daughter of Antonio)
- Madrigal – descendants of Merced’s daughter, Natividad
- Torres – descendants of Merced’s daughter Maria
- Lyon – descendants of Merced’s son Alfonso, who changed the family name to Lyon after moving to Nevada
Merced with sons Antonio, Pedro, and Gennaro and an unidentified young woman (Courtesy Alberto León)
Alberto and his brother at 836 Laguna Street (Courtesy Alberto León)
Antonio León (León Branch)
Antonio, Merced’s eldest son, married Augustina in Los Angeles in 1913. They lived in Oxnard before settling in Santa Barbara around 1920, where Antonio worked as a cement mason. His projects included construction at the Child estate and the Santa Barbara Zoo. Antonio and Augustina had three children, Irene, Petra, and Salvador. Augustina died in 1920, cared for during her illness by Antonio’s sister, Maria. Antonio later fathered additional children, Antonio, Albert, Beatrice and Lydia, and married their mother in 1960. The family lived on the east side of Santa Barbara at 836 Laguna Street until the city claimed the area for redevelopment in the early 1970s.
They later moved to the Mesa area of Santa Barbara. Antonio’s brother, Gennaro, also lived in Santa Barbara. His son, Gilbert, died young in a Los Angeles road accident, leaving two children.
Madrigal Branch
Natividad, Merced’s daughter, married Joaquín Madrigal. Their children included Julian, Alfonso, Angelina, Antonio, Celia (Sally), Julian and Robert, and their family spent summers traveling the farm labor circuit. Granddaughter Martha Madrigal Cervantes remembered working alongside her parents in walnut harvests and spending childhood days in Santa Barbara’s east side neighborhood. The family attended Our Lady of Guadalupe School and lived near extended family members, including grandmother Nieves.
Torres Branch
Maria León, born in Sacapo, Michoacán, married Jesús Torres.
They had eight children: José, Vidal, Jesse, Carmen, Alex, twins Albert and Alfred, and Rosemary (Lupe). Like other local families, they traveled seasonally to harvest crops, with young Carmen beginning fieldwork at just six years old. The family also raised small livestock and grew produce in their yard. After separating from her husband around 1945, Maria worked in citrus packing houses and later as a cook at St. Vincent’s orphanage. Active in the Guadalupanas of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, she was named Santa Barbara’s Mother of the Year in 1977 and became a U.S. citizen in 1995 at age 90. Her children went on to hold community roles: José Torres served on the Santa Barbara City Council, Albert worked for the Sheriff’s Department, while Vidal and Alfred worked at the Santa Barbara News-Press. Carmen, Maria’s oldest daughter, married Tony Roman in 1953 and raised her family on Indio Muerto Street, later moving to Oxnard.
Maria León Torres visiting Sacapo in later life (Courtesy Carmen Roman)