Angel Zacarias Espinoza

Angel Espinoza was born on September 6, 1939, in a small farming and fishing community in Baja California, Mexico named El Rosario. He was very proud of the fact that his family’s roots in that town can be traced back to the summer of 1800 and that the first Espinoza to arrive in the Americas did so in 1775.

He lost his father, who was a ranch hand, at the age of five. This caused a huge financial hardship for his mother who was trying to raise a family on the one peso per week that she earned.

Because of this, at the age of 8, Angel was sent to live with his Grandparents in Ensenada, Baja California. That is when he first started school, which he attended for three years (Although later in life he would become a very avid reader).

He often helped his grandfather who worked on an alfalfa farm. They cut alfalfa by hand with sickles almost as tall as he was. He helped his grandmother by selling “beef blood” empanadas on the Ensenada Pier. His grandmother told him to sell the empanadas for 10 Mexican centavos each. When he would raise ten fingers to say how much each one cost he was often paid 10 American cents each, which were worth 5 times more. He was allowed to use some of the profits to go see western movies, eat popcorn, hot dogs, and drink soda at the local movie theater. On the pier, he also sold the Los Angeles Times newspaper and gum to earn spare money.

At the age of 14, he helped his brother and uncles gather mussels along the seashore. They were all eventually hired by a fishing group based on Isla Natividad. At this young age, Angel became the cook for the group. He spent three years working on that island.

At the age of 17, he was sent to Tijuana to live with his Aunt and Uncle. He was always grateful to them for taking him in. There he began work as a shoeshine boy, sold newspapers, sparred with boxers for money, and eventually became a milk delivery man.

Tijuana is also where he met the love of his life, Maria Eugenia Castruita. She said that at first, her family did not “appreciate” him very much, but he eventually won her heart and theirs.

They were married and started a family, but in 1963 a month or two before their first child was born, his cousin, who was living in El Monte, California, sent him a message saying, “If you can get here, I can get you a job where I work.” Fortunately, Maria’s cousins, from Baldwin Park, California were visiting her family in Tijuana, and Angel not wanting to pass up this huge opportunity for his budding family asked if they would bring him with them when they returned home. Thank goodness they were willing, and Angel got his first opportunity in the United States and became a busboy at Denny’s.

Due to his experience on Isla Natividad, he quickly became a short-order cook and saved enough to bring his family to the United States.

He later worked as a custom mattress maker for recreational vehicles, and as a machinist for over 30 years.

Having worked most of his life indoors, he wanted to spend time outdoors, so he learned how to drive a truck, got his class B driver’s license, and drove a delivery truck until he retired in 2002.

Angel was very athletic. At the machine shop, he was the company ping-pong champion and was the starting pitcher for the company’s slow-pitch softball team.

He also loved to play and watch golf. He was a member of the Latin American Golf Association and once hit a hole-in-one on the 16th hole at the Whittier Narrows Golf Course in Rosemead, California. A 12,000 to 1 shot that most golfers never make in a lifetime.

But what he is most well-known for was his skill at shooting pool (Think pool shark). He spent many late afternoons and evenings supplementing his income at the neighborhood pool halls. Many a Friday evening with grandkids started with Maria calling the pool hall to let him know that they had arrived. He would quickly gather up his winnings and head home. Because he wanted to shower first, he would run into the house heading straight to the bathroom, and announce what the grandchildren heard as “CHICKEN SHOWER!” when he was actually saying “Taking Shower”.

In his later years, before Parkinson’s limited his participation, he won the All San Gabriel Valley Senior Center Billiards Championship.

At the Senior Center, he was also well known as an exemplary volunteer. He was recognized several times as the Volunteer of the Year and received awards from the County of Los Angeles.

He is survived by his loving wife Maria, their four children (Angel, Sandra, Patty, and Frances), and their six grandchildren (Damian, Erica, Jasmine, Daniel, Dominique, and Bianca).

In 2011 he wrote this snippet from an article for a Mexican online newspaper that translated reads: “Life teaches us many lessons, but above all, we must try to leave a worthy legacy that will be part of its roots over time.”