Avelina Castillo Daquigan

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Avelina Castillo Daquigan (known to her friends as Belen) on Thursday morning, January 26, 2023, at El Camino Hospital in Mountain View, California. She was surrounded by her family, her husband Baltazar, her sons Buddy, Wayne, and Andre, her daughter-in-law Vicky, and two of her grandchildren, R.J., and Darshana. Nothing was more important to Belen than family and it gives us great comfort to know that she died peacefully, surrounded by those she loved.

Her life was the epitome of the ‘American Dream’. She was born in Pasuquin, in the province of Ilocos Norte, in the Philippines, in 1933. When her family moved to Manila, she met and fell in love with her handsome neighbor Baltazar Daquigan. Baltazar joined the US Navy and the two were married in 1958. A year later they welcomed their eldest son Buddy, and one year later they welcomed their son Wayne. When Buddy was a year old, they moved to Coronado, San Diego, where Wayne was born. Eight years later, their youngest son, Andre was born on Subic Bay Naval Base, in the Philippines.

In their early life, the family moved multiple times, before eventually settling in the Bay Area, in the town of Milpitas, California. Belen worked at Avantek, which later became Hewlett Packard, until she retired.

Belen was a practical and resilient woman with a strong commitment to her family and her community of friends. She adapted to American life, built community, and raised her boys in a loving home. When her children were young, she traveled back to the Philippines to donate a kidney to her sister; an act of love that exemplified her commitment to her family, and a sacrifice that would impact her later life.

At Belen’s house, dinner was never a simple affair. She showed love through the meals she made, spending hours in the kitchen preparing her famous dishes, such as her chicken adobo, fried rice, oxtail stew, pancit, and sinigang. Her cooking brought the family together, and she paid great attention to the preferences of her grandchildren, making them special dishes, and fussing over them to make sure they had enough to eat.

Belen lived a full and happy life. She had so many interests and hobbies. She loved fashion, and was often the most glamorous woman in the room. But she just as easily spent time tinkering with her plants in her garden.

After she retired, she and Baltazar traveled the world, took up ballroom dancing, and were active members in the Milpitas Filipino community.

At the end of her life, Belen patiently and resiliently endured dialysis for years, folding it into the routine of her days. She took on life’s challenges without complaint. She is survived by her loving husband, Baltazar, her sons, Robert, Wayne, and Andre, her daughters-in-law, Vicky and Sarah, and her grandchildren, R.J., Darshana and Lily, as well as Henry, Michael, and Sabrina, and her great grandchildren, Nicholas, Ashley, and Adrianna. The life that she built for her family in America makes us grateful and proud. We will miss her forever and do our best to live by her example.