Josefina Cerna Andrade was born on August 27th, 1938, in Moroleón, Guanajuato, Mexico, to Silvestre Cerna and Maria Hernandez. By the time she was ten years old, she was already caring for her three younger sisters — the twins, Magdalena and Martha, from the time they were born until they were four, and Lola, from birth until she was nine.

On July 4th, 1957, she married Alfonso Andrade. Two years later, in 1959, they left Moroleón for Los Angeles, bringing their daughters Sarah and Claudia with them. And soon thereafter, Jo, Ana, and Cecilia followed. Josefina built a whole new life in a new country, and she built it the way she built everything — with her hands, and usually in a kitchen.

In 1979, she and Alfonso owned a Mexican restaurant and bar in Gardena, and she cooked all of the food herself. Every plate that went out of that kitchen had her hands in it, and was beyond delicious. Later she worked the assembly line at Seiko, packaging watches. In 2004, she became a noon aide and yard lady at Denker Avenue Elementary School, a job she loved. Two years later, she won the tamal-making contest at Farmer Brothers, where Claudia then worked. Josefina retired from Denker in 2014, after ten years of watching over other people’s children the same way she’d once watched over her sisters. So that their parents could go to work, as well as attain degrees in higher education, she helped raise many of her grandchildren: Emma, Alfonso, Laura, Angelica, Sophie, Aaron, Annie, and Eddie.

She took cake decorating classes and started making cakes to sell, including at least one wedding cake. She gardened. She cooked constantly, and not because anyone asked her to — it was how she said the things words couldn’t quite hold for her.

While it’s not one of the five official love languages, anyone in this family will tell you that food was Josefina’s. It’s acts of service, and gift-giving, and quality time, all folded into one dish. It’s a way of saying “I see you, I know what you like, and I made time for you, without ever having to say those words out loud.

Whenever there was a crisis, big or small, the first words out of Josefina’s mouth were, “I’m going to make a pot of chicken soup.” Every Christmas, her gift to her family was a huge batch of tamales. She fed her family. She fed everyone who walked through her door, related or not. She cooked all the food for Sarah’s wedding and the sides for Jo’s wedding. More recently, when Angelica got married in 2022, Josefina was calculating how many frying pans of rice she needed to make to feed 150 people. (The wedding reception was catered.)

Josefina’s talents in the culinary arts were bookended by her faith and devotion. Claudia’s earliest memory of her is walking into the kitchen when Josefina was cooking or cleaning, listening and praying along with someone on the radio saying the Rosary. When her daughter Jo had a brush with death due to appendicitis, Josefina had the entire family give thanks by walking on their knees to the altar of a chapel at Our Lady of San Juan de Los Lagos. Her daughter Jo—named Josefina, after her — preceded her in death, and we trust that mother and daughter immediately shared a pot of something warm and delicious that was already on the stove.

Josefina leaves behind four children—Sarah Andrade, Claudia Andrade Krumme (Tom+), Ana Andrade (Brett Eales - fiancé), and Cecilia Andrade Coplan (Michael); nine grandchildren— Emma Alvarez Gibson (Roger) Alfonso Alvarez (Maricela+), Ana Elizondo Siler (Jason), Sophia Castrillo Ancer (Jose), Eddie Elizondo (Alicia), Laura Krumme Meneses (Justin), Angelica Krumme Flores (Steven), JD Gonzales, and Aaron Martin; and fourteen great-grandchildren — Luke Gibson, Maximiliano Alvarez, Santiago Alvarez, Arantza Alvarez, Benson Meneses, Lorelei Meneses, Mirabel Ancer, Juliette Ancer, Elliot Ancer, Elaine Josefina Elizondo, Emilia Elizondo, Roslyn Josefine Siler, Andreas Siler, and Charlie Jo Flores, named in part for her great-grandmother.

We love you, Josefina. Thank you for every single meal.