Longtime radio host, restaurateur, musician Tomas Vera dies at 85

Tomas Vera still worked at the Hollow Tree Lumber Company’s pallet mill when he convinced a Ukiah radio station in 1970 to let him play Spanish-language songs.

It was an English-language station. And at that time it was hard to find in Northern California a station that aired tunes from his native Mexico and Latin America.

“There were no Spanish (language) stations anywhere,” said his 53-year-old son, Tomas Vera.

The station, KUKI, gave him a 15-minute segment. That blossomed into a popular four-hour radio show, Latin Serenade, which aired every Sunday until “Don Tomas,” as he was affectionately known by his listeners, moved five years later to Santa Rosa. He continued to entertain listeners in Santa Rosa, hosting a show on KBBF, where he remained on the air until just a few years ago.

Vera, 85, died on April 5.

Vera was born in the small town of Chicavasco in the Mexican state of Hidalgo. His mother was a schoolteacher and the family owned a corner store in town, said his daughter, Elsa Vera, 46, who lives in Windsor.

“It was a little room,” she said about the store.

The middle child of five boys, Tomas Vera set out for the United States, enlisting in the bracero program around 1950. He ended up in Sonoma County, where one of his brothers already lived.

During the daytime, he worked in the fields, primarily picking apples, prunes and pears.

“My dad never complained about work. Even if it was hard, he’d never say it was hard,” his daughter said. “It was such a different era. People did what they had to do.”

At night and on the weekends, her father and two of his siblings became musicians. They formed a trio group that went by the names of “Los Cha Cha Cha” and “Los Hermanos Vera.” They played their romantic ballads at dances, weddings, quinceañeras and in restaurants, including the ones owned by Vera and his wife, Benita, who he met while studying English at night school in 1960. They married in the spring of 1961.

The couple opened their first restaurant, El Rebozo, in Ukiah after the lumber mill closed. When they moved to Santa Rosa in 1976, they took over the Mexican restaurant Mi Ultimo Refugio, which Benita’s sister had owned for a decade.

Music always remained his passion, though, Elsa Vera said about her father. He loved sharing it with those on the radio and the people who came to visit their restaurant.

At the restaurant, she said, “He was the entertainer. People always came to see him.”

“Everybody knows Don Tomas,” she said. “I can’t tell you how many people asked him to baptize their kids.”

He accepted on many occasions. He became a godfather to nearly a dozen children who weren’t related to him, she said.

He also was known as a romantic and a bit of a flirt, she said. He loved to write poetry to women, including the cashiers at a bakery he frequented, she said.

“It was in such a sweet, respectful way,” she said. “People are always going to remember his generosity, his kindness and his charm.”

“Those are shoes I could never fill,” added his son Tomas Vera, who now lives in Applegate.

In addition to his son and daughter, survivors include son Armando Vera of Santa Rosa; brothers Heriberto and Cecilio Vera, of Windsor and Mexico City, respectively; and six grandchildren.

Funeral services were held this past weekend.

You can reach Staff ?Writer Eloísa Ruano González at 521-5458 or eloisa.gonzalez@press?democrat.com. On ?Twitter @eloisanews.