Esperanza Cantu

Esperanza M. Cantu was born on August 27, 1925, in Sarita, Texas to Eduardo Martinez and Ester Salinas Martinez. She was raised in Sarita, Texas where she met and married her husband, Jose Guadalupe Cantu. They had 5 children. They raised their children in Texas, Mississippi, and Louisiana. After losing her husband in 1973, she settled back in Texas to raise her two youngest children, her daughters. She worked for several families in Riviera becoming a mom and grandma to many. Her house was always open to anyone and everyone. The kids always knew to go by grandmas on the way home from school because her home always smelled delicious. If it wasn’t her homemade tortillas, it was her delicious cakes. We know she is having a wonderful time with our dad whom she hadn’t seen in 49 years, and her wonderful coffee group who she would visit with on the way to work every day. She was the last of her group of friends and the last of her siblings.

She is preceded in death by her parents, Eduardo and Ester Martinez; her husband Jose Guadalupe Cantu; sisters, Estella Bueno and Elena Martinez; brothers, Eduardo Martinez Jr., Emilio Martinez, and Esteban Martinez.

Among those left to cherish her memory are her children, Roy (Hilda) Cantu, Robert (Brenda) Cantu, Raul (Renee) Cantu, Becky Gutierrez, and Rosie (George) Farek; 7 grandchildren; 11 great-grandchildren; 1 great-great-grandchild.

A rosary will be on Saturday, May 14, 2022, at St. Gertrude Catholic Church at 10:30 AM with a funeral mass at 11:00 AM. Interment to follow at Riviera Cemetery.