Jose Flores

As children during hot, balmy summers in Brownsville Texas, we swam in the warm waters of Boca Chica beach. As the sun reflected on the Guld of Mexico, we marveled at its beauty and the mysterious blue water that appeared at the horizon, “let’s swim to it, we can reach it,” said my brother Jorge. We tried our best to reach it, but it always eluded us. Only my brother Pepe (Paw or Joe to his Louisiana family) would reach it when he became a shrimper in the gulf, following in my father’s footsteps. My brother loved the sea and its bounty and spent most of his adult life harvesting its gold.

Jose Luis Flores (Pepe El Frijolito) passed away on Sunday, October 15 after a short illness. Besides his love of “being on the water,” he enjoyed spending time with his young daughter Gabriella and his Louisiana family. Pepe spent his early years in Brownsville Texas where he would spend his formative years in La Southmost with his parents Esperanza and Isidro (deceased) his five sisters, Gregoria, Dolores (deceased), Adriana, Maria Isabel and Esperanza, and his three brothers Jorge, Alix (Isauro) and Vicente. His maternal grandmother, Vicenta lives a few blocks away and always kept a watchful eye on the brood of children who always managed to get into some mischief like burning the dry brush (Pepito quemo el monte) of a nearby cow pasture or by getting injured on makeshift go-carts they fashioned from discarded material. In the days of the extended family, it really did take village to keep the siblings safe.

Jose Luis, was not good in school, his talents were yet to be discovered. After getting in trouble one too many times, his father decided to take him on a trip on his shrimp boat. Isidro thought this adventure might scare him into attending to his studies and getting a job. There was something in the life of the fisherman that stirred Pepe’s psyche and after that trip, Jose began his life as a fisherman on the gulf. Pepe became a welder when it wasn’t shrimping season. He worked at A&M Dockside for over 20 years.

He is survived by his daughter Gabriella and her mother Charlene and siblings Marie and Andre whom he considered his children also. Shortly after moving to Louisiana, he met and married his wife Lena (deceased). He helped raise Lena’s children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He spent as much time as possible with his grandson Mark Terrebonne and granddaughter Cherie Dyer. He also spent a lot of time with his dear friends Deno and Kathy Keiffer and their son Brandan, He leaves behind many, many extended family and friends. Paw never met a stranger that he would not help. He was known by his family and friends as Paw or Joe. And is uncle, great uncle and great/great uncle to many nieces and nephews.

Pepe/Paw will be fondly remembered for his clever and sometimes biting sense of humor, which was rarely used to diminish others.  We will miss his broad smile and kind heart; he was known as a defender of those not as strong as him.

“Perhaps I should not have been a fisherman, he thought. But that was the thing that I was born for.”

-Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea