Jose Lopez Fernandez

Jose Fernandez was born on January 6th, 1944, in the midst of WWII while the Japanese Army occupied the Philippine Islands. Food was scarce. My mother gave birth to him by candlelight due to the curfews imposed by the Japanese government. She almost lost her life. Unable to breastfeed him, my father bought a goat, but the goat also was unable to produce any milk.  Jose survived infancy on water and sugar.

Despite the lack of good nutrition during the childhood years, Jose grew up to be a formidable young man, graduated from high-school and obtained an associate degree in accounting at the University in Manila.  He worked as a supervisor at U.S. Tobacco.  In 1966, he, along with my mother and myself, traveled to the USA, spent a few months in Texas before joining some of our family in Peru. There he was employed for 5 years at Banco Wiese in Lima as a telex operator.  At the end of those 5 years, we obtained our visa for permanent residence in the USA, he and I joined my mother in California in 1972.  He was employed at the US Naval Base, worked there for 20 years.  When it closed, he worked at Target and was there for over 20 years until he retired in August of 2020.  

Jose never married, never had any children.  He lived for over 40 years in El Cajon, California. He is survived by an older brother and his wife who reside in Spain, an older sister and brother-in-law, who live in Colorado, 3 nieces, 3 nephews, several grandnephews, grandnieces and great grandnieces.

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