Loretta Alvarez

Loretta Lucero Alvarez (nicknamed Mama and Nana[1]) (1892–1996) was a Pascua Yaqui midwife from the 1920s until the 1970s in Tucson, Arizona. Tucson's Kino Community Hospital named their labor and delivery unit after her.[2]

Loretta Alvarez
Loretta Alvarez in 1994, age 102
Born
Loretta Lucero

1892
Mexico
Died1996 (aged 103-104)
Tucson, Arizona, United States
NationalityPascua Yaqui
OccupationMidwife
Known forTucson's Kino Community Hospital named the hospital's labor & delivery unit after her.

Personal life

Loretta Lucero was born in northern Mexico in 1892. She married Luis Alvarez, a railroad worker, and moved to Nogales, Arizona. After World War I the couple moved to Tucson, where they would raise their 14 children.[2]

Midwifery

Nicknamed "Mama" by family and locals alike, she spoke both Yaqui and Spanish and provided her services to women from different ethnic groups, as well as her own Pascua Yaqui community.[2][3] In her midwife work she utilized herbs and prenatal massage to deliver breech births. Lucero received payment for her work, including vegetables and food.[2][3]

She served as a midwife until the age of 80 and, dying at the age of 104, she attributed her long life to her Catholic faith.[2]

Legacy

Tucson's Kino Community Hospital named their labor and delivery unit after Lucero.[2]

References
  1. Jennings, John. "Tribal Treasure". Newspapers.com (30 August 1993). Tucson Citizen. Retrieved 8 January 2020.
  2. "Loretta Lucero Alvarez (b. 1892, d. 1996)". Arizona Women's Heritage Trail. 2011. Retrieved 7 November 2011.
  3. Mary S. Melcher (15 December 2016). Pregnancy, Motherhood, and Choice in Twentieth-Century Arizona. University of Arizona Press. p. 98. ISBN 978-0-8165-3679-5.
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