IN REMEMBRANCE OF YOLANDA, REST LITTLE SISTER

By Juan Montoya
When I was a kid working in Nebraska hoeing sugar beets, the days seemed endless.
The rows were so long that the opposite side of the fields got lost in a mirage of heat and wavered in the distance.
I must have been 12 or so and after a day's work hitting the clumps of dirt and spacing the green shoots (thinning) I was bone weary. Sometimes I would look over to the next row and I would see my younger sister hoeing along beside me. I would get angry that she would have to be there, too. But she was.
Yolanda Rosenbaum was like my little sister.  I attended school with her and her brothers at Castañeda Elementary (the migrant school). She was a beautiful young woman and, like the Rosenbaums, had a no nonsense business acumen that is probably genetic.
She was 57 and two days ago, she succumbed to a devil cancer. We are saddened. The family said they will announce the funeral arrangements.
I was talking to former city commissioner John Wood yesterday and he told me of her membership on the city's beautification committee. Through her persistence, he said that the Southmost area was included on the agenda for a series of pocket-parks that gave that area a much-needed sprucing up. The park at the corner of Milpa Verde and 30th Street is a testament of her and her sister Viola's concern for their humble community.
Wood said she was the force behind the annual Veterans Day Parade that is held in that neighborhood  to honor our men and women in the U.S. Armed Forces. That is coming up on Saturday, on the same day that would have been her birthday.
It is a fitting tribute to her civic engagement that the event has flourished and that it is now an integral part of the rhythm of life in that community.
When her older brother Lucino decided to enter politics, it was Yolanda and her older sister Viola (now also gone) who were the main driving forces behind his candidacy. Their flower shop on the corner of Hortencia and 30th Street was the focus of political activity since the mid 1980s. Gilberto Hinojosa knows the place, as does Ray Ramon, D.J. Lerma, Joe Rivera, and even Tony Garza.
Politics were simple in those days. People who liked you and respected your family voted for you. There were no robocalls, no mass  mailings, no Facebook, no Internet. You just held get togethers in the barrios and asked people for their vote. The Rosenbaum women were the glue that held the campaigns together.
I recall when I (fresh from the idealistic classes at the university) eked out a phone list using telephone directories and voter registration lists. After hours of matching them up to get a viable list, Viola looked up and asked:
"Are you sure we want to be bothering people at their house?"
Like I said, things were simpler then.
I will always remember Yolanda as a vibrant , optimistic young woman and doting parent with Tammy (Tamrindo). Our heart-felt condolences go to her and her family and to the Rosenbaum family as well. We will miss you Yoli. Saludanos al tocayo Juan, a Viola, y tus jefecitos. Adios carnala.