Maria Herrera de Romero

Maria de la Luz Herrera de Romero is the grandmother of Josefina Montoya. Josefina refers to her as Abuelita. She and Felipe live on a rancho outside of Santa Fe. She raised two daughters, Maria and Dolores; however at the start of the series she has not seen Dolores for ten years (as she has been down in Santa Fe keeping her aunt company until her death) and Maria has been dead for a year. She is know to be very authoritative and "boss about" everyone, even her husband, and moves like a stately queen. She misses her late daughter quite a bit which leads her initially to praise Josefina for being most like her mother and have it be Josefina's special duty to help her get settled in when she comes to visit the rancho--a task Josefina feels is an honor among her sisters to be singled out as such and that being told she is just like her is the highest praise her grandmother could give her (so she does not wish to disappoint her grandmother or give cause to have the praise be untrue). It is only later that Maria confesses that she had been looking for comfort in the traits Josefina and her mother shared in the wake of her daughter's death and looking everywhere for reminders of her. Maria can be much more conservative and traditional than her free-hearted husband; she doesn't care for travel like him and it upsets her to take long journeys or be in large crowds. She does not care for the arrival of many americano traders coming in to Santa Fe and the customs or changes they bring, including that many aren't Catholic like they are and that their beliefs will be eroded. She expects her granddaughters to show proper behavior as ladies, act demurely and properly befitting their ages, and to be faithful and religious. When they act improperly, she doesn't hesitate to show her displeasure and mete out punishment; examples include when Josefina, who is considered too young to dance in public, dances to the music Tiá Dolores plays and upsets Maria for acting improperly for her young age; and making Francisca and Josefina stay in their room all day at the rancho and pray for forgiveness for going out unescorted into Santa Fe at night, even though it was for a good cause. Still she can understand why the girls do things they do and feel justified in them, even as she disapproves. She cares greatly for her great grandsons and longs to be near them and see them grow up, which prompts Ana and her husband and sons to move to Santa Fe to stay with her and Felipe.