Hermelina Canelon

Hermelina Canelon, passed away in the city of Houston, last Saturday August 19 at 5:45 pm. Her name was chosen by her father, Antonio López Corzo, who felt that he had received a birthday gift because she was born on his 36th birthday. She was his third child and second daughter. Her mother, Maria León Carmona, was only 22 years old when Hermelina (Memela said with love) was born on December 28. The family’s first home was located on a coffee farm on the outskirts of Los Teques, the capital of the State of Miranda in Venezuela. After elementary school, Hermelina went to a boarding school run by Catholic nuns in San José de Tarbes in El Paraíso, an area in western Caracas. At the age of 18, she graduated as a Social Worker and was employed by the newly created Social Security office of Banco Obrero. Her first job took her to the island of Margarita. At the age of 21, she met the love of her life, Jesús Canelon. Hermelina and Jesus had nine children. Their first two children, Jesús Adolfo and Jorge Luis were born in Caracas. They moved to Maracaibo at the end of 1952. Their third child was born in Maracaibo, Omar Enrique. Eventually they settled on the Eastern Coast of Lake Maracaibo, living in Santa Rita and Cabimas where their next two children were born, Maria Antonieta and Freddy Gonzalo. At this time, she is employed by a General Motors car dealer called Zulia Motors, in the Cabimas branch. Lina was a very intelligent and entrepreneurial women – a women ahead of her time. Lina and her husband, Jesús, were employed to start the Zulia Motors branch in Ciudad Ojeda in 1956. Her last four children were born in Ciudad Ojeda and Lagunillas, Milagros Coromoto, Héctor Eduardo, Ricardo José and Félix Ramon. When the owner of Zulia Motors, Don Omar León Salas, died, they decided to become independent and start their own car dealership, AMOSA. This was in the year 1969. Hermelina, known on the Eastern Shore of the Lake as Lina Canelon, was very active in the community, a member of the Carabobo Club and the Tía Juana Country Club, she regularly played canasta with her friends. Her passion for playing cards was shared with her children from a young age and has been carried on to new generations as part of her legacy. She was a radio amateur with the acronym YV1QN, and she met many radio amateurs not only within Venezuela but throughout the world. She was also an avid bowler and traveled throughout Venezuela representing her local team. She was one of the founders of the Pin-Ocho private bowling alley in Lagunillas, which was relocated to Ciudad Ojeda.One of her hobbies was traveling, she got to visit England, France, Italy, Japan, Hawaii, Aruba, Spain, Colombia, and many other countries. But where she really enjoyed vacationing the most was in a little town in the Venezuelan Andes region, La Mesa de Esnujaque in the state of Trujillo. Her family has many fond memories of holidays in La Mesa. Finally, when several of her children went to college in the United States and settled in the US, she also settled there, she traveled between South Florida and Texas where her family lived. Hermelina was a pillar of strength and resilience for her family and led her life with compassion for others. She will be greatly missed in this world. She is predeceased by parents and six of her siblings. She is survived by 9 children, 45 grandchildren, 61 great-grandchildren (and one on the way) and 3 great-great-grandchildren as well as her youngest brother and her nephews.

Hermelina Canelon

December 28, 1932 - August 19, 2023