Profiling Tepehua – March 2024

We mostly saw each other in the thrift shop, “Tepehua Treasures” to be specific, one of many bazaars located throughout Lakeside, and centrally located in Riberas del Pilar. Moonie King, Tepehua’s fearless leader, was always out and about with her many non-profit and networking events – Rotary, Shriners, etc., all to benefit the community of Tepehua. The shop was her frequent hangout, maybe a stop between meetings, to lend a hand, or to socialize with volunteers like myself or with customers in her warm and quiet way. 

“So what will you do with your spare time Moonie?” I was curious to know what she had in mind since she recently began working with Sandra Zamora to take over the reins of Tepehua Community Center’s leadership. 

“Oh, I’ll still be around. Of course I will. But I would love to write a memoir about my life. I’ve lived many places and have had so many wonderful experiences.”

As far as I know, that memoir was never written. She tirelessly continued her work and commitment to Tepehua up until the time of her passing last December. 

A week or so after she died, I noticed a post on Facebook telling of an anthology (Bravados) compiled by local artist, weaver, writer, and all-around positive person, Janice Kimball. She had enlisted 21 local writers to share their rich and inspiring stories about “life, love, and aging in Lake Chapala, Mexico.” Moonie’s story was included in this collection.

I want to share some of Moonie’s own words here, to give a glimpse of the early foundations she brought with her to Lake Chapala and motivated her to devote her final years to improving the lives of the people of Tepehua. 

“During World War II, the playground of this London child was what used to be the house next door. There was no sadness for those who were killed, as we children collected the remains of other people’s lives blown apart in the flash of a second leaving only chunks of shrapnel glittering like uncut diamonds in the rubble.

To ‘save the next generation,’ London children were rounded up and sent north to be housed at safer undetermined locations. They were ripped away from parents and loaded onto trains with no information provided on how to contact the receiving family or when and how to reunite. Hitler had promised to destroy that generation when he started to bomb the schools, sending Messerschmitts to mow the children down. Sometimes children went to abusive strangers who didn’t want them in the first place, but Government demanded the people’s help. If there was space in the house, they were duty bound to take a child from war-stricken London. God help the children. My Irish father on leave from the army brought his four children back home to face the war together rather than the uncertainty of being separated. We spent the next few years in blackouts and Anderson shelters eight feet underground as the war, and death went on above ground. We learned tolerance, control, and endurance for the things we could not change, and a determination to change the things we could…one day. This was the context that shaped my life in general, whatever the challenge. I am a survivor and took my attitudes and skills with me 67 years later when I settled in Mexico.”

And so her story continues, but that is for further explorations and articles. This may be the only memoir she had time to write, or perhaps there are more hidden treasures waiting for us. Regardless, to peel back the layers of Moonyeen King’s personal story is to tell the story of Tepehua, which she loved so much.