 Chavez was raised in what his biographer Miriam Pawel called "a typical extended Mexican family"; she noted that they were "not well-off, but they were comfortable, well clothed, and never hungry".The family spoke in Spanish, and he was raised as a Roman Catholic, with his paternal grandmother Dorotea largely overseeing his religious instruction; his mother Juana engaged in forms of folk Catholicism, being a devotee of Santa Eduviges.As a child, Chavez was nicknamed "Manzi" in reference to his fondness for manzanilla tea.