Read the article in full online at The Capistrano Dispatch.
Congratulations Cee Cee Nieblas Vasquez!
The San Juan Capistrano Historical Society has announced the new Matriarch for San Juan Capistrano. The latest is Ceclia Vasquez, known to all as CeeCee.
The qualifications for this honor are that the person had to be born in San Juan Capistrano and contributed to the history of our community. Along with Patriarchs, they serve for life.
CeeCee was born in 1946. She attended San Juan Elementary School and Capistrano Union High School. She was in Capistrano Union’s last graduation class in 1964. San Clemente High School opened that fall. Following graduation, CeeCee and a friend went to Hawaii for three months. While there, she met Ruben Vasquez. When she returned to San Juan Capistrano, he came to visit. They were married in 1965 and had two children. Her son is a teacher in Maui and her daughter lives in San Clemente. Grandchildren are in Hawaii and locally. Ruben passed away 20 years ago.
CeeCee is related to some of the old families in San Juan Capistrano. Her cousins include Paul Valenzuela, Jerry Nieblas, and Pam Hallan Gibson, among many others. Both of Ruben’s grandmothers were of Chinese and Japanese descent. His mother was Hawaiian.
CeeCee worked for the water district in San Juan Capistrano for 20 years. When she started in 1964, there were 250 water district accounts. When she retired in 1984, there were 11,000 accounts.
For many years, CeeCee has volunteered at the Historical Society setting up its filing system. She read every document, news release, or paper and decided under which category it should best be saved. Those categories are still used today.
In the past 50 years, the Historical Society has elected five Patriarchs and eight Matriarchs. Patriarchs were Matias H. Belardes, Paul Arbiso, Dick Mendelson, Julian Ramos and, currently, Thomas “Happy” Hunn. Past Matriarchs were Vivian Oliveras, Delphina Oliveras, Lucana Georgia Forster Isch, Juanita Rios Foy, Evelyn Lobo Villegas, Fay Dolores Wattenberg Meeker, Helen McMullen, and Cecila Hunn. When Cecila was our Matriarch, she and Happy were the first husband and wife who served at the same time.
As an only child, CeeCee would hide under the table at family gatherings and listen to the elders tell their stories. She remembers most of them. As Matriarch, CeeCee’s knowledge will add to the history of San Juan Capistrano.
Spend a “Moment In Time” this summer when visiting with family and find out the stories in your family that have been handed down for generations.
Jan Siegel, a 33-year resident of San Juan Capistrano who now resides in the neighboring town of Rancho Mission Viejo, is an unofficial historian for the City of San Juan Capistrano.. She served on the city’s Cultural Heritage Commission for 13 years, has been a volunteer guide for the San Juan Capistrano Friends of the Library’s architectural walking tour for 26 years and is currently the museum curator for the San Juan Capistrano Historical Society. She was named Woman of the Year by the Chamber of Commerce in 2005, Volunteer of the Year in 2011 and was inducted into the city’s Wall of Recognition in 2007.