Joaquin C. DeTorres

Joaquin Carbullido DeTorres was born on March 24, 1929, to Barbara Charfarus and Jose DeTorres.  The third eldest of four children, Joaquin was born in Piti -- a small village on the western Pacific Island of Guam – one of several small islands in the Mariana Archipelago.

As a curious child growing up with two brothers and an elder sister, Joaquin prided himself as a person tied to the tropical surroundings of the island, and the environmental realities of his grandfather’s ranch.  While his elder brother – Jesus, was focused on learning and employment, his younger brother favored independence and the ways of the world.

During the 1930s, Joaquin spent his youthful years on his grandfather’s ranch helping with chores and tending to the needs of the various animals raised by his grandfather.  And since his brothers were often absent from home, Joaquin also supported his parents at their home-based village store.

When war clouds gathered in the Pacific at the beginning of the 1940s, Joaquin was too young to join the young Chamorros preparing to help the American Marines stationed in Guam, so he helped his parents prepare for the inevitable invasion by the Japanese and supported the Americans whenever he could.  On many occasions he observed American military planes battle those from Japan in the skies over Guam, as well as hide with his relatives in island caves or the jungle in the island’s interior while the Japanese soldiers ravaged the island.

When the war ended, Joaquin was the last member of his family to leave Guam for America being given instructions to sell his family’s property.  He arrived in San Francisco in 1950, joining his family in Pittsburg, California and gaining a job as a bar tender at the Camp Stoneman Officer’s Club.  While living in Bella Vista – a sleepy community to the West of Pittsburg with his older brother’s family, he intended to follow his younger brother Manuel, who enlisted in the United States Air Force 10 days before the outbreak of the Korean War.  But he was drafted into the United States Army in 1951 and was sent to basic training at Fort Ord in Monterey, California.  His dream of becoming an American soldier was short-lived, as he was released from his military obligation as the Korean War began to wind down – it ended in 1953. 

As time passed, and he returned to Pittsburg, he earned enough money at Camp Stoneman to buy a house on California Street, just outside of the military base.  He worked at the base until he secured a job at the Oakland Army Base, sold his Pittsburg home, and settled in Oakland, California with his wife – Cynthia, and her two children.  He met Cynthia in 1956.  Joaquin later left the Oakland Army Base, taking a job with the American Steel Foundry in Oakland.  When he and Cynthia ended their marriage relationship sometime after 1975, he moved to a nearby hotel, where he stayed until he met Connie Drost, who out of friendship and empathy gave him a place to stay.  He became a member of Connie’s family when they moved to the island of Alameda (in the Oakland estuary) in 1977 and became the overseer and protector of Connie’s children as they grew into adulthood.  Joaquin remained as a member of Connie’s household when she took them to San Leandro, and later accompanied Connie’s eldest daughter – Gina Kenney and her husband Dan to Atwater, California following Connie’s passing in 1999.  Joaquin remained with the Kenney family through the next decade.  He moved in with his nephew Joseph -- the eldest son of his brother Jesus in 2011, when the Kenney family moved to Colorado, and later to Oklahoma.  He lived in Oakley, California with his nephew’s family becoming the longest living member of the DeTorres Clan – reaching 90 years in 2019.

He was a member of the St. Anthony Parish in Oakley and enjoyed living in the Delta Region of East Contra Costa County until he joined his Heavenly family on March 1st, 2022, 23 days shy of his 93rd birthday.  He will forever be remembered in our hearts and memories as uncle Kin, a most generous and caring human being.