Catarino Romero of Mineral was a young man in his 20s during the Great Depression of the 1930s.

He and his wife, Margarita, had moved from Normanna to LaFeria, Texas, where he found work picking fruits and vegetables throughout the Rio Grande Valley.

“I was earning 21 cents a day, which wasn’t much, but it was the only job I could find,” he recalled. “There were no jobs. To help feed ourselves, we ate the fruits and vegetables from the fields — tomatoes, onions, peppers ...”

Catarino, now 100 years old, was forced to look for new work when the fields in The Valley were bare.

He decided to pack up his family and move back to Bee County.

His parents and his wife’s parents sent him $60 for the move back home. A truck driver gave them a lift because Catarino’s old Model T Ford was broken down.

They moved to Mineral where Catarino and Margarita have lived ever since.

The Bee County Commissioners Court paid tribute to Catarino last month for his contributions to the county.

“Mr. Romero is a fine, fine gentleman,” said Bee County Judge David Silva. “It is people like Mr. Romero who helped make Bee County a wonderful place to raise a family.”

Catarino was born in Mexico on April 30, 1909. His family moved to Robstown in 1914 when he was only 5. Seven years later, they moved to Bee County where they set up house some three miles south of Beeville in an area once known as Beasley’s Ranch.

The family moved to Berclair a short while later and finally settled in Normanna when he was in his late teens.

One day while he and his friends were checking out young ladies in downtown Beeville, Catarino spotted the señorita who would become his wife — Margarita.

“I was standing on the street corner and watched her walk by and I knew right then that I would marry her someday,” he recalled.

So he asked around and found out who she was and where she lived and he dashed off a letter to her.

“I told her I thought she was beautiful and that I fell in love with her at first sight,” Catarino recalled with a chuckle. “In my letter, I told her, ‘I am writing you to tell you I want to court you and someday make you my wife.’ I asked her to ask for permission from her parents for me to come to her house and talk with her.”

Margarita replied by mail.

“She said her parents said I could come over,” Catarino remembered. “But her letter did not include any affection on her part. She didn’t say she loved me or anything like my letter did. She liked me but she didn’t tell me that in her letter. She said she would let me court her.”

On the day of the big date, Catarino arrived early — an hour early.

So he passed the time cleaning the spark plugs in his old Model T Ford.

“I was nervous,” he recalled.

Finally, he was invited inside. Margarita’s brothers, sisters and parents crowded around the two.

She was 16; he was 20.

“I thought they would put us in a room — the parlor — by ourselves so we could talk in private but Margarita wanted me to say the things I said in my letter out loud in front of her family. So I did. I told her I thought she was the most beautiful woman in the world, and that I had fallen in love with her at first sight, and that I wanted to court her and make her my wife someday.”

Catarino made Margarita openly confess her feelings for him as well.

“I wanted her to say how she felt about me in front of everyone, too,” he said.

Six months later, Catarino and Margarita were married. They’ve been married for 79 years and have 11 children and 65 grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great grandchildren.

Beeville was mostly brush and tall grass at that time, Catarino recalled. There weren’t that many buildings downtown. The roads were made out of dirt. When it rained, drivers would put chains on the tires of their automobiles to help keep them from becoming mired in the muddy streets, he said.

After moving to Mineral in the 1930s, Catarino went to work raising crops with his family.

He attempted to register for the draft during WWII but couldn’t pass the physical.

He returned to farming and continued to raise crops until his mid-80s.

Catarino still plants a garden at his home each year.

“He does his own tilling,” said his son, Richard Romero. “He still drives the same car and he still mows his lawn.”

Catarino cannot recall the first presidential election he voted in but says he has voted regularly since moving to Bee County.

Catarino attributes his long life and fruitful marriage to his faith in God.

“The Bible says honor thy parents and good things will come to you,” he explained. “All my life I honored my parents, and my children — thankfully — have always honored their parents. So I have always lived a good life.”