My first memories of the Patagonia Opera House began in 1935 as a seven-year-old girl and continued until I graduated from Patagonia High School in 1945. The Opera House was the center for social events and town gatherings. Because of the Depression, people were very poor and just trying to get by. The Opera House provided relief from hard times and served as a community center for everyone. It was amazing that several groups traveled to this little town to entertain us. We had live theater, live music, dance performances and popular movies.
One of the most memorable and interesting performances was that of a traveling group of Swiss entertainers. The group was traveling throughout the United States. How did they ever find Patagonia? We were impressed by their bright colored costumes and their impressive dance steps. And then, they began to yodel! Now, we had never heard this before and had no idea what this was about. All the children burst out laughing. We went home, and for days after, my cousin Carrie and I worked hard to perfect our yodeling!
Monthly dances were well attended by families. Parents, grandparents and children of all ages enjoyed live music and visiting with neighbors. One of my sweetest memories was dancing with my father. I adored him and felt that I was in heaven! We had an incredible trio of local musicians. Alvessa Ochoa (Hummel) played a mean saxophone! Her foot never stopped tapping to the music. Alvessa’s brother Bonifacio (Pacho) Ochoa played the banjo, guitar and other instruments. Mr. Ochoa’s son, Rudy, recently shared his memory of going to all the dances with his father since the age of five. And Frank Lamma played the drums. Frank had a full-time job but made time to play at all the dances. They played until midnight, when the dance promptly ended. At that time, local ladies were there with homemade tamales for sale.
Movies were shown two to three times a month and tickets cost ten cents. Many children were so poor they could not afford the ten cents. The man in charge allowed those children to bring in two pieces of wood for the wood stove, and then they could see the movie too. My memory is of Westerns on the big screen. We were inspired as children to play act as Thunder Riders, running through the hills and streets of town with our capes made of whatever rags we could find!
One of my favorite activities was roller skating at the Opera House. It cost us ten cents to skate for one hour. My friend and I loved to skate and would stay for the entire two hours. We were lucky that our father could provide us with the forty cents.
The large building was also used as the high school gymnasium where the basketball teams would play. The girl’s team, which I played on, wore a one-piece navy blue uniform. We were cheered to victory or defeat by the many people who came and watched
the games.
In spite of people struggling to survive the Depression, life in Patagonia had many happy times. We were fortunate to have The Opera House which provided opportunities for many fun-filled activities for all members of our community.
I don’t know much about the building. It was a large, one story wooden structure, with a great wooden floor. It was situated on McKeown Ave. next to the now “Painted House.” The owners of the painted house were an elderly couple named Henderson’s. No one ever heard them complain about the noise. I was gone when it was torn down because it was a “fire hazard.“