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Graciela Lopez arrived in the United States in 1963 after fleeing Cuba with her two daughters.

From the moment she stepped foot in the country, she wanted to create a legacy rooted in compassion and service.

Driven by a deep desire to give back to children living in unstable and chaotic environments, Lopez began working toward her vision in the summer of 2012, along with her daughters, Maria Patterson and Marty Croissant.

They spent months crafting a mission statement and learning the ins and outs of the nonprofit world before launching Angel Heart Pajama Project in 2013.

The nonprofit provides new pajamas and books to children in need in Tucson, South Tucson and surrounding areas in Cochise, Pima, Santa Cruz and Yuma counties.

Lopez’s connection to pajamas was personal, rooted in her early work at a pajama factory in Chicago. She cherished pajamas long after she stopped working at the factory and often gifted them to her daughters.

She also understood the transformative power of a good book.

“She felt that a book would give the opportunity to a child to get lost in the possibility,” Lopez’s daughter Patterson told Tucson Spotlight. “There is hope in a book and they are also a way to forget the trauma you are going through for a bit of time while you are reading that book.”

The December after its launch, the organization partnered with three social service agencies for its first gifting event, donating about 1,000 pajamas and books to children.

All of the pajamas were folded neatly by hand and tied with a ribbon. Each book was stamped with the words, “Donated by Angel Heart with love.”

Over the past 11 years, Angel Heart has partnered with more than 90 agencies.

Its volunteer force has grown to more than 200, and the group has given more than 60,000 sets of pajamas and books to children in need.

The number of children they’ve impacted over their dozen years could fill a football stadium, according to Patterson.

“I like to always put it in a frame for people so they can really think about what an impact that is,” she said.

The organization has been able to expand its reach through the help of the community. An anonymous donor from Phoenix heard about its work and provided funding for a much-needed car.

During the pandemic, a priest named Father Tom began flying pajamas to shelters in Yuma, which he continues to do quarterly.

Lopez died in 2016, but the heart of her mission has continued. What began as a mother’s vision of comfort has lived on through the work of her daughters, even in moments of doubt.

“We thought maybe we shouldn’t continue and do whatever is needed to close it and give it to somebody else to run. But every time we say that, there is a grant that comes in or something else,” Patterson said. “I totally feel that she is commanding this from heaven, she knows what she wants done.”

For Patterson, continuing her mother’s legacy is not only a tribute to the children they serve but also to the journey that brought her and her family here.

She recalls escaping Cuba at 15 years old in a 21-foot boat packed full of people that was eventually rescued by an American destroyer.

“I like to tell the story because it talks about resilience and it also talks about the perseverance that my mom had and the guts she had to throw herself in the ocean with two daughters and to make what she made for us,” Patterson said. “My career I owe to her, and my sister as well.”

McKenna Manzo is a journalism major at the University of Arizona and Tucson Spotlight intern. Contact her at mckennamanzo@arizona.edu.

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