Greg Jaurequi was born in Hurley, New Mexico, in 1926. As a young boy, his family moved to Chihuahua Hill where his parent’s Avelina and Gavino Jaurequi owned and operated the Southside Market. Doña Avelina also ran a Mexican restaurant out of the back of the store. At first, the family lived in the rooms underneath the store before eventually buying an apartment building. The family lived out of the top floor of the apartment building and rented out the bottom.
Greg served in the United States Army. When he returned to Silver City, the G.I. Bill allowed him to attended Western New Mexico University where he received a bachelor’s degree in teaching. He received a master’s degree from Denver, Colorado. He moved back to Silver City and worked for the Office of Equal Opportunity with an office at the courthouse. He left Silver City and understood the need for activism in his hometown, and especially his old neighborhood.
Greg returned to Silver City in 1965 and took over the family store, renaming it the pick and pack. With the apartment building, Greg helped those with no money, giving them a place to stay. He helped Mexican immigrants who were arriving to work in the farms of New Mexico or Colorado by allowing them to stay in the apartment building or finding them work before they moved on.
As a person who went to the segregated Lincoln school as a child, where children were punished for speaking Spanish, Greg understood the need for early childhood education that catered to the needs of the community. He was part of the first board of El Grito Head start, which served to low income, and usually Hispanic, children. How his family worked to get the building ready for the first semester of classes.
“I remember the floors having to be sanded and going in there and helping dad as much as we could while they sanded floors and prepared classrooms. And it was just all done over a summer. And got us into school by the fall. Found teachers and a secretary….he was very good at organizing, very good at organizing people. But once it was organized, then he didn’t want to run it, wanted to let someone else run it and move on to the next thing to organize.” Joseph Jaurequi
El Grito Head start provided some of the first bilingual and cultural education programs in Silver City.
Greg eventually began selling insurance so that he would be his own boss. He wanted to ensure that he was not put into a position where he would have to sacrifice his efforts by fear of being fired. He was always involved with the betterment of the community.
“I think the activism was there prior to leaving, and becoming educated and kind of recognizing national, what was happening…He was an admirer of Cesar Chavez. If something was on the television, he would let us know, this is what’s going on…So growing up, I kind of thought everybody grew up with that knowledge and information. I’m always grateful for that” -Amy Jaurequi
Greg Jaurequi was tragically murdered on February 6, 1992. In a strange piece of history, the murder was committed as a random act of violence from former tenant that Greg had taken in a decade earlier. The park on spring street now bears his name, and has a mural dedicated to him.