Obituary of Ana Luisa Morales de Santana

Dr. Ana Luisa Morales de Santana of Fresno, CA passed away on February 20, 2020, in her sleep while in hospice care. She was a much-adored wife to Arturo Santana Peña; beloved mother to Adela, Analola, and Alda; cherished grandmother to Sebastián, Mateo, Joaquín and Lucas, and a loving step-grandmother to Lilly and Sean. Ana was born November 24, 1935 in Jayuya, Puerto Rico to Antonia and Joaquín Morales. After high school, she moved to San Juan to pursue further education. She was trained as a secretary and worked in the Department of History at the University of Puerto Rico, where she met her husband, Arturo. After marriage, she decided to pursue a college degree at the University of Puerto Rico. She finished it with honors and completed first a master’s degree in Library Science, and later a second master’s degree in Literature from SUNY-Buffalo. She worked for many years as the head librarian of the Centro de Estudios Avanzados de Puerto Rico y el Caribe, in Old San Juan. In 1982 she moved with her family to Mexico City where she earned a Ph.D. in Literature at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. She remembered the six years that she spent in Mexico City and in Cuernavaca with extreme fondness, studying under renowned writers such as Gabriel García Márquez and Mario Vargas Llosa, and watching her children grow. In 1988 she moved to Austin, Texas, with her family, where she worked as adjunct faculty in the Department of Spanish at the University of Texas. In 2012, after her husband had passed, she moved to Fresno to help raise her three youngest grandchildren. As a devout Catholic, Ana was pivotal in helping develop their Catholic faith and became Godmother to her grandson, Lucas. More than anything Ana loved Arturo, their daughters, and grandchildren. She had enormous faith in family, and was a very devoted wife, mother and grandmother. Ana was an avid reader, loved to exercise, and was very passionate about all things Puerto Rican. She longed to travel and greatly enjoyed learning about the world. Ana will be remembered for her love of the Spanish language and literature, her warm smile, her commitment to her loved ones, and her amazing physical and spiritual fortitude. Ana was preceded by her husband Arturo Santana Peña, and her siblings: Olga, Aíxa, Nelson, Antonio, Darvín, José Ángel, and Carlos. She is survived by her daughter Adela, with her husband, James and their children, Lilly, Sean, Mateo, Joaquín and Lucas; her daughter Analola with her son, Sebastián; her daughter Alda with her fiancée Aaron; her siblings Daisy, Celia, and Hiram, and her many nieces and nephews. *Nuestros corazones siempre estarán repletos de amor por ella* A memorial service will be held at St. Paul Catholic Newman Center, 1572 E. Barstow Ave., Fresno, CA, on March 20th at 10:00 AM. Please RSVP to Adela Santana at (559) 994-4595. Directions to St. Paul Catholic Newman Center, 1572 E. Barstow Ave We have shared a few pictures of Ana at the following link: https://theanthrogeek.smugmug.com/Family-Pictures/Ana-Luisa-Morales To send a flower arrangement or to plant trees in memory of Ana Luisa Morales de Santana, please click here to visit our Sympathy Store.