A Story of Two Pandemics

As part of NHMLAC’s Your Story Matters project, Alicia Sosa, then 106 years old, spent some time talking with us about her life, which spanned two centuries and two deadly pandemics. The Angeleno, who died in 2022 at age 108, talks of her travels to the U.S. from Mexico as a young child during the Mexican Revolution, her memories of the 1918 flu, and her thoughts about living during the current coronavirus pandemic.

Alicia Sosa (right) with her parents in an undated photo.

Photo courtesy of Alicia Sosa

Sosa was born in 1914 in Chihuahua, Mexico in the middle of the Mexican Revolution. At age three, her father died, and when she was seven, she lost her mother. She moved to Berkeley in 1928 to stay with one of her aunts, and married her childhood sweetheart, Tanis, in 1937. When she was just 17, Sosa earned her cosmetology license and became a hairdresser. After moving to L.A. with her husband and children (Armida, Carlos and Stan), she opened the Vogue Beauty Salon in West L.A.  Sosa formally retired from the work she loved at age 93. When she was 97, she took her first yoga class. 

Invitation for Alicia Sosa's 100th Birthday

This beloved matriarch shared her personal longevity secrets, and the universal meaning behind them, with her family and friends, at her 100th birthday party:

Fill your heart with love for as long as you can, live a life of service, balance healthy living with enjoying the sweetness of life, find your passion, live in the present, and make each and every single day matter to you. She wrote that she was “dedicated to my family and the three marvelous children, didn’t dwell on tragedies, always ate healthy foods and enjoyed desserts, enjoyed a shot of tequila on occasion, and every morning dressed up with nylons, full makeup and hair—ready for anything."

One of Sosa's longevity secrets was to live a family centered life: "My family is my greatest source of pride."