Ruben and Maria Teresa Flores celebrated 78 years of marriage with family and friends gathered at their Jurupa Valley home, marking a bond that stretches back to a wedding day in Guadalajara nearly eight decades ago. The couple, who turned 99 and 97 respectively in November 2026, have built a family tree that now includes 32 grandchildren, 77 great-grandchildren and 17 great-great-grandchildren.
Ruben Flores and Maria Teresa Flores were married on September 12, 1948, in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, according to The Press-Enterprise. The couple moved to South El Monte in the 1970s, where Ruben worked as a painter and carpenter before retiring in 1992, and they lived there until relocating to Jurupa Valley 32 years before the anniversary celebration.
A Household Built on Routine and Faith
Even now, the couple keeps to familiar rituals. Ruben plays dominoes with his wife and children once a week, and a granddaughter's email to the newspaper described him as remaining close to his wife and reminiscing about family memories. Maria Teresa, for her part, babysat many children over the years and cooked Mexican food to sell, and she still celebrates Las Posadas every Christmas season. Granddaughter Claudia de la Torre told the paper that Maria Teresa loves to sing while she cooks. The pair are also active in the Catholic Church.
A Family Spread Across the Inland Empire
The Flores family's footprint extends well beyond Jurupa Valley. Son Ruben Flores and his wife, Laura Flores, live in Jurupa Valley, as do Jose de Jesus Flores, Ismael Flores, and couples Ricardo and Yolanda Flores and Patricia and Javier Aguilar. Other relatives have settled nearby: Yolanda Teresa Acosta lives in Eastvale, while Martha and Jorge Venegas live in Azusa. Hector Vega, whose late wife Susana Vega died in 2017, also lives in Jurupa Valley. The family has also mourned the 2026 death of Olivia Flores.
Not the Only Milestone Marriage in the Region
The Floreses are not alone in reaching such a milestone this year. In Brawley, Dario and Carmen Araujo also celebrated their 78th wedding anniversary; their children took them to dinner in Imperial to commemorate it. The family celebration, per ivpressonline.com, spanned five generations and included six children, 15 grandchildren, 19 great-grandchildren and nine great-great-grandchildren. Both couples’ anniversaries were marked by family celebrations.
For the Flores family, the celebration at their Jurupa Valley home was a chance to bring together generations shaped by decades of shared routines — weekly dominoes games, Las Posadas gatherings, and a marriage that began in Guadalajara in 1948 and has since multiplied into a family of well over 100 descendants.
