Friends of China Camp

José Gonzalez, a longtime maintenance worker at China Camp, has happy memories of playing baseball in San Diego County as a kid. It was a different world. He and his teammates would leave their homes in Tijuana, cross the U.S. border to a ballfield about 100 feet north, play a game, then return home to Mexico. 

He and his dad first crossed the border for work in 1983, ending up in the garlic fields of Gilroy, some 80 miles south of San Francisco. He held various jobs through the years. Looking back, he says the time he has spent fixing and maintaining facilities at China Camp State Park have been the best. Due to health issues, José can no longer work for the park, but he hopes to visit here as much as he can. 

“I’d like to tell the whole world: Come to China Camp! They’ve got everything here—clean bathroom, barbecues,” José says. “It’s quiet; it’s beautiful.”

For the past four decades, José has crisscrossed California, moving from job to job and eventually settling in San Rafael with his wife, four daughters and a son. His wife Delilah works in San Francisco as a housecleaner. 

Over the years, José has picked up a long list of skills—from working in the fields to fixing cars and maintaining hotels and state parks. He has worked at Mt. Tamalpais, Angel Island, Samuel P. Taylor, Olompali, and his favorite state park, China Camp, where over the years he has built up sweet memories. He looks back at the times he met the late Frank Quan, China Camp’s longest living resident and park patriarch, in early mornings to share coffee. Or José would hear the motor on Frank’s shrimp boat, and he would go out to the dock to help Frank unload his catch.

People who have worked with José know his love for China Camp. “José is dedicated to the park,” says Friends of China Camp Executive Director Martin Lowenstein. “There’s no place he’d rather be.” 

José is a cheerful, happy man who says his secret to a good life is to be nice, and not to complain. “If you complain, life is much more difficult,” he offers. “I love being friendly with people, communicating with them. I try to be nice to everybody. That’s the best part for me.”

José, you will be sorely missed. 

—Janet Wiscombe/FOCC volunteer