Delfina De La Guerra Papers

Delfina de la Guerra was born on March 21, 1861 and died April 25, 1953. She was the daughter of Pablo Antonio de la Guerra and Josefa Moreno y Castro. She was the sister of María Francisca Antonia (Francisca), Carlos Pablo, María Paulina (Paulina, died the year Delfina was born), Ana María Elena (Elena, died when Delfina was five), Herminia Andrea, and Ynez (no birth or death date given), as well as two siblings who died before Delfina was born (including her twin brother). It is not known how Delfina supported herself, her family fortunes having dwindled and wage-earning men deceased by the time she came of age. She did volunteer as a translator/interpreter at the East Side Social Center, where her sister Herminia was a social worker. Various sources mention that Delfina gave Spanish lessons to Irene Hoffmann, wife of Bernhard Hoffmann, and this is how the relationship formed that eventually led to the restoration of the Casa de la Guerra and development of El Paseo commercial complex.

Delfina de la Guerra carried on her family's ideal of graciousness and the preservation of the old sense of nobility that early 20th century boosters sought to imbue upon the local culture. She was the last surviving member of the family who lived in the Casa and ruled benevolently as de facto figureheads in their Spanish- and Mexican-era heyday. Not much is known about Delfina herself except for the fact that she experienced the turn of the 20th century as a fairly modern woman, unmarried and traveling unchaperoned across the country and abroad. She seemed to have been sentimental and religious, as evidenced by the poetry and religious works she collected in her scrapbook, as well as the collection of flower and plant sprigs kept as souvenirs of her travels as a younger woman from 1893-1915).