When José Asención Medina Barbosa was born on 15 August 1908, his father, Casimiro Medina Colunga, was 23 and his mother, Martina Barbosa Medina, was 19. He married María Guadalupe Barba Rodríguez on 19 November 1936, in San Luis Potosí, San Luis Potosí, Mexico. He died on 15 May 1974, at the age of 65.