Longtime Tri-Cities restaurant owners lose son to COVID, then daughter a few days later

Rosio Avila Sanzon and David Avila were raised by a couple of fighters.

Their immigrant parents came to the U.S. to build a better life for themselves, became American citizens, raised a family and for years ran a successful restaurant in Pasco.

Their daughter, Rosio, had their entrepreneurial spirit, running her own popular eatery, El Paraiso, on Lewis Street.

And their son, David, also worked in the food industry in the Tri-Cities.

Now, their parents are grappling with a double tragedy, having to bury two of their seven children days apart.

David Avila, 33, died Sept. 8 from complications of COVID. The father of four died one week before his last son was born.

His 46-year-old sister, Rosio, died four days later after several surgeries for an emergency medical condition. Her restaurant remains closed and her family and friends are still reeling from their sudden loss.

“My mom was very much a mother to all her employees,” said her 23-year-old daughter Miriam Contreras. “She wanted them to succeed. She didn’t have opportunities go to college.”

Though Sanzon never attended a university, she pulled out all the stops to ensure her own four children could have opportunities for a college education if they wanted it.

When Contreras and her siblings were young, their mother worked to raise them largely on her own, as a server at her parents’ restaurant, and she attended Columbia Basin College full time to get her associate’s degree.

There was a lot of help from their grandparents, who remain in Pasco, and Contreras said that when she was young she spent a lot of time around her Uncle David because he was only 10 years older than her.

“She really pushed us all to go to school to pursue a higher education,” Contreras said of her mom. “For a lot of our family, it was kind of hard and they had to work in the fields.”

Contreras is now studying dance and taking prerequisites for dentistry at the University of Washington. Her older sister Nelly is only a year off from getting her degree from Washington State University in Pullman.

Her two younger brothers — Jacob and Ramon — also are pursuing their own paths. Ramon is 21 and Jacob turned 20 on Sept. 20, the day of his mother’s funeral, Contreras told the Herald.

Contreras said everyone who worked for her mother — often her children’s high school friends — were also pushed to stay in school.

Sanzon told the Herald in 2005 that she and her siblings had lived other places. But ultimately most returned to the Mid-Columbia.

“We’re so used to being close. We always come back,” she said at the time.

The spirit of family and closeness to one another has now been passed on to the next generation.

Family journey

A Tri-City Herald story in 2005 told of her parents determination for a better life, coming to the U.S. from Mexico.

Alfredo Avila arrived in the U.S. in 1970 in the trunk of a car. Before they’d met, Felipa, his future wife, had walked across the border through the Rio Grande River.

Their journey took them through California where Sanzon and four siblings were born before the family landed in Pasco in 1980. The Avilas welcomed two more children in the Tri-Cities, including David Avila.

Thirteen years after coming to Tri-Cities, the Avilas opened El Charrito restaurant on Tenth Street in Pasco — just a year before Alfredo became a U.S. citizen.

The elder Avilas sold El Charrito only about a year ago to an employee.

Sanzon eventually joined them in the restaurant business, starting El Paraiso after working for the Washington State Migrant Council.

Her restaurant became better known after joining the Pasco Taco Crawl’s first events. The restaurant at 913 W. Lewis Street has been a veteran participant ever since.

“At a very young age, I was around the family business,” recalled Contreras. “Since I was young, before I was legally allowed to work, I’d help grandma cut strawberries. Very simple kid-friendly stuff.”

She’s been helping at the restaurant for years, coming home each summer from UW to give her mom a break.

Contreras, who returned this month to the university for the new school year, had to rush back to the Tri-Cities after her uncle and mom were ill.

But soon she’s heading back to Seattle to pack up and to return to Pasco to run her mom’s restaurant and help her family.

“It is my mom’s pride and joy. We are old enough (to run it),” she said. “School isn’t going anywhere.”

This story was originally published September 27, 2021 at 5:00 AM.