Juanita Moran, family matriarch and Mexican American musician, celebrates 100th birthday

Hundreds of people who gathered Sunday to celebrate Juanita Moran's 100th birthday in St. Paul were not only recognizing a matriarch and musician. They also honored the beauty of the city's vibrant Mexican American culture that Moran has helped preserve and promote.

"She is one of the pioneers. She is a pillar … in the sense that she, through her parents, brought many customs from Mexico," said Marie Zellner, Moran's daughter.

Her birthday Sunday was even more special, friends and family said, because she survived a dangerous bout of COVID-19 in late 2020 at age 99. She wasn't expected to make it.

"To me, that was a miracle," Zellner said. "Her faith, our faith, came through."

Moran and her family were among the first Mexican Americans to populate St. Paul's West Side and helped found Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church more than nine decades ago.

She has also worked to share the area's Latino culture through music and dance, playing the piano and the accordion and starting the first traditional Mexican dancing group in the area.

"Even at 100, all she does is wish she could do more," said Debbie Luna, a community member and Our Lady of Guadalupe parishioner. "She prays for everybody on the West Side."

Moran spent much of her hourslong party greeting the line of visitors who waited to wish her well. Guests ate Moran's favorite foods: baked chicken, mashed potatoes, refried beans and sopa fideo, a Mexican pasta dish.

She gave a short speech thanking the "man upstairs" for the party and for her long life.

"Once you hit 100, there's not many things you can do," said Moran, wearing a red blazer and a corsage of red and white flowers. "What little work I can do, I do."

All seven of Moran's children attended the party, as did her four living siblings.

Until five years ago, Moran was still active at church, helping with fundraisers and playing music, Zellner said. Now, she spends her time singing, praying, making tortillas and telling stories.

A founding member of the Our Lady of Guadalupe women's group, the Guadalupanas, she's now one of the two most senior members, along with a woman who is 102.

At the party, a musical trio called Los Amigos serenaded Moran, playing "Las Mañanitas," the traditional Spanish birthday song, and "Cielito Lindo." Her children and siblings took turns dancing with her.

Zellner shared a short biography of Moran, which intertwined with stories of the West Side Latino community's growth.

Moran is the oldest daughter of Francisco and Cresencia Rangel, Mexican immigrants who arrived in St. Paul in the 1920s. Moran was not yet 5 at the time.

The Rangels settled into an area of St. Paul known as the West Side Flats, now an industrial park by the St. Paul Downtown Airport and Hwy. 52, and soon began helping other immigrants in St. Paul. Zellner said there was always a family or two staying at their home.

Francisco worked with the Mexican Consulate in Chicago, helping immigrants with various issues that required international assistance.

The growing Mexican American community soon needed a Catholic church where they could worship, and they went to the Archdiocese for help.

The community, with the Rangels taking a lead role, found a site for their church — a former bar — and bought half of the building. They worked together to make the space into the first Our Lady of Guadalupe church, Zellner said. Eventually, the church moved to a new spot on the West Side — south of downtown St. Paul, along Cesar Chavez Street.

The Rangel family home had always been filled with music, and in her 20s, Moran started a Mexican folk dance group.

Her daughter, Rebecca Moran Cusick, continued that tradition, starting the successful Los Alegres Bailadores about 45 years ago.

The dancers performed at Moran's party, a whirlwind of pink, coral, blue and green dresses. Many of the dancers were Moran's great-granddaughters.

Among the several hundred guests, Maria Sarzoza said she attended the party because turning 100 is rare. As a lifelong member of Our Lady of Guadalupe, she's known Moran and her family since the '70s.

"It's very beautiful to have the Mexican culture that she truly believes in," Sarzoza said of Moran.

Another guest, Geraldine Lopez, said her grandparents helped found Our Lady of Guadalupe with Moran's parents. The Mexican American community was close-knit, and Moran's family was a part.

"Friends — you can almost erase that and call them family," she said. "Everybody helped each other out."

Lopez called Moran upbeat, positive, loving and generous. "She's like everybody's grandma, everybody's abuelita," she said.

Erin Adler • 612-673-1781