When Elva Flores left the old Hughes Aircraft Co. in 1994, after nearly 30 years, she went to work.
She immersed herself into what she already had been doing for years before leaving the company: promoting Tucson and its Mexican-American culture.
“She was a great ambassador,” said her son, David Flores. “She retired so she could she could go to work.”
Elva Flores died Monday, two years after being diagnosed with cancer. She died in her home of more than 35 years, surrounded by her family. She was 75.
Flores did not carry a high profile in Tucson’s civic and cultural affairs. But to Tucson’s many mariachi groups and folkorico dance groups, and to other organizations devoted to promoting downtown, the piano-playing Flores was their madrina. And as their godmother, Flores nurtured and looked after them, favoring none and loving them equally.
“She often said that she had the good fortune to meet many wonderful people in Tucson,” said Julie Gallego, whose dance troupe, Ballet Folklorico San Juan, and school, the Center for Hispanic Performing Arts, as well as CHISPA, her cultural arts nonprofit foundation, were the recipients of Flores’ advice and guidance.
“She was always a phone call away. I knew when I called her she would be there all the way,” Gallego said of her mentor.
That is the kind of relationship that Flores had with others. She promoted others and their groups, not herself.
“It was deep-seated love for the community,” said former Tucson Mayor Bob Walkup, who first met Flores when the two worked together at Hughes (which is now Raytheon Missile Systems). “She knew everybody,” said Walkup, who called on Flores when he was first elected mayor in 1999.
Flores was especially driven by her Mexican-American heritage and culture, initially incubated in her hometown of Ajo and later when she relocated to Tucson in the late 1950s.
Here she met her late husband, Ernesto Flores, at El Casino Ballroom, the grass-roots social venue for Tucson’s Latino community. Here is where two of her three sons, David and Steve Flores, became mariachis. Here is where Elva Flores, mentored by her friends Joel Valdez, former city manager, and John Huerta, former director of the University of Arizona Hispanic Alumni, would make her mark.
Her most noted accomplishment, for which she received little public accolade, was being one of the founders of the Tucson International Mariachi Conference in 1983. The annual festival, which attracted the top mariachi ensembles and singers from both sides of the border but emphasized music education, quickly became the blueprint for mariachi festivals that followed across the country.
Flores was then on the board of directors of La Frontera, a mental health and social services agency, which has organized the conference since its inception. Unfortunately, Flores has not been inducted into the Mariachi Hall of Fame maintained by the conference.
La Frontera was one of many boards and commissions and advisory groups that Flores served on.
Her son Andrew Flores said that after his mother retired and dedicated herself full-time to community activities, he joked it was difficult to find time to see her.
“I’m trying to schedule lunch with her and here she’s retired,” he recalled.
One of her other crowning accomplishments was the establishment of El Centro Cultural de las Américas, in the early 1990s, in the historic Brown House at 40 W. Broadway. Flores organized numerous cultural events celebrating the wide range of Latino culture, including Día de los Muertos, poetry readings and her favorite, Christmas celebrations.
In 1996 the YWCA of Tucson gave Flores its Women on the Move Lifetime Achievement Award. But Flores wasn’t interested in awards and self-promotion, said her sons. She worked tirelessly for youths, their education and promoting Tucson’s culture, they said.
She loved her adopted town and wanted others to enjoy it and revel in all that Tucson has to offer.
Flores did all she could, and it was a lot, to make our town a little more special. She cared.
Gracias, Elva.
Services are planned for Monday, June 29, at 9 a.m. at Carrillo’s Mortuary, 204 S. Stone Ave., and at a 10:30 a.m. Mass next door at St. Augustine Cathedral. Elva’s wish was that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the CHISPA Foundation, PO Box 35312, Tucson, AZ, 85740.
