Boxer, Actor, Laundryman, Chef

Crisogono de la Garza was my grandfather's half-sister's husband and since I don't think there's such a thing as a half aunt or uncle, I guess that makes him my great uncle. Whether we're related or not, he was a whirlwind of energy. 

Born in 1893 in Mexico to academics, he left home at 17 to become a boxer in Los Angeles. His parents would have preferred he go to university, but Crisogono needed to get some life experience first, as well as some cash for college. He claimed to have won a national title in 1912 and to have worked as an actor in 1914, working on location in Africa for a major U.S. movie studio. This was the era of boxing champions with names like Fireman Jim Flynn and Gunboat Smith. Cris styled himself Jack Rivers.

He registered for the draft in 1917, stating that he worked at the Marfa, Texas Steam Laundry, and that he was married with no children, and had served in the Red Cross in 1909 in Mexico. He was still married to Petra in 1924 when he became a naturalized United States citizen in San Antonio, Texas, but now he said he was a student. In the 1920s he opened a radio shop but it went under with the onset of the Depression. By 1926 he and Petra had split up and he married Bertha Romeo, daughter of Louis Romeo, previously profiled here, in New York City.

By 1930, Bertha and Crisogono had three daughters under four years old and Cris was working in a restaurant as a baker and applied to the Columbia University School of Medicine. The 1930s took a toll on the family's finances as the family grew to include seven daughters and a son. In 1940 Cris was working for the Works Progress Administration (WPA) as a draftsman and researcher. Money was tight and his medical school dreams were long gone.

Bertha and Cris returned to San Antonio sometime after the war, but split up. Cris resumed his job as an electrician and died in 1966.