Published: May 11, 2008 12:09 am            

‘Eight is enough’ for Enid mother

There is a woman living here in Enid who most of us probably are unware. She is so quiet, humble and dutiful.

A person with qualities like that sometimes slips through the cracks and goes unnoticed and unrecognized.

Some may briefly have seen her and never spoken with her, and therefore have not gotten to know nor any of her wonderful personal story.

Her name is Graciela Alatorre.

Mrs. Alatorre is the mother of eight — count ‘em, eight — children: seven boys and one girl. Mrs. Alatorre is 47 years old.

Rogelio Alatorre, her husband of 29 years, died this past Dec. 22, from a heart attack.

Graciela’s great tribulation has been to try to learn to live her life without the man who had been her husband for three decades, the only man she ever loved, the man she first met while both were in school back in their hometown of Acatic, Mexico.

“The hardest part is being in charge of eight kids all by myself,” Mrs. Alatorre said.

Devoted long-time parishioners of Enid’s St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church, the Alatorre family essentially has grown up in the church. All the younger Alatorre children were baptized at St. Francis and the older children all were confirmed there. Confirmation is a Catholic rite in which the parishioner is admitted as a full member into the Catholic Church.

Rogelio was well-known to the parish as the man who, for many years, dutifully and cheerfully mowed the grass, trimmed the bushes and shoveled snow at St. Francis.

The Alatorre children range in age from 5 (Andres) to 27 (Fernando). The other Alatorre children include: Eva, 8, the sole daughter; Omar, 12; Diego, 17; Valentin, 19; Abraham, 21; Adrian, 25; and Fernando, 27.

Adrian is an airman in the active duty Air Force and currently is deployed to Bahrain, an island kingdom off the east coast of Saudia Arabia, in the Persian Gulf. Adrian has been in the Air Force for six years.

Brother Abraham, 21, intends to follow his older brother into the Air Force.

Fernando, 27, is a professional drafter and designer. The remaining children all are students in either secondary school or college. All the Alatorre children attended or currently are attending Enid Public Schools.

Mrs. Alatorre also has one grandchild — Naomi Alatorre, Valentin’s daughter, who is 3 months old.

The Alatorres have lived in Enid for 16 years. They lived in two other Oklahoma towns prior to moving to Enid. Rogelio and Graciela always tried to take the whole family back to their home town of Acatic, Mexico, about every two years. As a widow, Graciela doesn’t know if she will be able to maintain those biennial trips to the homeland, but she wants to try because her mother and other relatives still reside there.

Acatic is a town in the state of Jalisco, which is located in central Mexico, on the Pacific coast. Jalisco is home to the coastal tourist destination Puerto Vallarta as well as the major inland city of Guadalajara. Jalisco also is famous as the birthplace of mariachi music and tequila.

From the perspective of 19th and early-20th century traditions, a family with eight children might not have been called “huge.” But a family with eight children in modern times definitely is huge.

Graciela sees all the upside of having such a huge family.

“I always have someone to help me do things around the house,” Mrs. Alatorre said. “I always have someone at home with me, so I never get lonely.”