Selections from the Delfina de la Guerra papers

Selections from the Delfina de la Guerra papers

Selected items from the personal papers of Delfina de la Guerra, the last member of the de la Guerra family to reside in the Casa de la Guerra. This collection consists of photographs, letters, clippings, and pressed flowers.

About Delfina de la Guerra:
Delfina de la Guerra was born on March 21, 1861 and died April 25, 1953. She was the daughter of Pablo Antonio de la Guerra and Josefa Moreno y Castro. She was the sister of María Francisca Antonia (Francisca), Carlos Pablo, María Paulina (Paulina, died the year Delfina was born), Ana María Elena (Elena, died when Delfina was five), Herminia Andrea, and Ynez (no birth or death date given), as well as two siblings that died before Delfina was born (including her twin brother). It is not known how Delfina supported herself, her family fortunes having dwindled and wage-earning men deceased by the time she came of age. She did volunteer as a translator/interpreter at the East Side Social Center, where her sister Herminia was a social worker (Pubols). Various sources mention that Delfina gave Spanish lessons to Irene Hoffmann, wife of Bernhard Hoffmann, and this is how the relationship formed that eventually led to the restoration of the Casa de la Guerra and development of El Paseo commercial complex (PPA/Donaldson).

About this collection:
The Delfina de la Guerra papers contain letters and postcards to creator, scrapbook, loose newspaper clippings, keepsake pressed flowers attached to paper and the leather folder in which they were previously housed, an inscribed book of genealogy, photographic prints and photographic negatives, a notepad, and a printing block depicting the Casa de la Guerra. Clippings consist of mostly obituaries and society announcements concerning the De La Guerras and their relatives, as well as Santa Barbara news. Many of the clippings in the scrapbook are poetry in English and Spanish. The letters are very romantic and written in Spanish. The pressed flowers include information written on their attached papers about where they were procured, the significance of the site, and the date. The photographs are mostly portraits of unidentified people, probably family members.

contains images from the Delfina de la Guerra Collection, held at the Presidio Research Center