Oralia "Yaya" Aldrete-Garcia passed away peacefully on Wednesday morning, April 4, 2018. Born in Brownsville, Texas to Oscar and Leonarda Vera, on January 17, 1931, Yaya was the youngest of eleven children. With the support of her older siblings and work-study, Yaya attended Incarnate Word College in San Antonio and began her career in teaching.

She met her future husband, Cristóbal Aldrete of Del Rio, at her brother's wedding in Houston. Aldrete was a UT-Austin classmate of her brother Jesus. After four-years of chaperoned visits and hundreds of long distance love letters, they married on August 8th, 1954 at Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Brownsville.

Moving to Del Rio, Yaya taught at Garfield Elementary, began to raise their growing family, and learned to navigate the responsibilities of being a politician's wife. Opportunity would later take them to Austin and Washington, D.C., where Yaya transitioned from teaching to civil service. She worked for Congressman Kika de la Garza, the U.S. Bicentennial Administration, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. An active member of the St. Luke's parish in McLean, VA, Yaya was known for her love of adventure and knack for entertaining.

In 1986, Cris and Yaya returned to Texas, where she helped adjudicate U.S. citizenship applications, made possible by the Simpson Mazzoli Act, for the Immigration and Naturalization Service. In retirement, Yaya worked in the administrative office of St. John Neumann Catholic Church, helped support visiting seminarians and volunteered for Hospice. Eight years after her husband Cris passed in 1991, she married José Juvencio Garcia of El Paso.

Her strong faith and commitment to family are her most lasting legacies. Yaya is survived by her husband Jose Garcia, as well as by her five children, Cecilia Aldrete-Frazer, Patricia Aldrete, Eddie Aldrete, Carle Aldrete and James Aldrete and ten grandchildren. The family is grateful beyond words for the loving care Yaya received the last five years of her life from the caregivers at South Austin Assisted Living.