Ramona Ruiz Amavisca

Ramona Ruiz Amavisca, about 1874-1913
Immigrant Mother
 
Buried in City Loosley Cemetery, exact location unknown

(AI image generated using Dall-E 3 via MicroSoft Bing)

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In addition to being a temptation to children, Phoenix’s open canals were sometimes a last resort for the despondent.
 
Ramona Ruiz was born around 1872 in Yécora, Sonora, Mexico. In January, 1890, she married Saturnino Amavisca, a local man. Amavisca’s first wife had died just a few weeks earlier, leaving him with an infant son named Francisco to raise.
 
Ramona’s first child, José Lidio, was born in Arizpe, Sonora, and christened in the mission church, Nuestra Señora de la Asunción, there. That child may have died in childhood, as he does not appear on subsequent censuses.
 
It seems likely that the Amaviscas came to Arizona as migrant laborers about this time since, barely a year later, Ramona gave birth to another boy in Agua Caliente, Maricopa County, Arizona. He was called Frank, to distinguish him from his older half-brother.
 
Ramona continued to have another child every couple of years, until there were eight. Her last, a daughter named Rosario, was born on May 19, 1907. Saturnino Sr. may have died then, as he was no longer in the household in 1910. Instead, Ramona’s stepson Francisco and her third son Saturnino were supporting the family by working in a railroad yard in Phoenix.
 
In 1913, the Amaviscas lived five miles west of Phoenix, on the road to Yuma. When Ramona disappeared from the family’s adobe house on April 28, 1913, one of her daughters walked into town to notify Sheriff Jeff Adams. However, just hours later, word arrived that Ramona’s body had been pulled from a canal two miles west of Phoenix. The coroner ruled the death a drowning. At the time, her oldest son was 25 and daughter Rosario, the youngest, was only six.
 
Ramona was buried on April 30th, with Father Alban officiating at the funeral. In spite of the fact that the Catholic Church considered suicide a mortal sin, Ramona’s friends grieved her loss. She was known to have been in poor health for some time, and may have despaired of recovering.
 
Although the funeral notice suggests that Ramona was to be interred in Greenwood Cemetery, her death record says that she was buried in City Loosley Cemetery. Thomas Hayden’s 1935 survey of that cemetery mentions a grave marker for her. That marker no longer exists.
 
© 2026 by Donna L. Carr. Last revised 7 July 2026.

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