Candido Diaz was born February 2, 1889, in San Juan de Los Lagos, Jalisco, Mexico. He was the oldest of ten children born to Juan Diaz and Maria del Refugio Garcia.
On January 17, 1913, he married Candida Guzman of the same town. The young couple is believed to have had two little daughters, although only the second, Maria Engracia, has a birth record. She was born on April 3, 1915, and christened a few days later.
The Mexican Revolution, which began in 1910, lasted until 1920. Perhaps the Diazes hoped to avoid being drawn into the fighting. By 1917, they were living in Tyrone, New Mexico, a mining town run by Phelps Dodge Corporation. Supposedly, their first daughter died there.
In 1919, Diaz was a copper miner and farmer in Miami, Arizona, another Phelps Dodge town. When he contracted influenza, he was taken to St. Joseph's Hospital in Phoenix, where he died on February 7.
The virulence of the Spanish Flu epidemic made immediate burial necessary. His wife Candida, who spoke only Spanish, had to rely upon English-speaking strangers to make the arrangements. She never knew exactly where her husband was buried.
Nevertheless, Candido's story was passed on for nearly a century, until his grand- daughter, Dolores “Lola” Mendez, found his death certificate on line. As was often the case with Mexican names, Diaz's death certificate was incorrectly filed; it’s under 'Candido Garcia'4, his mother’s maiden name. Still, it was possible to positively identify him by the date of death. He had been buried in the Maricopa County Cemetery, now known as Cementerio Lindo.
Although Candido Diaz has no grave marker and the exact location of his grave is forever unknown, his family is relieved to know that he was accorded a Christian burial and rests beside so many other victims of the influenza epidemic.
- by Donna L. Carr
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